*BSD News Article 64606


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From: pcg@aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.apps,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.x,comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Sometimes you need X server source (Was: Why to not buy Matrox Millennium)
Date: 31 Mar 1996 23:40:10 +0100
Organization: Prifysgol Cymru, Aberystwyth
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Reply-To: pcg@aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi)
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In-reply-to: mbr@poitin.gte.com's message of 26 Mar 1996 23:57:28 GMT
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>>> On 26 Mar 1996 23:57:28 GMT, mbr@poitin.gte.com (Mark Rosenthal) said:

mbr> In article <4j36ev$prl@news.Informatik.Uni-Oldenburg.DE>,
mbr> Thomas Weihrich <Thomas.Weihrich@Informatik.Uni-Oldenburg.DE> wrote:

Thomas> Matrox did point at a source of information - X Inside. 

mbr> I sometimes run my X connection over a modem, and it's slower than
mbr> I'd like.  What does this have to do with whether or not to buy a
mbr> Matrox Millennium card?  Someday soon, I plan on rebuilding my X
mbr> server to include the LBX (low bandwidth X) extension.

This is not necessarily necessary. LBX has in fact been dropped in
X11R6.1, for several reasons; among them I suppose is that there are
quite a few *incompatible* experimental versions of the protocol, which
reduces quite a bit its usefulness.

There are alternatives that require no changes to either the X server or
clients, for example 'sxpc' and 'dxpc', a more recent incarnation of the
concept, and they are demonstrably effective.

mbr> Can I do this without source code to the server?  I don't think so.
mbr> Even if I didn't have this immediate need, you never know what
mbr> extensions you might want to add to the server in the future.

mbr> So I think buying any graphics card which restricts me to a
mbr> binary-only X server is a BAD PLAN!

No, it's yet another option: it is may be a bad plan for you, but OK for
somebody else. You have the option of rolling your own with XFree86, or
paying somebody to provide you with a less flexible but perhaps more
polished alternative, X-Inside.

The good thing about Linux is that, thanks to its free nature and the
work of many, one has *more choice*, between several non-proprietary
solutions and several proprietary ones for most categories of software.

Users of other systems have often little choice, and only properitary
ones typically. Too bad for them.

X-Inside is proprietary -- useful to those that choose that sort of
product. XFree86 is freeware -- useful to those that prefer it that way.

I personally prefer like you freeware, for I value highly the ability to
roll my own -- but I am happy that other people can choose differently,
and that the people at X-Inside can supply them with their product.

Also, I remember that one of the principals (Thomas Roell) at X-Inside
actually started the freeware-X ball rolling by doing the first freeware
server for Intel based Unixes, X386; he then decided to selling
commercially supported product (I had actually suggested him that he
could swithc into that :->), and that's cool too.

More choice is what Linux is perhap all about; and proprietary
alternatives are more choice.