[forum] Future of X ?

[forum@XFree86.Org]

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Apologies in advance,
I'm relatively new to the Linux world and the last time I used X heavily
was a long time ago on DecStations. Thus I'm not going to give you
a long technical post today, although becoming more involved in the guts
of the system may be an option in the future.

For now, I thought I'd put out a few things to think about,
from the useland point of view:

1) Many Linux distros (and even more users) are running a less than current
version of Xfree. If more developers are being looked at, tasking some of t=
hem
to look after whatever version is the commonly installed version (when it i=
s=20
not the latest and greatest) could be a boon, both for users and the
perception of Xfree itself.

2) Not to be offensive about it, but the closed (and rather aloof) nature
of the Xfree dev process is a direct result of the lack of competition.
Linux kernel is wide open and faster moving because if it wasn't, *BSD
might well leave it looking foolish. Philosophically, some might wish a
plague of competition on your house to force you to be more open, but I
am here commenting in the hope that this can happen in a less Darwinian=20
manner.

3) A short list of things Xfree needs. Keep in mind tha I run Debian stable
mostly, so you might have fixed some of these already, don't attack me for
that, muse instead on point 1.

With due acknowledgement to David Bellot (some points are his,=20
I merely reiterate):

- Open (more transparent) development is probably beneficial, just
for philosophical reasons and let's face it, if everyone already knows
the good things you are doing, you won't have to listen to mails like this =
:)

- How can you make life better for Video Card manufacturers? Installation
is always a big issue for software users of all kinds. Making it easier
for people to create drivers for different hardware should always be
a priority. Xfree builds on the capabilities video hardware provides,
helping them help you is only good sense.
(Part of this with commercial companies will certainly be finding ways
to accelerate driver provision i.e. new drivers appear as new cards come
onto the market).

- (To Reiterate Ruth Ivimey-Cook) Hot plugging of mouse in particular
is something which everyone notices.

- (To Reiterate Alex Deutcher + others) A more dynamic X server.  The abili=
ty=20
to change configs on the fly.

- Simplyfying and improving font support. Making fonts look better makes
Xfree as a project look better and makes users happy. New releases have
improved the look of things, but we're not there yet. This is an issue of
importance beyond Xfree. Making text more readable on a monitor is probably
one of the most important things left in integrating computers further into
human society. A really special target, when you think about it.=20

- Fonts also desparately need to be simple to install.=20
One part of having a graphic desktop is to do things=20
with graphics, including graphics of words. Pro designers won't touch
Xfree based systems until font support is easy, neither will Grandma
who wants to make Christmas cards. Easy font support probably involves
talking to commercial font houses to make it easier for them to produce
(and sell ;( ) fonts for Xfree based systems.

- Translucency is a big complaint amongst users, so it probably can't
be ignored, but don't let important things like memory handling and usage or
general speed be forgotten. In the end, when X is criticised (other than
on slashdot) these are seen as more important than alpha blending, however
less glamorous they are.


thanks for reading,


Indy.



--=20
Indranath Neogy
<indy@the-tech.mit.edu>


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