[vox-tech] XFree86 4.4.0 non-GPL compatible

[Mark K. Kim]

On Mon, 1 Mar 2004, Robert G. Scofield wrote:

> I don't understand the big picture.  How can the XFree project get away with
> upsetting so many people?  If Red Hat, Debian, Mandrake, SuSe, OpenBSD, etc.
> get upset and start looking for alternatives, where does that leave the XFree
> project?  Why is it not the case the XFree project needs to depend on making
> everyone happy?

Hence the reason everyone is so upset.

> Also, it seems like SuSE (Novell) and its friend IBM, and GNOME's friends like
> Sun and HP have a whole lot of resources.  Can't they come up with a an
> alternative?

1. There are too many X-based programs to simply "switch over" to another
   GUI platform.

2. Even giants like IBM, Sun, and HP take time to create something new.

3. There *are* alternatives already, like Freedesktop.org, but it'll take
   time to take root to become the next standard.

I expect the XFree86 group to change their new license again to something
more palatable within a few months.  If not, I expect another
XFree86-compatible project (Freedesktop.org, most likely) to take over its
place.  But I'd think the former is more likely to happen than the
latter.

-Mark


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