From Newsgroup: comp.windows.x

Hello X community,

tl;dr:
https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver
Unfortunate they chose GitHub.

The following is copied from: https://nitter.net/LundukeJournal/status/1930727192964514137

Holy smokes, got an exclusive story here that is a BIG one for Linux
users:

Xorg is being forked, by the most active Xorg developer, with a first
release planned later this month.

And, based on the tentative release notes which The Lunduke Journal got a sneak peek at, this looks to be the most significant release of Xorg in yearsrCa possibly over a decade.

Importantly: So this isnrCOt some fly-by-night fork.

This fork, named XLibre, is being spearheaded by Enrico Weigelt rCo who was responsible for 63% of the commits to the Xorg source code repository in
2024. This is the real deal.

The Lunduke Journal spoke to Enrico Weigelt to get some additional
details.

rCLFor a while we had hoped to get an actual Xorg release, but that's not
going to happen anymore, so I'm finally going for a full fork,rCY Enrico stated. rCLThis fork [XLibre] became necessary, because itrCOs the expressed wish of the current Xorg group's majority to abandon the project, let it
rot forever, and block any substantial contributions, let alone new
features. I'm leaving it to the reader to deduce which corporate interests
are behind that, and instead just moving on.rCY

Enrico described the huge number of commits to Xorg which have been simply waiting for a release. In some cases for years. Those changes will
finally see the light of day with the XLibre fork.

rCLFirst of all, it's the first major Xserver release since 4 years,rCY said the XLibre lead. rCLAbout 3,000 commits waited for release. And hundreds of open merge requests that are shadowbanned by the [corporate Linux] moles.rCY

Some of the bigger changes include:

1) Xnamespace extension: a novel approach for isolating clients from
different security domains (eg. containers) into separate X11 namespaces, where they can't hurt each other (for cases where Xsecurity from 1996
isn't sufficient).

2) Xnest ported to xcb - no more dependency on old Xlib anymore.

3) Per-ABI driver directories (allows distros installing multiple ABIs at
the same time, eg. for smoother upgrades)

4) Cleaning up a huge amount of technical debt.

The XLibre project also says they aim to remedy some of the organizational
and discrimination issues which have plagued Xorg in recent years. Specifically noting that all people are welcome to contributerCa regardless
of their political views.

rCLIt doesn't matter which country you're coming from, your political views, your race, your sex, your age, your food menu, whether you wear boots or heels, whether you're furry or fairy, Conan or McKay, comic character, a
small furry creature from Alpha Centauri, or just an boring average
person. Anybody's welcome, who's interested in bringing X forward.rCY

The Lunduke Journal will be keeping a close eye on XLibre as it gets
closer to their first planned release, currently scheduled for later in
June. While many Linux distributions have moved to Wayland as an Xorg replacementrCa there remains a large majority of software which is reliant
on Xorg, and many users who prefer it over Wayland (for a variety of
reasons and use cases).

As such it is reassuring to see a viable fork of Xorg, by an established, prominent developer.
--
To health and anarchy
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From Newsgroup: comp.windows.x

In comp.windows.x, Alastair Hogge <agh@riseup.net> wrote:

Hello X community,

tl;dr:
https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver
Unfortunate they chose GitHub.

The following is copied from: https://nitter.net/LundukeJournal/status/1930727192964514137

See also:

https://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-devel/2025-June/059396.html

It's an interesting development.

Elijah
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still prefers X11 to Wayland
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From Newsgroup: comp.windows.x

Alastair Hogge <agh@riseup.net> wrote:

Hello X community,

tl;dr:
https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver
Unfortunate they chose GitHub.

The following is copied from: https://nitter.net/LundukeJournal/status/1930727192964514137

Holy smokes, got an exclusive story here that is a BIG one for Linux
users:

Xorg is being forked, by the most active Xorg developer, with a first release planned later this month.

It'll be interesting to see whether many distros make packages for
it (including separate driver packages because the README notes
that X.Org drivers aren't binary compatible).
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From Newsgroup: comp.windows.x

On Sat, 07 Jun 2025 10:57:46 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

Alastair Hogge <agh@riseup.net> wrote:

Hello X community,

tl;dr:
https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver Unfortunate they chose GitHub.

The following is copied from:
https://nitter.net/LundukeJournal/status/1930727192964514137

Holy smokes, got an exclusive story here that is a BIG one for Linux
users:

Xorg is being forked, by the most active Xorg developer, with a first
release planned later this month.

It'll be interesting to see whether many distros make packages for it (including separate driver packages because the README notes that X.Org drivers aren't binary compatible).

Am I missing something? From the README.md:

Module ABIs have changed - drivers MUST be recompiled against this
Xserver verison, otherwise the Xserver can crash or not even start up correctly.

Most xorg drivers should run as-is (need recompile!), with some
exceptions. See .gitlab-ci.yml for the versions/branches built along
w/ Xlibre.

--
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From Newsgroup: comp.windows.x

Alastair Hogge <agh@riseup.net> wrote:

On Sat, 07 Jun 2025 10:57:46 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

It'll be interesting to see whether many distros make packages for it
(including separate driver packages because the README notes that X.Org
drivers aren't binary compatible).

Am I missing something? From the README.md:

Module ABIs have changed - drivers MUST be recompiled against this
Xserver verison, otherwise the Xserver can crash or not even start up
correctly.

Most xorg drivers should run as-is (need recompile!), with some
exceptions. See .gitlab-ci.yml for the versions/branches built along
w/ Xlibre.

I read that as: the code for the drivers doesn't usually need to be
changed, but they need to be recompiled, so existing X.Org driver
packages won't work. Same as with Linux kernel drivers.

I suspect distro package maintainers won't consider it worth that
much effort given how many separate X packages they usually have.
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From Newsgroup: comp.windows.x

On 8 Jun 2025 17:21:00 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

I read that as: the code for the drivers doesn't usually need to be
changed, but they need to be recompiled, so existing X.Org driver
packages won't work. Same as with Linux kernel drivers.

It is not the kernel that calls into the X server, it is the X server that calls into the kernel. So I wouldnrCOt expect any kernel changes to be necessary.

I suspect distro package maintainers won't consider it worth that
much effort given how many separate X packages they usually have.

There arenrCOt that many different driver add-on packages, are there?
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From Newsgroup: comp.windows.x

Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

On 8 Jun 2025 17:21:00 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

I read that as: the code for the drivers doesn't usually need to be
changed, but they need to be recompiled, so existing X.Org driver
packages won't work. Same as with Linux kernel drivers.

It is not the kernel that calls into the X server, it is the X server that calls into the kernel. So I wouldn't expect any kernel changes to be necessary.

I mean the situation is the same as with Linux kernel drivers, not
that Linux kernel drivers also need to be changed. The X server is
modular like the kernel, so like a new kernel needs new module
builds to be sure of avoiding errors, so apparantly does this X
server. But I just mentioned kernel drivers as an example.

I suspect distro package maintainers won't consider it worth that
much effort given how many separate X packages they usually have.

There aren't that many different driver add-on packages, are there?

On Devuan:
$ aptitude search xserver-xorg-input xserver-xorg-video | wc -l
42

But other distros might have fewer.
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