XFree86 Release Plans
The XFree86 Project is currently working on two development streams.
One is the stable 3.3.x series of releases and the
other is the next major release: 4.0.
XFree86 3.3.x
XFree86 3.3.3.1 was released in January 1999. We don't have plans for
any further releases in the 3.3.x stream at this stage.
XFree86 4.0
Our next major release will be 4.0. We don't know when this will be
available, and at this point we can't even make a reasonable guess, so
please don't ask us that question. We also don't have any beta versions
of 4.0 available yet, so please don't ask about that either. We still
have lot of work to do on it before it will be ready. The list below
is some of what we have planned for the 4.0 release. This feature list
may change as development progresses. We're only showing it here to
give people an idea of what we're aiming for with 4.0.
- The main focus of 4.0 is a complete redesign of the device-dependent
component of the X server (DDX).
- Single modular X server with loadable drivers, server extensions and
font rasterisers. The modules will be OS-independent, and the
loader design is that donated to XFree86 by Metro Link. We plan to fully
document the driver API/ABI to help make it easy for third parties
to supply XFree86-compatible driver modules.
- Multi-head support. One of the aims of the new DDX design is to make
it easy to support multiple displays.
- A new version of XAA (XFree86 Acceleration Architecture) with a cleaner
design, better performance, and fewer bugs.
- 8-bit PseudoColor overlays when running in a TrueColor mode (on selected
hardware).
- Video in a window on selected platforms, using the Xv extension.
- Integrated support for TrueType fonts.
- 3D support, with
Precision
Insight's DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure),
SGI's GLX
and Mesa 3.1.
- XFree86 4.0 will be based on X11R6.4. This is possible because the
X11R6.4 license has been changed back to the traditional MIT-style
version.
- An extended Xserver config file format and command-line selectable
screen configurations.
Last updated: 4 March 1999