XFree86
 |
|
| Developer(s) | The XFree86 Project, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 1991 (as X386) |
| Last release |
4.8.0 / December 15, 2008
|
| Development status | Discontinued |
| Written in | C |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Available in | Various |
| Type | Display server |
| License | XFree86 License 1.1 |
| Website | www.xfree86.org |
XFree86 was an implementation of the X Window System. It was originally written for Unix-like operating systems on IBM PC compatibles and was available for many other operating systems and platforms. It is free and open source software under the XFree86 License version 1.1. It was developed by the XFree86 Project, Inc. The lead developer was David Dawes. The last released version was 4.8.0, released December 2008. The last XFree86 CVS commit was made on May 18, 2009; the project was confirmed dormant in December 2011.
For most of the 1990s and early 2000s, the project was the source of most innovation in X and was the de facto steward of X development. Until early 2004, it was almost universal on Linux and the BSDs.
In February 2004, with version 4.4.0, The XFree86 Project adopted a license change that the Free Software Foundation considered GPL incompatible. Most open source operating systems using XFree86 found this unacceptable and moved to a fork from before the license change. The first fork was the abortive Xouvert, but X.Org Server soon became dominant. Most XFree86 developers also moved to X.Org.
While XFree86 was widely used by most UNIX-like computer operating systems before its license change with version 4.4.0, it has since then been superseded by X.org and is used rarely nowadays. The last remaining operating system distribution to use it is NetBSD, which still ships some platforms with 4.5.0 by default. NetBSD 5.0 and later releases use X.org by default on various ports (including i386 and amd64), and X.org is available through NetBSD pkgsrc for architectures for which XFree86 remains the default because of better support.
...
Wikipedia