X Strike Force XFree86 SVN commit: r1562 - in trunk/debian: . local
Author: branden
Date: 2004-06-23 16:30:19 -0500 (Wed, 23 Jun 2004)
New Revision: 1562
Modified:
trunk/debian/CHANGESETS
trunk/debian/TODO
trunk/debian/changelog
trunk/debian/local/FAQ.xhtml
Log:
Update FAQ entries:
+ What is the X Window System?
+ What is XFree86?
Add FAQ entries:
+ What is the story with XFree86 being forked?
+ What is the story with XFree86's license?
Modified: trunk/debian/CHANGESETS
===================================================================
--- trunk/debian/CHANGESETS 2004-06-23 18:43:38 UTC (rev 1561)
+++ trunk/debian/CHANGESETS 2004-06-23 21:30:19 UTC (rev 1562)
@@ -47,4 +47,12 @@
Add "How to Use this Document" and "Acknowledgements" sections to FAQ.
1561
+Update FAQ entries:
++ What is the X Window System?
++ What is XFree86?
+Add FAQ entries:
++ What is the story with XFree86 being forked?
++ What is the story with XFree86's license?
+ 1562
+
vim:set ai et sts=4 sw=4 tw=80:
Modified: trunk/debian/TODO
===================================================================
--- trunk/debian/TODO 2004-06-23 18:43:38 UTC (rev 1561)
+++ trunk/debian/TODO 2004-06-23 21:30:19 UTC (rev 1562)
@@ -17,8 +17,7 @@
4.3.0.dfsg.1-6
--------------
-* Update FAQ entry about X Window System history to reflect developments over
- the past year with x.org, freedesktop.org, and The XFree86 Project, Inc.
+* Add FAQ entries describing FreeDesktop.Org and X.Org.
* Add FAQ entry describing Debian's plans in the X department.
* Add FAQ entry describing what has become of the XFree86 3.x packages.
* Re-do migration of /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/{app-defaults,xkb}:
Modified: trunk/debian/changelog
===================================================================
--- trunk/debian/changelog 2004-06-23 18:43:38 UTC (rev 1561)
+++ trunk/debian/changelog 2004-06-23 21:30:19 UTC (rev 1562)
@@ -28,6 +28,14 @@
* Add "How to Use this Document" and "Acknowledgements" sections to FAQ.
+ * Update FAQ entries:
+ + What is the X Window System?
+ + What is XFree86?
+
+ * Add FAQ entries:
+ + What is the story with XFree86 being forked?
+ + What is the story with XFree86's license?
+
Changes by Fabio Massimo Di Nitto:
* Update French debconf template translations (thanks, Christian Perrier).
Modified: trunk/debian/local/FAQ.xhtml
===================================================================
--- trunk/debian/local/FAQ.xhtml 2004-06-23 18:43:38 UTC (rev 1561)
+++ trunk/debian/local/FAQ.xhtml 2004-06-23 21:30:19 UTC (rev 1562)
@@ -44,6 +44,8 @@
<ul>
<li><a href="#defxwinsys">What is the X Window System?</a></li>
<li><a href="#defxfree86">What is XFree86?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xfree86fork">What is the story with XFree86 being forked?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xfree86license">What is the story with XFree86's license?</a></li>
<li><a href="#defxservclient">What are X servers and X clients?</a></li>
<li><a href="#xservbackw">Why is the X usage of "server" and "client"
backwards from everyone else's?</a></li>
@@ -309,60 +311,177 @@
it is a <q>portable, network-transparent window system</q>. Its primary
distinction from other well-known window systems like Microsoft Windows and
Apple's MacOS is that it was designed with the local area network in mind. You
-can run programs on one machine and display them on another.</p>
+can run programs on one machine and display them on another. A brief history of
+the X Window System follows.</p>
-<p>Historically, the X Window System was initially conceived in 1984, at the
-Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a joint project between their
-Laboratory for Computer Science and the Digital Equipment Corporation. The
-initial impetus for the X Window System was MIT's Project Athena, which sought
-to provide easy access to computing resources for all students; because MIT
-could not buy all the workstations needed, nor was any single vendor willing to
-donate them, a platform-independent graphics system was required. The first
-version of the X Window System to be widely deployed was Version 10 (X10). It
