I’ve successfully compiled and installed the new X11 release 6.9. It works perfectly, with composite and acceleration on an iBook G4 with a Radeon Mobility 9200. This is definitely progress.
EXA is lightning fast, and all of this without a proprietary ATI driver.
Many people have complained about the decision to not make Xgl a priority (not that it was really a decision, since only one guy was working on it), the decision to work on EXA so that it would be ready for 6.9/7.0, and the privatization of Xgl by Novell (by hiring the one fellow who was working on it).
The main complaint in the “open source” development circles is that Novell is somehow doing a disservice to the project. I disagree. First of all, it is not as if these people who are complaining were working on the project. If they were, Novell would have seen no need to hire the guy and make it a priority. As it stands, this man can now work on it full time instead of just when he “has time.”
Secondly, I am forced again to distinguish between “free software” and “open source.” Novell is not privatizing the source code (as far as I know, they cannot). And that is the nature of free software. If I choose to privately write a program and release on GPL, I am not obligated to include you in the project development. GPL is not meant to be democratic (sorry to all you die-hard Americans). In fact, it is more of a socialistic concept. If you don’t like what I’m doing with my project, you’re free to take the source code and make your own version.
At any rate, Xgl will come, but I think it is important to do it the right way (without proprietary video card drivers). That will take time, and cooperation from the OpenGL folks, as well as the large hardware companies.
I have a plan/theory about free software and open hardware development that I will discuss later. For now, I am content with EXA, because I have drop shadows on windows, translucency, and other cool effects that I didn’t have before. The only real drawback with this release is that all the drivers (most disappointingly, the Intel i810) were not finished. Other than that, X11R6.9 is an overall success, and coupled with KDE (http://www.kde.org) 3.5, it is quite the eyecandy treatment my laptop needed.
Mac OS X, eat your heart out (gosh that’s such a nasty expression).
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