[forum] XFree86's Future and thoughts and suggestions

[Stuart Anderson]

On Tue, 1 Apr 2003, Shawn wrote:

> Having used XFree86 for a long time, I seem to get the impression that most of
> the Core developers are unwilling to budge.
>
> I seem to get the impression of "Go away, if we feel like it we'll do it"
> attitude. This is unhelpful to the community.

This isn't the attitude at all.

Often, when something is suggested the reply will be a request for someone to
do the development work and submit a patch. This doesn't really come from a
lack of interest, but rather a lack of time available to the Core team members
to do the work. At the moment, I don't think any one with commit privileges
is being given any support by their employer to work on XFree86, so things get
done using personal time, which is limited.

Also, please note that the set of people with commit access is greater than
the just the Core team.

> We need to see XFree86's whole development organization revamped and the
> politics cut out.
>
> 1. Eliminate Core, Follow a kernel like development structure

This has been suggested, and discussion is ongoing. Making it easier to obtain
CVS access, however, is probably much more useful than eliminating the Core
team, since they are two seperate things.

> 2. Have a more liberal CVS use branching more for testing out experimental
> things.

Yes, this type of thing is also being considered.

> 3. Have more desktop environments involved in XFree86's goals both KDE and
> GNOME and others who which to be involved. This could be though mailing lists
> and IRC :-)

We thought we had this.

> 4. Coordinate better between subprojects such as the Linux/FreeBSD kernels wrt
> to DRM and GATOS (perhaps fork and merge into XFree86 fixing any problems).
> Give access to DRI/DRM/GATOS developers access to the CVS Tree so they may
> keep the API in movement.

DRM is handled by the DRI development team, not XFree86.

There is a goal to further reduce the differences between GATOS and XFree86,
but progress has been slow given the resources available to work on it.

> I don't think it's much to ask for, but politics on XFree86 seem to keep this
> from happening, I hope having this forum will finally fix the problems
> plaguing XFree86 from really becoming the best desktop it can be.

Politics has nothing to do with any of this. I don't know where people come
up with the idea that the Core or BOD is scheming again the community. They
aren't.

It's very simple. Things get accomplished when people put forth the effort
and resources to get things done. Not a lot of people have been doing this.

There does seem to be a fairly steep learning curve to XFree86, but enough
people have been able to get past that for me to believe that it is not
impossible to overcome, it just requires the desire and effort to do so.

Suggestions for lessening this learning curve are welcome, but more important
is the effort required to implement these suggestions.



                                Stuart

Stuart R. Anderson                               anderson@netsweng.com
Network & Software Engineering                   http://www.netsweng.com/
XFree86 Core Team
1024D/37A79149:                                  0791 D3B8 9A4C 2CDC A31F
                                                 BD03 0A62 E534 37A7 9149