Re: replacing X Window System !

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On 17/05/06, linux cbon <[email protected]> wrote:
 --- [email protected] a écrit :
> On Wed, 17 May 2006 13:47:22 +0200, linux cbon said:
>
> If it isn't backward compatible, people won't use
> it.  X may suck,
> but it doesn't suck hard enough that people will
> abandon all their
> currently mostly-working software.

If we have a new window system, shall all applications
be rewritten ?

Unless the new windowing system is 100% backwards compatible with X11, then yes.



> Actually, you've proved the opposite.  Consider if
> the kernel had *already*
> included some universal window system (we'll call it
> W). At that point, you
> can't easily write an X, Y, or Z if you don't like
> W.  If anything, the
> *current* W (which happens to be called X11) is
> *too* friendly with the kernel
> already - witness all the headaches dealing with DRM
> and 'enable' attributes
> and other hoops things have to jump through.
>
> If anything, there should be even *less* kernel
> support for graphics.
> That way, writing a Y or Z (or improving X) is
> easier to do without
> destabilizing the kernel.

My idea is that the kernel should include universal
graphical support.
And then we would NOT need ANY window system AT ALL.
We wouldnt have 2 os (kernel and X) at the same time
like now.
It would be faster, simpler, easier to manage etc.

And when the windowing system crashes it'll take the kernel down with it - ouch.

And if I want to run a headless server without a graphical display I
can't simply stop the windowing system I'd have to rebuild a kernel
without the windowing system in it - yuck.

What we have now is a nicely decoupled system - it would be even
better if X was even more decoupled from the kernel, but lets not put
the windowing system in kernel space.

X is not perfect, but it has been around long enough that it has a
huge base of software using it. Throwing that out the window would be
silly.
X also has had networking support since the beginning, and all X apps
can run with remote displays without having to do much (if anything)
themselves to support that - that's a really nice feature.
Modern X can be quite fast with a properly supported graphics card,
and stuff like Xgl has just improved things even more recently.
X has good multihead support - another nice feature.
Graphics drivers for X run (usually/mostly) in userspace - nice, then
they don't destabilize the kernel.
And there's lots of other features as well.

Do you really want to put all that complexity into the kernel?


--
Jesper Juhl <[email protected]>
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