Paul Krill
Editor at Large

X marks the spot for Unix

news
Feb 7, 20072 mins

The X Window System may not be in the limelight like the Microsoft Windows interface, but it remains vibrant and developers continue to enhance it.

About 30 developers from companies such as Intel, Sun Microsystems and VMware are attending the X.org Developer’s Conference in Menlo Park, Calif. this week to ponder the direction of the X Window System.

“The conference is [held] to get the most active developers together and push ourselves forward [and] just communicate better, because it’s a globally distributed bunch of people who cooperate,” said Stuart Kreitman, a Sun Microsystems software engineer who organized the conference.

The X Window System has been the graphical interface for Unix workstations since 1986, said Kreitman. It also is supported on Linux now, he said.

“It’s like bricks and mortar. It’s the foundation of single-user Linux and Unix workstations,” Kreitman said.

Version 7.2 of the X.org source code distribution is in the works, featuring modularization, according to Kreitman.

Projects discussed Wednesday included MultiPointer X (MPX), which is intended to boost collaboration by allowing more than one mouse device to direct activity on a screen. Also discussed was RandR, for the Resize and Rotate extension, which is about enabling a screen to run at different resolutions.

Virtual Multihead, a virtualization technology championed by VMware, also was covered.

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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