Do we still need XFree86 in the book?

[andy@…]

XFree86 is (IMO) past its sell by date and should be removed from the book.

[Randy McMurchy]

It is now more crucial than ever that XFree is kept in the book. Reason 4 below is why I say this.

1. There is a brand new release out. It shows the package is still

maintained.

2. The existing instructions work, and don't require any Editor

maintenance.

3. It is a credible package, that works, and there is still a

user base.

4. As soon as Xorg goes to 7.1, we'll drop Xorg6.9 from the book.

XFree would then be the choice for users who don't wish to go through the modular build hassle.

[andy@…]

The instructions for how to build XFree will always be available in the BLFS museum. There's no need to keep it in BLFS svn

[DJ Lucas]

Sorry Andy, but I must disagree, citing points 1,2, and 3 above from Randy. 4 I'm not so sure about, but it's not relavent to this bug. I've not really cared about this one in the past, then a new release appeared. As I see it right now, there is no reason to remove XFree86. It's been updated to the latest version already, the instructions rarely change, and the maintainers are still present and active. If a new version comes out, or a major security flaw is discovered, *and* if no editors want to update it, then It can be removed at that time. But for now, I feel that it is a working package that shouldn't have much of a maintenance burden.

[bdubbs@…]

Although I agree that XFree is beyond its prime, I think we should keep it in the book for now. We have multiple editors, window managers, and even ghostscript apps. There is no reason to drop XFree right now.

I suspect most of the talent is now in Xorg and that XFree will be dropping behind technically. We do need to keep reviewing the topic as new releases of both Xorg and XFree are made.

Marking as wontfix, but we should review this topic again at the next major BLFS release after 6.2.

[bdubbs@…]

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