X Strike Force XFree86 SVN commit: r1948 - in trunk/debian: . local
Author: branden
Date: 2004-10-12 14:56:48 -0500 (Tue, 12 Oct 2004)
New Revision: 1948
Modified:
trunk/debian/CHANGESETS
trunk/debian/TODO
trunk/debian/changelog
trunk/debian/local/FAQ.xhtml
Log:
Add FAQ entry: What are Debian's plans with respect to X.Org and
XFree86?
Modified: trunk/debian/CHANGESETS
===================================================================
--- trunk/debian/CHANGESETS 2004-10-12 17:57:29 UTC (rev 1947)
+++ trunk/debian/CHANGESETS 2004-10-12 19:56:48 UTC (rev 1948)
@@ -138,4 +138,8 @@
Update "Further Information" section of FAQ.
1947
+Add FAQ entry: What are Debian's plans with respect to X.Org and
+XFree86?
+ 1948
+
vim:set ai et sts=4 sw=4 tw=80:
Modified: trunk/debian/TODO
===================================================================
--- trunk/debian/TODO 2004-10-12 17:57:29 UTC (rev 1947)
+++ trunk/debian/TODO 2004-10-12 19:56:48 UTC (rev 1948)
@@ -52,7 +52,6 @@
users to use 'gb' [BR]
+ Use /proc/hardware on m68k architecture to set a reasonable default mouse
port. See <URL: http://lists.debian.org/debian-68k/2004/08/msg00392.html>.
-* Add FAQ entry describing Debian's plans in the X department.
* Add Debian-specific patch to uxterm to call validlocale(8) before trying to
launch xterm, per recommendation from Recai Oktas. If a valid locale isn't
set, bail out (would resolve #246398). (This patch would be Debian-specific
Modified: trunk/debian/changelog
===================================================================
--- trunk/debian/changelog 2004-10-12 17:57:29 UTC (rev 1947)
+++ trunk/debian/changelog 2004-10-12 19:56:48 UTC (rev 1948)
@@ -48,6 +48,9 @@
* Update "Further Information" section of FAQ.
+ * Add FAQ entry: What are Debian's plans with respect to X.Org and
+ XFree86?
+
Changes by Denis Barbier and Fabio M. Di Nitto:
* Edit xc/programs/xkbcomp/symbols/pc/Imakefile so that the new pc/us_intl
@@ -118,7 +121,7 @@
+ Set UseBios default to "no" for PROSAVAGE_DDR and PROSAVAGE_DDRK, as
described at <URL: http://www.probo.com/timr/savage40.html >.
- -- Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org> Tue, 12 Oct 2004 12:57:03 -0500
+ -- Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org> Tue, 12 Oct 2004 13:32:51 -0500
xfree86 (4.3.0.dfsg.1-8) unstable; urgency=high
Modified: trunk/debian/local/FAQ.xhtml
===================================================================
--- trunk/debian/local/FAQ.xhtml 2004-10-12 17:57:29 UTC (rev 1947)
+++ trunk/debian/local/FAQ.xhtml 2004-10-12 19:56:48 UTC (rev 1948)
@@ -49,6 +49,8 @@
<li><a href="#xorg">What is X.Org?</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="#debianplans">What are Debian's plans with respect to X.Org and
+ XFree86?</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>
@@ -600,6 +602,80 @@
community will coalesce around a single X Window System SI as it did around
XFree86, or whether the environment will be competitive.</p>
+<h3><a id="debianplans">What are Debian's plans with respect to X.Org and
+ XFree86?</a></h3>
+
+<p><em>Thanks to Fabio Massimo Di Nitto for contributing much of this
+entry.</em></p>
+
+<p>Because the XFree86 relicensing came at a time when Debian was trying to
+stabilize its XFree86 packages for the <code class="other">sarge</code> release,
+there was some question among Debian's X Window System package maintenance team
+(the "X Strike Force") — and much speculation among Debian's users —
+as to what direction Debian would take.</p>
+
+<p>There was never a serious proposal to attempt to ship anything other than
+XFree86 4.3.0 in <code class="other">sarge</code>, so work on that continued
+while discussion on the <code class="other">debian-x</code> mailing list took
+place. The following represents the <a
+href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-x/2004/08/msg00235.html";>consensus reached
+by the X Strike Force</a>, without objection from the mailing list subscribers
+(among whom number many interested Debian developers and users).</p>
+
+<p>In June 2004, Fabio Massimo Di Nitto, the XFree86 package release manager for
+Debian <code class="other">sarge</code> and <code class="other">sid</code>,
+started a <a
+href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-x/2004/06/msg00411.html";>thread</a> to
+discuss the future of X Window System packages in Debian for an open discussion
+between users and the Debian package maintainers.</p>
+
+<p>The discussion spanned nearly one hundred messages from over a dozen
+participants, practically all of it constructive and very useful to the Debian
+maintenance team. The outcome of the thread was farly clear to everyone: Debian
+will move away from the XFree86 tree as soon as possible after
+the <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/sarge/";>upcoming stable release</a>
+due to its license issues (<a href="#xfree86license">see above</a>).</p>
+
+<p>The XFree86 package maintainers are committed to providing support and
+assistance to the <a href="http://www.debian.org/security/";>Debian Security
+Team</a> for the XFree86 4.3.0-based packages than Debian will ship in <code
+class="other">sarge</code>. That is, our abandonment of the XFree86 Project,
+Inc., as an upstream source of code does not mean that we will abandon our
+committment to the user of our production release.</p>
+
+<p>Futhermore, there was near-consensus that Debian should switch to the <a
+href="http://www.freedesktop.org/XOrg/CvsPage";>X.Org
+source tree</a>, with the goal of migrating to the modularized tree over time.
+We expect that the monolithic X.Org distribution will be modularized in a
+piecewise fashion; as that happens, we will "switch off" the building of
+packages from the X.Org monolithic tree in favor of the modularized components
+that become available from <code class="other">freedesktop.org</code>.</p>
+
+<p>While moving from XFree86's monolithic tree to X.Org's is a relatively simple
+technical transition of itself, the transition to a fully-modularized set of
+packages will take longer — indeed, an unknown amount of time which
+depends on the speed of upstream's progress — but we expect the process
+will bring the packages' quality to a higher level, thanks to the introduction
+of a fast release cycle for each single component. We expect to "modularize"
+two parts of the X.Org distribution immediately: XTerm and Xprt (the XPRINT
+server). Both of these are independently maintained by entities external to
+(but working in cooperation with) <code
+class="other">freedesktop.org</code>.</p>
+
+<p>With these changes, it will also be easier for the Debian user community to
+have a broader choice in X servers. At present, the Debian XFree86 package
+maintainers intend to support only the XOrg X server (which is based on
+XFree86's). The X Strike Force does not plan to discourage other people from
+packaging others. Debian developers that file intent-to-package notices (ITPs)
+for other X servers are asked to strictly cooperate with the X Strike Force to
+maintain similar packaging standards, simplify the bug handling on shared
+components (like X libraries) and discuss future changes and improvements.</p>
+
+<p>As of this writing (October 2004), packaging of the X.Org distribution is
+underway in the X Strike Force's <code class="other">xorg</code> Subversion
+repository (<a
+href="http://necrotic.deadbeast.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/?root=xorg";>ViewCVS</a>).</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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