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From: dwex@aib.com (David E. Wexelblat)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.announce
Subject: Announcing The XFree86 Project, Inc.
Followup-To: comp.windows.x.i386unix
Date: 28 Jan 1994 22:01:46 -0800
Organization: Virtual Technologies Inc.
Lines: 94
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Approved: 386bsd-announce-request@agate.berkeley.edu
Message-ID: <CKD5E5.85F@aib.com>
Reply-To: xfree86@physics.su.oz.au
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The following press release was issued this week at the X Technical
Conference. For those of you wondering about our call for funding, this
is the answer. Since this has all happened in the last 2-3 weeks, and
is still evolving, I can't really give you much concrete details. More
information will be posted as we have it. What we can tell you is that
this move on our part ensures that XFree86 3.0, fully supporting X11R6,
will be available on all supported platforms no later than the release
of the X11R6 contributed software tapes (at this time it is not yet clear
exactly how much of XFree86 will be in the core release; this should
be resolved shortly). We are also in the process of establishing
the XFree86.Org domain on the Internet; when this is up, we will provide
a wide range of information services for XFree86 users, including mail
servers and WWW.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: David E. Wexelblat
January 24, 1994 703-430-9247
THE XFree86 DEVELOPMENT TEAM ANNOUNCES THE FORMATION OF THE
XFree86 PROJECT, INC.
BOSTON, Massachusetts -- January 24, 1994 -- The developers of
XFree86[TM], a free-software package developed and distributed
via the world-wide Internet, announce the formation of The
XFree86 Project, Inc, a not-for-profit corporation. Also
announced was the filing by the new corporation for membership in
X Consortium, Inc.
"This is an exciting day for all of us," said David E. Wexelblat,
President of the XFree86 Project, Inc. "When we started this
free software project two years ago, we never imagined that it
would grow to this point. Our establishing this corporation and
joining X Consortium, Inc. helps give a voice to the entire free
software field, in a fast-growing area of largely-commercial
software development."
XFree86 is a package of enhancements to the X Window System,
Version 11, Release 5 (X11R5), for use on Intel[r]-based personal
computers running UNIX[r] and UNIX-like operating systems. The X
Window System is a vendor-neutral, system-architecture neutral,
network-transparent windowing and user interface standard
developed by the X Consortium, Inc. XFree86 was initiated in
April, 1992, by David Wexelblat, David Dawes, Glenn Lai, and Jim
Tsillas, to enhance the performance and reliability of X11R5 on
the UNIX-based personal computers they were using at the time.
Since that time, there have been 4 major releases of XFree86.
The development team has grown to well over 100 developers and
testers, and the user community numbers in the 10s or 100s of
thousands. XFree86 is the sole implementation for several free-
software operating systems, such as Linux, FreeBSD, and NetBSD,
gaining world-wide popularity. XFree86 is also shipped by
several commercial operating system vendors, in place of, or
alongside of, a commercial implementation of The X Window System.
"...there is a choice," says Evan Leibovitch of Sound Software
Ltd., "of either the X server offered with each UNIX (sometimes
as an option), or to spring for the high-performance third-party
servers for a little extra cash (except, of course, for XFree86,
which is certainly ready to take its place with Kermit, TeX, gcc,
Cnews, Linux and GNU Emacs as the most significant freeware
products of all time)."
XFree86 supports over a dozen operating systems on Intel-based
hardware, including SVR4, UnixWare, SVR3.2, Linux, FreeBSD,
NetBSD, Mach, and OSF/1. More than 20 common SuperVGA chipsets
are supported, as well as 6 of the most common video accelerator
chipsets, including those from S3 and ATI. XFree86 is available
free of charge from free software repositories around the world,
via the world-wide Internet.
For more information about The XFree86 Project, Inc., or XFree86
itself, contact David E. Wexelblat, President, at AIB Software
Corporation, 46030 Manekin Plaza, Suite 160, Dulles, VA 20166,
703-430-9247; Fax 703-450-4560.
# # #
--
David Wexelblat <dwex@aib.com> (703) 430-9247 Fax: (703) 450-4560
AIB Software Corporation, 46030 Manekin Plaza, Suite 160, Dulles, VA 20166
Formerly Virtual Technologies, Inc.
Mail regarding XFree86 should be sent to <xfree86@physics.su.oz.au>
"A second flood, a simple famine, plagues of locusts everywhere,
Or a cataclysmic earthquake, I'd accept with some despair.
But no, you sent us Congress! Good God, sir, was that fair?"
-- John Adams, "Piddle, Twiddle, and Resolve", from "1776"
--
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