X.Org Foundation

The X.Org Foundation was founded on 22 January 2004.{{cite news | url=https://lwn.net/Articles/79302/ | title=X.Org Foundation releases X Window System X11R6.7 | publisher=LWN.net | date=2004-04-07 | access-date=2014-09-14}}

The modern X.Org Foundation came into being when the body that oversaw X standards and published the official reference implementation joined forces with former XFree86 developers.{{cite web|last=Coopersmith|first=Alan|title=The difference between Xorg and XFree86|url=https://blogs.oracle.com/solaris/the-difference-between-xorg-and-xfree86-v2|date=28 May 2004|access-date=17 September 2018}} The creation of the Foundation marked a radical change in the governance of X (see the history of the X Window System). Whereas the stewards of X since 1988 (including the previous X.Org, part of The Open Group) had been vendor organizations, the Foundation is led by software developers and using community development on the bazaar model, which relies on outside involvement. Membership is also open to individuals, with corporate membership being in the form of sponsorship.

In 2005 the X.Org Foundation applied for 501(c)(3) non-profit status. In 2012, with the help of the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), the Foundation gained the status. In 2013, the Foundation lost the status because they did not fill a tax form (it had no income to declare and did not get any info from SFLC) and in the same year it regained the status, after clearing up the issue.{{cite web |url=https://who-t.blogspot.fr/2013/10/the-xorg-foundation-and-501c3-status.html |title=The X.Org Foundation and the 501(c)(3) status}} In 2016, the X.Org Foundation joined Software in the Public Interest (SPI) who would manage the bureaucracy.{{cite web|url=https://archive.fosdem.org/2014/schedule/event/xorg_foundation/|title=State of the X.org foundation|website=archive.fosdem.org}}

According to an October 2018 article published by Phoronix, freedesktop.org considered joining the X.Org Foundation.{{cite web|url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=FreeDesktop-org-Xorg-Forces|title=FreeDesktop.org Might Formally Join Forces with the X.Org Foundation}}{{when|date=September 2022}}

In 2023, The X.Org Foundation decided to join Software Freedom Conservancy.{{cite web|url=https://www.phoronix.com/news/X.Org-SFC-Vote-Approved|title=X.Org Foundation To Become Part Of The SFC|author=Michael Larabel|date=2023-05-23}}

The X.Org Foundation does not provide technical guidance, roadmaps or deadlines, releases or supervision of any kind.

The X.Org Foundation does provide communication tools (in relation with freedesktop.org), an annual physical meeting and money to help developing the free graphics stack.

• a physical annual meeting (X.Org Developer's Conference)
• Travel sponsorship:
• The X.Org Foundation participated as an organization of the Google Summer of Code (GSoC). This allows students to participate to X.Org-related projects over the summer .
• Endless Vacation of Code (EVoC): EVoC is a GSoC-like project, funded by the X.Org Foundation. It allows students to participate to X.Org-related projects during their vacation, at any time of the year.
• Communication: Google+{{Update inline|date=July 2021|reason=Google+ has been discontinued for years at this point.}} and Twitter Google+/YouTube: Store and/or link to talk videos, slides, blog articles or G+ posts related to projects under our umbrella (Martin Peres); Twitter: Mostly security issues, random updates (Alan Coopersmith).
• There is an X.Org developer guide written by Alan Coopersmith, Matt Dew and the X.Org team; edited by Bart Massey at https://www.x.org/wiki/guide/

The X.Org Foundation organizes the annual X.Org Developer's Conference (XDC) and sponsors students to work on X.Org as part of their X.Org Endless Vacation of Code (EVoC) initiative.{{cite web | url=https://www.x.org/wiki/XorgEVoC | title=The X.Org Endless Vacation of Code (EVoC) | date=2008-09-21 | access-date=2014-09-14}}

The X.Org Server and xlib are the reference implementation of the X protocol, and is commonly used on Linux and UNIX; it is the fundamental technology underlying both the modern GNOME and KDE desktops and older CDE desktop environment; applications written for any of these environments can be run simultaneously.

File:Xclock animation linux.gif

{{anchor|xutils}}Along with reference implementation of X protocol, the X.org Foundation hosts development of several utilities and example applications, including xcalc on-screen calculator, xclock simple digital and analog clock, xedit text editor, xload periodically updated histogram of the average system load, xterm terminal emulator, and xeyes which shows, by default, a pair of eyes that follow the mouse cursor.

As of April 2013, the Board of Directors consisted of Alan Coopersmith, Alex Deucher, Martin Peres, Matt Dew, Matthias Hopf, Peter Hutterer (Secretary), Stuart Kreitman (Treasurer), and Keith Packard.{{cite web|url=https://www.x.org/wiki/BoardOfDirectors | title=The X.Org Foundation Board of Directors | date=2013-04-19 | access-date=2013-04-20}}

The physical meeting is the X.Org Developer's Conference (XDC/XDS),{{cite news | url=https://lwn.net/Articles/539620/ | title=The 2013 "State of X.Org" report | work=LWN.net | date=2013-02-22 | access-date=2013-04-20}} which is organized once a year, around September/October and alternates between North America and Europe and lasts for 3 days. The board of directors can cover the travel and accommodation expenses to the developers who couldn't attend an X.Org-related conference (XDC or FOSDEM?) otherwise.

X.Org Endless Vacation of Code (EVoC) is a Google Summer of Code (GSoC)-like project initiated in 2008 funded by the X.Org Foundation. It allows students to participate to X.Org-related projects during their vacation, at any time of the year.

An example of an accepted EVoC project from 2014 is to work on nouveau, the free and open-source graphics device driver for GeForce-branded GPUs.{{cite web |url=https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/nouveau/2014-June/017577.html |title=[Nouveau] EVoC Proposal: REclock - Reverse-engineer and implement NVA3/5/8 Voltage- and Frequency Scaling in Nouveau |date=2014-06-12 |publisher=freedesktop.org}} NVA3/5/8 are the engineering names of the Tesla-based GT215, GT216 and GT218.{{cite web |url=https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/CodeNames/ |title=Engineering vs. marketing names |publisher=freedesktop.org}}

{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}

• Free and open-source graphics device driver
• List of free-software events

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|https://www.x.org/wiki/XorgFoundation/ | X.Org Foundation website}}

{{XWinSys}}

{{FOSS}}

{{Software in the Public Interest}}

Category:501(c)(3) organizations

Category:Free software project foundations based in the United States

Category:X Window System

fr:X.Org#Fondation X.Org