-was shortly superseded by Version 11 (X11), however, in 1987.</p>
+<p>The X Window System was initially conceived in 1984, at the <a
+href="http://www.mit.edu/";>Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> as a joint
+project between their Laboratory for Computer Science and the Digital Equipment
+Corporation. The initial impetus for the X Window System was MIT's <a
+href="http://www-tech.mit.edu/V119/N19/history_of_athe.19f.html";>Project
+Athena</a>, which sought to provide easy access to computing resources for all
+students; because MIT could not buy all the workstations needed, nor was any
+single vendor willing to donate them, a platform-independent graphics system was
+required. Project Athena prepared both a formal specification for the windowing
+system and a sample implementation (<acronym>SI</acronym>); both are generally
+referred to as "the X Window System". The first version of the X Window System
+to be widely deployed was Version 10 (X10). It was shortly superseded by
+Version 11 (X11), however, in 1987.</p>
-<p>In 1988, a non-profit group called the (MIT) X Consortium was formed to
-direct future development of X standards in an atmosphere inclusive of many
-commercial and educational interests. The X Consortium produced several
-significant revisions to X11, concluding with Release 6 in 1994 (X11R6).</p>
+<p>In 1988, a non-profit group called the MIT X Consortium (later just "X
+Consortium) was formed to direct future development of X standards in an
+atmosphere intended to be inclusive of many commercial and educational
+interests. The freely-licensed SI permitted anyone to
+produce proprietary derivatives, and many of the X Consortium members poured
+resources into competing with each other in part on the basis of their
+proprietary extensions to the SI. The X Window System thus became one of the
+many fronts in the so-called "<a
+href="http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch02s01.html";>Unix Wars</a>". Nevertheless,
+some cooperation was achieved, and the X Consortium produced several incremental
+but significant revisions to X11, concluding with Release 6 in 1994 (X11R6).</p>
<p>The X Consortium dissolved at the end of 1996, producing a final, small
-revision to X11R6 called X11R6.3. Ownership of X then passed to the Open Group,
-an outgrowth of the Open Software Foundation (OSF), who produced the popular
-Motif widget set for X. In early 1998, the Open Group released a further
-revision to X11R6, called X11R6.4 — a departure from the traditional
-licensing terms, however, prevented adoption of this version of the X Window
-System by many vendors, including the XFree86 Project, Inc. (see below). In
-late 1998, the Open Group relicensed X11R6.4 under terms identical with the
-traditional license.</p>
+revision to X11R6 called X11R6.3. Ownership of X then passed to the <a
+href="http://www.opengroup.org/";>Open Group</a>,
+an outgrowth of the <acronym>OSF</acronym> (Open Software Foundation, though
+some joked that it really stood for "Oppose <a
+href="http://www.sun.com/";>Sun</a> Forever"), who produced the popular Motif
+widget set for X. In early 1998, the Open Group released a further revision to
+X11R6, called X11R6.4 — a departure from the traditional licensing terms,
+however, prevented adoption of this version of the X Window System by many
+vendors, including the XFree86 project (<a href="#defxfree86">see below</a>).
+In late 1998, the Open Group relicensed X11R6.4 again, this time under terms
+identical with the traditional license.</p>
<p>In May 1999, stewardship of the X Window System passed from the Open Group to
X.Org, a non-profit organization focused exclusively on maintenance and further
-development of the X Window System. X.Org has supervised the release of
-X11R6.5.1.</p>
+development of the X Window System. X.Org has supervised the releases of
+X11R6.5.1, X11R6.6, and X11R6.7.</p>
<h3><a id="defxfree86">What is XFree86?</a></h3>
-<p>Strictly speaking, the various groups that have developed the X Window System
-over the years have been standardization groups, not software developers.
