Is X.Org Server Abandonware?

'Phoronix ran a story this morning with this provocative headline: "It's Time To Admit It: The X.Org Server Is Abandonware." The last major release of the X.Org Server was in May 2018 but don't expect the long-awaited X.Org Server 1.21 to actually be released anytime soon. This should hardly be surprising but a prominent Intel open-source developer has conceded that the X.Org Server is pretty much "abandonware" with Wayland being the future. [Or, more specifically, that "The main worry I have is that xserver is abandonware without even regular releases from the main branch."] This comes as X.Org Server development hits a nearly two decade low, the X.Org Server is well off its six month release regimen in not seeing a major release in over two years, and no one is stepping up to manage the 1.21 release. A year ago was a proposal to see new releases driven via continuous integration testing but even that didn't take flight and as we roll into 2021 there isn't any motivation for releasing new versions of the X.Org Server by those capable of doing so. Red Hat folks have long stepped up to manage X.Org Server releases but with Fedora Workstation using Wayland by default and RHEL working that way, they haven't been eager to devote resources to new X.Org Server releases. Other major stakeholders also have resisted stepping up to ship 1.21 or commit any major resources to new xorg-server versions.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/10/25/1523253 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

On Mon, 26 Oct 2020 09:41:02 +1300, Peter Reutemann quoted:
'Red Hat folks have long stepped up to manage X.Org Server releases but with Fedora Workstation using Wayland by default and RHEL working that way, they haven't been eager to devote resources to new X.Org Server releases.'
Red Hat’s Adam Jackson agrees <https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/30/x_server_lead_maintainer_declares/> that X.org is sort-of abandonware; there is unlikely to be any major new release in the foreseeable future, but maintenance is still ongoing: “... I'm already on the hook for supporting the xfree86 code until RHEL8 goes EOL anyway, so I'm probably going to be writing and reviewing bugfixes there no matter what I do.” As for complaints that Wayland isn’t quite ready for prime time: The hope then is that publicly announcing the end of the reliable but ancient X.Org server will stimulate greater investment in Wayland, using Xwayland for the huge legacy of existing X11 applications.
participants (2)
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro
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Peter Reutemann