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Gnome and KDE viewpoint on the future of the X Window System

Submitted by DV on Mon, 2003-03-24 12:12. Linux

A sizeable group of developers from the two leading free software
projects developing desktops based on the X Window System, KDE and
GNOME, have been discussing the current situation among themselves
and decided to draft and release this document.We acknowledge the dedication of the XFree86 project in providing us a
free and innovative implementation of the X11 industry standard,
something we benefit from on a daily basis. Therefore, we want to
share our joint point of view with the community.

1. XFree86's recent technical progress, culminating in the 4.3
release, brought significant advancements to the X desktop. Prior
X Window System implementations were lagging behind the needs of
modern desktop users.

Cursor theming, simplified font configuration, dynamic screen
resizing, and so on address long-overdue usability issues with X
desktops. XFree86's robust solutions in these areas have been
invaluable.

However, the work is not done. Our goal is to provide the
community with desktop systems far beyond what anyone offers
today. We are ready to take advantage of an X Window System
implementation that continues to innovate.

2. GNOME and KDE have two interests in X:

- We would like to have a single organization where X innovation
occurs. By innovation, we mean the definition of new APIs,
specifications, and features - new additions to the foundations
that KDE and GNOME rely on.

- We would like to have a frequently-released, robust, stable,
open source implementation of these APIs, specifications, and
features.

We are explicitly distinguishing innovation from implementation,
because standards should be adequate to allow multiple
fully-interoperable implementations.

Within the development organization responsible for defining and
crafting new features to be adopted as standards, innovation
should happen in the open, with all affected parties able to
participate early in the process.

3. We do not want to take sides on the recent political wrangling of
who did what when and who should be in charge. Our hope is that as
a community we can find a way to involve everyone in X's
development and move forward with solving technical challenges.

4. It makes sense to us if the organization responsible for X
innovation also develops the most widely used open source
reference implementation. This ensures an emphasis on working
code, and provides a pool of active technical expertise.

5. We would like to see this forum work toward a unified
organization, governed by active contributors, that implements,
deploys, and standardizes new X innovations.
We do not want to take an a priori position on how this
organization should be organized or governed - that is a
conversation we're trying to start, rather than one we're trying
to end. We trust and will support the X community as they work to
address this issue.

Best wishes

Waldo Bastian

Jonathan Blandford

David Faure

Glynn Foster

Jody Goldberg

James Henstridge

Miguel de Icaza

Antonio Larrosa Jim�nez

Stephan Kulow

Daniel Molkentin

Dirk Mueller

Ralf Nolden

Havoc Pennington

Zack Rusin

Daniel Veillard

Jeff Waugh

Re: Tears of joy

Submitted by Anonymous George on Mon, 2003-03-24 15:00.

Damn right. Here's another interesting comment on LT about the whole thing.

http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2003-03-24-014-26-OS-GN-KE-0000

"Finally. So long overdue. I hope this would at the end bring us some consistent, truly usable and powerful desktops.
IMHO, a lot of things that are now supported at toolkit level, should be supported at X level - common dialogs, drag&drop etc.
It is my wet dream, too, to see the NEED for XF86Config-4 DROPPED altogether - or at least the need for some parts of it. WHY should there be no autodetection? Why should one reconfigure the system each time the monitor is replaced by a different one? The majority of nowadays monitors are PnP, why is there no support?. It is explicitly written in XF86Config-4 that if the monitor frequency ranges are not specified, some hardcoded defaults are used. Stupidity at its best ( or worst?). And what if my newest and greatest PnP monitor is broken and I must temporarily replace it by some PnP oldie? Boot to console, edit the file, put new frequency ranges in - or see nothing due to frequency out of range. And in Windows? Just connect, it will automatically detect the new frequency range.
Why should one reconfigure the system when replacing a serial mouse by a PS/2 one? Or a PS/2 one by an USB one?
And please, don't tell me about some boot time redetection services. It doesn't cut it. As far as a user is concerned, once he plugs an USB mouse in, it should work. No reboot, no restarting X, no reconfigure on user's part. That's what USB is for.
As simple as that - if there is a file, use it. If something is omitted ( no mouse configured, for example), autodetect it. If configuration is not correct, AUTODETECT the correct configuration and issue a warning. If no autodetection is possible, either use hard-coded defaults or stop."

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