Major Contributors to XFree86 Development

Here are some details of the significant contributions that are being made to the XFree86 development effort by Metro Link, S.u.S.E., Precision Insight and Red Hat.


Metro Link and XFree86

Metro Link Incorporated has been working closely with XFree86 on some important parts of our next major release (XFree86 4.0). This has included donating many of their developments and enhancements back to the XFree86 Project. The XFree86 Project is appreciative of the significant contribution that this represents.

This is what Garry Paxinos, Vice President of Metro Link Incorporated says about the cooperation between Metro Link and The XFree86 Project.

Metro Link recognizes the importance of the Linux operating system in the world market and was the first company to ship commercial software for Linux. As a contributing sponsor of the XFree86 Project, Metro Link donates many of their developments and enhancements back to the XFree86 Project.

Some of Metro Link's technological donations that will be included in the XFree86-4.0 release are:

The donated software is also part of Metro-X, Metro Link's commercial X server, which continues to be used in demanding mission-critical environments. For more information on this or any of the Metro Link products for Linux, please visit the Metro Link website.


SuSE GmbH

SuSE GmbH, one of the major supporters of XFree86, has started to release a small series of their own X servers. These servers are based on XFree86 code and released with permission of The XFree86 Project, Inc. All work related to these servers is contributed back to XFree86, these servers will be included in XFree86's next public release.

This is what happened in XFree86-3.3.2 with all XSuSE servers except for XSuSE_Elsa_GLoria. The reasons for not including XSuSE_Elsa_GLoria were purely legal ones and outside the control of SuSE GmbH or The XFree86 Project, Inc.

These problems were since resolved and therefore this server (as well as all the other XFCom servers available from SuSE) will be included in XFree86-3.3.3.

Check the SuSE XFCom webpage for more details about these servers. Please contact SuSE's XFCom support address with all comments, questions, or reports regarding these servers.

In addition to their work on these servers, SuSE has contributed in many ways to XFree86, through donations as well engineering resources that were paid by SuSE and working on XFree86.


Red Hat and Precision Insight

The XFree86 Project is pleased to acknowledge the significant contributions that Red Hat Inc. and Precision Insight Inc. are making to the development of XFree86.

Red Hat and Precision Insight are providing Linux binary-only X servers for some new video hardware (this currently includes the Intel i740 and a range of NeoMagic chipsets). Where possible these servers will be integrated into the next XFree86 source release. The NeoMagic driver is the first of these to be integrated, and it is available (with source) in XFree86 3.3.3. Information about these servers can be found at:

http://www.precisioninsight.com/products.html.

Note: None of these X servers are supported by The XFree86 Project. Please direct all support questions or comments to xbf_support@redhat.com or xfcom_support@redhat.com.

3D Multipipe Direct Rendering Infrastructure

Red Hat is also funding a Precision Insight development effort to create a Multipipe Direct Rendering Infrastructure for use with MESA which will be fully integrated into the industry standard XFree86 X server. The infrastructure will fully support direct hardware rendering into multiple X windows. The sample implementation (SI) of this infrastructure will support MESA in software only, and will contain a limited set of hardware accelerated functions to demonstrate how complete hardware support can be added for any 3D hardware. The SI will include complete 2D and 3D source and will be released under the normal XFree86 license.

Please do not contact The XFree86 Project about the SI. It will be announced when it is released.


Last Updated: 5 December 1998