X.Org Foundation releases X Window System X11R6.7
[Posted April 7, 2004 by corbet]
From: |
| Leon Shiman <leon-AT-magic.shiman.com> |
To: |
| pr-AT-lwn.net |
Subject: |
| XOrg Foundation Releases X Window System X11R6.7 |
Date: |
| Wed, 7 Apr 2004 01:41:35 -0400 (EDT) |
X.Org Foundation Announces Formation and First Release
The new X.Org Foundation will help drive the X Window System to support
state-of-the-art desktop technologies
San Francisco, CA., April 6, 2004 - X.Org Foundation today announces their
first release of the X Window System since the formation of the Foundation in
January of this year. The new X.Org release, called X Window System Version
11 Release 6.7 (X11R6.7), builds on the work of the X.Org X11R6.6 and
XFree86TM Project Inc. V4.4RC2 releases to combine many of the latest
developments from a large number of the participants and companies working
with the X Window community. The X Window System X11R6.7 release can be found
at http://www.x.org/.
"We have made great progress in creating a framework upon which further
development of the X Window System can be based," agreed the Interim Board of
the Foundation. "We expect to provide the desktop community with at least two
more releases of the X Window System before the end of this year to encompass
all of the new technologies and ideas that we are developing".
"This release marks the return to community development of the X Window
System under governance open to all contributors for the first time since the
founding of the X Consortium in 1988," said Jim Gettys, co-founder of the X
Window System, Interim X.Org Foundation board member and member of the
research staff of HP Labs.
"We welcome the formation of the X.Org Foundation and are looking forward to
support this group to bring the work on the X Window System to a new
technological level," said Egbert Eich, X Window System developer at Novell's
SUSE LINUX business unit.
Matthias Ettrich, Director of Software Development at Trolltech, said "As a
multi-platform GUI toolkit vendor, we appreciate the value of a powerful
underlying windowing system, and as such, we are excited about the direction
X.Org is heading. We are very much looking forward to supporting new
technologies around X, and we will do our share to make the advances of the
platform accessible to software developers."
"Being an underlying technology to the most popular desktops on all GNU
Systems, in particular GNOME and KDE, the X Window System is indeed an
essential part of most Free Software operating systems," said Georg C.F.
Greve, president of the FSF Europe. "It helps many users to access and enjoy
the freedom of Free Software. We are glad that X.Org will from now on watch
over this enabling technology."
"Red Hat is pleased to be working with the new X.Org Foundation to build a
vibrant open source community around X Window System innovation. Look for
X11R6.7 in the upcoming Fedora Core 2 and future Red Hat Enterprise Linux
products," said Havoc Pennington, desktop development manager at Red Hat.
"As one of the largest GNU/Linux distribution projects in the world, the
Debian Project is delighted to see that freedom and diversity are alive and
well in the X technology sector. We're also delighted that the X.Org
Foundation is dedicated to retaining the licensing model that has made the X
Window System an enduring success," said Branden Robinson of the Debian
GNU/Linux Project. "Like us, the X.Org Foundation is a member-driven
organization devoted to Free Software. We cannot help but be enthusiastic
about them and the work they're doing for the X Window System and Free
Software communities alike."
"An open source project works best with a large community of active
contributors. OSI welcomes the return of X to open source development by the
entire community. I'm looking forward to contributing myself," said Russell
Nelson, Vice-President of the Open Source Initiative.
"Cygwin/X is benefiting heavily from the community-building spirit of the
X.Org Foundation and their open development environment. We are pleased to be
basing our releases on the good work of the X.Org Foundation", said Harold L
Hunt II of the Cygwin/X project.
"The XonX Project is very pleased that the X.Org Foundation has been eager to
support Darwin and Mac OS X. X11R6.7 adds new features that will be
appreciated by many Mac OS X users," said Torrey Lyons, XonX Project Founder.
Membership of the X.Org Foundation is free to all participants. Applications
for membership are now being accepted, and active participants in the further
development of the X Window System are invited to visit:
http://www.x.org/XOrg_Foundation_Membership.html to complete a membership
application. Participation in the Foundation’s Sponsor Group is also
available to those who wish to financially support the activities The X.Org
Foundation. Current Sponsors include Hewlett Packard, IBM, and SUN
Microsystems.
About The Foundation Release
X11R6.7 is the first official X.Org Foundation release. It is the successor
release to X11R6.6 from X.Org. To assure consistency with industry and
community requirements and practices, it was developed from the X.Org X11R6.6
code base and the XFree86 V4.4RC2 code base, with the addition of bug fixes
and enhancements. These enhancements include: new IPv6 functionality,
Freetype V2.1.7, fontconfig V2.2.2, Xft V2.1.6, Xcursor V1.1.2, and Xrender
V0.8.4, with corresponding changes in documentation and notices. Additional
source and binary releases are anticipated during 2004.
About The X Window System
The X Window System provides the only common networked windowing environment
bridging the heterogeneous platforms in today's computing. The X Window
System is one of the most successful open-source, collaborative technologies
developed to date and is the standard graphical window system for the Linux®
and UNIX® operating systems. The inherent independence of the X Window System
from the operating system, the network and the hardware, as well as its
successful interoperability, have made it widely available and deployed with
more than 30 million users worldwide. All major hardware vendors support the
X Window System and many third parties provide technologies for integrating X
Window System applications into the networked computer or personal computer
environments including Microsoft Windows®, UNIX, Linux and Mac OS® X.
Further, thousands of software developers provide X Window System
applications, and with the continued growth of Linux and the emergence of Mac
OS X, the number of users is growing rapidly.
About X.Org Foundation
X.Org Foundation L.L.C. is a recently formed Delaware company organized to
operate as a scientific charity under IRS code 501(c)(3), chartered to
develop and execute effective strategies that provide worldwide stewardship
of the X Window System technology and standards. The group is currently
managed by an Interim Board of Directors that includes: Stuart Anderson (Free
Standards Group), Egbert Eich (SUSE), Jim Gettys (HP), Georg Greve (Free
Software Foundation Europe), Stuart Kreitman (SUN Microsystems), Kevin Martin
(Red Hat), Jim McQuillan (Linux Terminal Server Project), Leon Shiman (Shiman
Associates) and Jeremy White (Code Weavers). The website for the X.Org
Foundation can be found at http://www.x.org/.
Note to editors: UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the US
and other countries. LINUX is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
XFree86 is a trademark of The XFree86 Project, Inc. Microsoft and Windows are
registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or
other countries. Mac OS is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.,
registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other company names are
trademarks of the registered owners.
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