Wayland Archive

Four alternative Linux window managers

KDE and GNOME combine window managers with suites of applications to create comprehensive work environments. As complete as they are, it's easy to forget that there are other graphical ways to work on a Linux desktop. Sometimes a lighter-weight window manager is in order, such as for laptop usage, children's use, or quick startup applications. Here are four "alternative" window managers that are mature, fast, and functional. My Take: Should we also add *Box, WindowMaker and XFce to the mix?

Project Looking Glass developer release is out

Sun finally released a preview of Project Looking Glass. Sources are of course included, and it's GPL-ed. Project Looking Glass is/should_be a revolutionary new aproach to the way we interact with the applications, the biggest change to GUI in 20 years. I wonder if 21" is enough, cause having 20 windows folded like the ones in the screen-shots should be a bit troublesome at 'only' 1600x1200.

XFree86 Gets Underwhelmed by Linux Distro Support

David Dawes seems a little suspicious of the underwhelming support for XFree86 by Linux distributors: "I have heard privately that some vendors were planning to move to an X.Org release even before this licence issue came up. That probably makes business sense for the vendors given that X.Org is a vendor-oriented organization sponsored by hardware and software companies, while XFree86 is an independent group of volunteer developers. I suspect that the licence issue may have affected the timing, but not the end result", he concluded.

Beyond XFree86, Searching for the Alternative

"There's another schism going on in the Linux world. Just in case you've been under a rock in the last few months the XFree86 team has changed their license. There's an uproar from several of the largest Linux distributions where they're refusing include XFree86 4.4 in their new releases. This is bad news for a few but also in the middle of this conflict begs the question. What are the alternatives?" Read the editorial at Linux.Warcy.com.

X Marks the Spot: Looking back at X11 Developments of Past Year

For the past year, there has been a slow and steady stream of news events regarding XFree86, X11, or new X server implementations. To those not paying close attention (and even those who are), the meaning of some of these events may not be clear. In this brief article, I attempt to share my impression on what the changes mean for users of free software on the desktop. It appears that XFree86 is in some turmoil, and it may leave some to infer that free desktop systems will suffer.

XFree86 Changes License; Fear of Being GPL-Incompatible

The XFree86 Project modified their license (fully effective as of the upcoming 4.4.0 release). The updated license change applies to the base XFree86 license, and to source files that explicitly carry a copyright notice in the name of The XFree86 Project, Inc. Copyrights and licenses in the names of others will not be affected by this change, however some fear that these changes might be GPL-incompatible.

freedesktop.org xlibs 1.0 Released

Daniel Stone writes over at Slashdot: "A short time ago, freedesktop.org xlibs 1.0 was released. Simply put, this is the collection of libX11, libXext, and other little-used libraries that kind of power your whole desktop. The xlibs team at fd.o are now maintaining all these libraries, and more, and we're going to be making releases as part of the fd.o platform, which is far more wide-ranging, but it still forms an important part of the platform. Share and enjoy!"

X.org and XFree86 Reform as a Single Group

In a press conference held today at LinuxWorld 2004 in New York, members of the old X consortium, some members of the disbanded XFree86 core developer group, and Havoc Pennington of freedesktop.org announced that X.org and XFree86 have essentially merged, and that the reformed group is working together to bring "not just more eye candy but new functionality" to the X server for Linux and Unix. Our Take: We wonder what this means for Keith Packard's X implementation hosted at fd.o. Update: Apparently the above is not accurate, only a few (one?) developers joined X.org.

XFree86 Core Team Disbands

The XFree86 core team has announced that it is disbanding. What does this mean for the pending XFree86 4.4.0 release which was going to be out in January? (currently the latest version is 4.4-RC2). We hope that someone puts a release together to give something new to users before freedesktop.org's XWin server comes out at the end of 2004 or early 2005.