-However, they have also developed a reference implementation of the standards,
-and this source code is what is popularly called the X Window System. The
-license on this source code freely permits modification and redistribution, and
-many software vendors have taken advantage of its terms.</p>
+<p>As noted above, the various groups that have developed the X Window System
+over the years have had standardization as their primary goal, not software
+development. The liberal license terms used by the SI since its very early days
+have ensured that any organization (or even individual) can come up with their
+own implementation of the X Window System or one of its components, and have
+confidence that their code will interoperate with other code respecting the same
+standard. Furthermore, the MIT/X11 license as used by the X Window System SI
+permitted commingling of code with other works under practically any
+license.</p>
-<p>The XFree86 Project, Inc., is a not-for-profit group whose original,
-self-determined charter was to develop X servers that would work on the wide
-variety of video hardware available for Intel x86-based machines (hence the "86"
-in "XFree86"). They also decided to release their X servers under licensing
-terms identical to that of the freely available X sources, hence the "Free" in
-the "XFree86". By keeping with the licensing terms of the original X source
-distribution, XFree86 has enjoyed immense popularity, and they no longer confine
-their activities to merely producing X servers for IBM PC-compatible video
-hardware.</p>
+<p><a href="http://www.xfree86.org/";>The XFree86 Project, Inc.</a> is a
+not-for-profit group whose original, self-determined charter was to develop X
+servers that would work on the wide variety of video hardware available for
+Intel x86-based machines (hence the "86" in "XFree86"). They also decided to
+release their X servers under licensing terms identical to that of the freely
+available X sources, hence the "Free" in the "XFree86". By keeping with the
+licensing terms of the original X source distribution, the XFree86
+implementation of the X Window System enjoyed immense popularity, and its
+members rapidly expanded their activities beyond merely producing X servers for
+IBM PC-compatible video hardware. XFree86 also benefitted from the
+near-simultaneity of two events: first, the collapse of the X Consortium, its
+vendors exhausted by the Unix Wars and undergoing eclipse by <a
+href="http://www.microsoft.com/";>Microsoft</a>'s successful Windows 95 and NT
+4.0 products; second, the exploding popularity of Unix on PC hardware, thanks to
+the development of the Linux kernel and lifting of the legal shroud over the BSD
+Unices that had been cast by the <em>USL v. BSDI</em> (a.k.a. <em>AT&T v.
+BSD</em>) lawsuit. (For more on the history of the BSDs, see Lance M.
+Westerhoff's article "<a
+href="http://networking.ringofsaturn.com/Unix/bsd.php";>Darwin/Mac OS X: The
+Fifth BSD</a>".)</p>
-<p>XFree86 is thus the superset of the X Window System that is used by the
-Debian GNU/Linux system.</p>
+<p>An <a href="http://www.linux-mag.com/2001-12/xfree86_01.html";>article</a> by
+Michael J. Hammel in the December 2001 issue of <em>Linux Magazine</em> contains
+a fairly comprehensive history of the XFree86 Project to up to that point in
+time.</p>
+<h3><a id="xfree86fork">What is the story with XFree86 being forked?</a></h3>
+
+<p>Recent events have challenged XFree86's pre-eminence. Seldom, if ever, have
+there been more than a dozen people with commit access to XFree86's source code
+repository at any one time, and in general, XFree86's development has been
+dominated by one to four individuals. As XFree86's userbase increased
+dramatically over the years, some people became interested in taking the X
+Window System in directions that the XFree86 project leadership was not
+interested in going. Furthermore, some felt that the XFree86 project's
+infrastructure was not scaling to the needs of its users; for example, XFree86
+did not have a bug tracking system until March 2003, and the mailing lists were
+periodically reorganized such that end users had difficulty figuring out which
+forum to use for their questions. On top of all that, the relatively slow
+release cycle of the XFree86 codebase led redistributors to extensively patch
+their shipping versions of the software, which complicated user support issues
+tremendously. Moreover, the patch submission and review process left many
+contributors — including redistributors — frustrated.</p>
+
+<p>The presence of these stressors gave rise to (or exacerbated) personality
+conflicts, and in 2003 a group of developers resolved to set up a separate
+development project, which was eventually christened <a
+href="http://www.freedesktop.org";>FreeDesktop.Org</a>. (Another group, <a
+href="http://www.xouvert.org";>Xouvert</a> had also undertaken to fork the
+XFree86 codebase.) While this was development was lauded by many redistributors
+and feature-hungry end users, its short-term practical impact was fairly small.
