Classnotes | UNIX01 | RecentChanges | Preferences XFree86 is a freely redistributable open-source implementation of the X Window System. The X Window System was originally created in the early 1980s by developers at MIT with support from the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).
The intent of the system was to have graphical applications be able to run using a client/server model. This allows you to run X applications across a network: You could be physically located in Tucson and run a graphical program across a network from a machine in Cleveland.
XFree86 was created as a project to impliment the X standards (X11R6) in an open-source way.
Today's XFree86
Today, XFree86 is the most widely used X11R6 implimentation and has become the X standard. Even though modern X is based on technology that is 20 years old, it has many modern and advanced features including the following:
Xinerama extensions that allow applications and window managers to use two or more physical displays as one large virtual display.
AccessX that provides basic X Window System accessibility to users with physical disabilities including across a network.
IPv6 - Support is being added for IPv6, which is the future of the internet.
xv, or X Video extensions provide a layer for hardware accelerated video and mutlimedia.
