XFree86 Release Plans
The XFree86 Project is currently working on two development streams.
One is the stable 3.3.x series of releases and the
other is the next major release: 4.0. Most of our effort
is focused on 4.0.
NOTE: All estimated release dates shown here are approximate and intentionally
vague. Please resist the temptation to ask for more precise dates because such
dates do not exist. If they did, they would be shown here. If schedules
change, this page will be updated accordingly.
XFree86 3.3.x
XFree86 3.3.6 was released at the end of December 1999. No date has been set
for the next 3.3.x release.
XFree86 4.0
Our next major release will
be 4.0. The fourth and final pre-4.0 snapshot (3.9.18) was released in
late February 2000. We're planning to release 4.0 in early March 2000.
The current snapshot is "beta" level, partly because it
only includes a fairly limited range of hardware support. A lot of the
new features are in place, but at varying levels of completion.
Further information about these snapshots can be found at our
snapshots page.
We still have a lot of work to do before the 4.0 release
is ready. The list below is some of what we have planned for the
4.0 release. This feature list may change as development progresses.
We're only showing it here to give people an idea of what we're
aiming for with 4.0.
- The main focus of 4.0 is a complete redesign of the device-dependent
component of the X server (DDX).
- Single modular X server with loadable drivers, server extensions and
font rasterisers. The modules will be OS-independent, and the
loader design is that donated to XFree86 by Metro Link. We plan to fully
document the driver API/ABI to help make it easy for third parties
to supply XFree86-compatible driver modules.
- Multi-head support. One of the aims of the new DDX design is to make
it easy to support multiple displays.
- A new version of XAA (XFree86 Acceleration Architecture) with a cleaner
design, better performance, and fewer bugs.
- 8-bit PseudoColor overlays when running in a TrueColor mode (on selected
hardware).
- Video in a window on selected platforms, using the Xv extension.
- Integrated support for TrueType fonts.
- 3D support, with
Precision
Insight's DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure),
SGI's GLX
and Mesa 3.1.
- XFree86 4.0 will be based on X11R6.4. This is possible because the
X11R6.4 license has been changed back to the traditional MIT-style
version.
- An extended Xserver config file format and command-line selectable
screen configurations.
- Unified handling of input devices.
Last updated: 22 February 2000