+OS distributors stuck with XFree86 because it was "ready" and it worked.
+Futhermore, the continued use of the MIT/X11 license terms ensured that
+cross-pollination between the projects would work to everyone's benefit. The
+redistributors, and thus most end users, were expected to continue using
+XFree86, at the very least until FreeDesktop.Org had a replacement finished. No
+doubt, it was thought, some distributors would choose to stay with XFree86,
+anticipating that it would cherry-pick attractive new features, enhancements,
+and bug fixes from the FreeDesktop.Org codebase (the same process was expected
+to work in the other direction as well). Other distributors would likely ship
+both codebases and give their users the choice.</p>
+
+<h3><a id="xfree86license">What is the story with XFree86's license?</a></h3>
+
+<p>The calculus described above changed in January 2004, when the XFree86
+project <a
+href="http://www.xfree86.org/pipermail/forum/2004-January/001892.html";>announced
+its intention to change the license on its codebase</a>. The license combined
+elements of the traditional MIT/X11 license, the original 4-clause BSD license
+(containing the infamous "advertising clause"), and the Apache Software License
+in a novel way. The new license was <a
+href="http://www.xfree86.org/pipermail/forum/2004-February/003974.html";>found to
+be GPL-incompatible by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation</a> and
+most OS distributors, including Debian, whereas the XFree86 project makes
+contrary but confusing claims:</p>
+
+<blockquote><a href="http://www.xfree86.org/distro-support.html";>And of course,
+a heartfelt thanks to all of you: distros, developers and fans, for your
+continued support for our free and GPL compatible software.</a></blockquote>
+
+<blockquote><a href="http://www.xfree86.org/legal/licenses.html";>What about
+GPL-compatibility? Is XFree86 GPL compatible?<br />
+<em>The XFree86 Project maintains that the 4.4.0 release of XFree86 is as GPL
+compatible as any and all previous versions were.</em></a></blockquote>
+
+<p>While the former is an unequivocal "yes" to the question of whether the
+software under the new XFree86 license is GPL-compatibile, the latter is, of
+course, neither a "yes" nor a "no". Moreover, it is the copyright holders in
+GPL-licensed works whose opinions matter, because it their license terms, not
+XFree86's, which would be violated by intermixing code (in source or binary
+form) under the GNU GPL with code under the new XFree86 license.</p>
+
+<p>On top of this, when OS distributors have requested clarification as to the
+precise and practical meaning of XFree86's new license from the XFree86, they
+have been rebuffed or ignored. A license that is not understood is not safe
+enough for most organizations to deal with (for fear of civil or criminal claims
+of copyright infringement), hence the decision by many OS vendors, including
+Debian, to avoid code under this license.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the outcry, the XFree86 Project went ahead with its relicensing
+decision and applied it to their CVS repository on 13 Feburary 2004. Those
+concerned about the new XFree86 license should note that code under a <a
+href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/02/msg00229.html";>license nearly
+identical to the new XFree86 license</a> was applied to changes made in an
+XFree86 CVS commit on 8 October 2003, credited to <a
+href="http://www.x-oz.com/";>X-Oz Technologies, Inc.</a>, a consulting company
+co-founded by the President of The XFree86 Project, Inc.</p>
+
+<p>Many OS distributors, including Debian, have resolved to not distribute any
+version of the XFree86 codebase using the new license. Consequently, these
+vendors are seeking alternatives.</p>
+
<h3><a id="defxservclient">What are X servers and X clients?</a></h3>
<p>This is the most important, and probably the first, concept a newcomer to
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