freedesktop.org (fd.o) is a project to work on interoperability and shared base technology for desktop environments for the X Window System (X11) on Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It was founded by Havoc Pennington in March 2000. In graphical computing, a desktop environment (DE) offers graphical user interface (GUI) solution to operate a computer. ... KDE 3. ... Linux (also known as GNU/Linux) is a computer operating system. ... A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. ... In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. ... Robert Sanford Havoc Pennington is currently a Red Hat Desktop manager/engineer, but his fame in the FLOSS world is big due to his work on GNOME, Metacity, GConf, D-BUS, and more. ... 2000 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December This is a timeline for events in March, 2000. ...

The organisation focuses on the user. There are many development frameworks for X, and this is unlikely to change. The organisation seeks to ensure that differences in development frameworks are not user-visible.

The most widely used open source X desktops, GNOME and KDE, are both working closely with the project. Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... A gnome hiding behind a toadstool. ... KDE (K Desktop Environment) is a free desktop environment and development platform built with Trolltechs Qt toolkit. ...

Stated aims

The aim of the project is not to legislate formal standards. Rather, it aims to catch interoperability issues much earlier in the process.

1. Collect existing specifications, standards and documents related to X desktop interoperability and make them available in a central location;
2. Promote the development of new specifications and standards to be shared among multiple X desktops;
3. Integrate desktop-specific standards into broader standards efforts, such as Linux Standard Base and the ICCCM;
4. Work on the implementation of these standards in specific X desktops;
5. Serve as a neutral forum for sharing ideas about X desktop technology;
6. Implement technologies that further X desktop interoperability and free X desktops in general;
7. Promote X desktops and X desktop standards to application authors, both commercial and volunteer;
8. Communicate with the developers of free operating system kernels, the X Window System itself, free OS distributions, and so on to address desktop-related problems;
9. Provide CVS, web hosting, mailing lists and other resources to free software projects that work toward the above goals.

The Linux Standard Base, or LSB, is a joint project by several Linux distributions under the organizational structure of The Free Standards Group to standardize the internal structure of Linux-based operating systems. ... In computing, the Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual (almost universally referred to by its initials, ICCCM) is a standard for X Window System clients to interoperate on a single server. ... The Concurrent Versions System (CVS), also known as the Concurrent Versioning System, implements a version control system: it keeps track of all work and all changes in a set of files, typically the implementation of a software project, and allows several (potentially widely separated) developers to collaborate. ...

Hosted projects

fd.o provides hosting for a number of relevant projects [1] [2]. These include:

• X.Org Server: the official reference implementation of X11. The current version is a fork of XFree86 before the latter changed its license.
• Xserver, a new implementation of an X server by Keith Packard, not based on XFree86.
• D-BUS, a message bus akin to KDEs DCOP or GNOME's Bonobo.
• Drag-and-drop':' X drag and drop still does not work consistently.
• Hardware Abstraction Layer, or (HAL) is a consistent cross-operating system layer.
• The Render extension creates anti-aliased alpha blended text and graphics.
• fontconfig is a library for font discovery, name substitution, etc.
• Xft, anti-aliased fonts using the FreeType library, rather than the old X core fonts.
• RandR: Resize, Rotate and Refresh Rate extension, so that any of these may be changed dynamically.
• Cairo, a vector graphics library with cross-device output support.
• Direct Rendering Infrastructure, or DRI, is an interface used in the X Window System to securely allow user applications to access the video hardware without requiring data to be passed through the X Server.
• Mesa 3D, an implementation of OpenGL.
• XCB, an Xlib replacement.
• GTK-QT engine : a GTK+2 engine which uses Qt to draw the widgets, providing the same look'n'feel of KDE apps to GTK+2 apps.
• Multimedia synchronization.
• Modularization, Autotool conversion.
• Documentation and translation.

The XOrg Foundation Open Source Public Implementation of X11 (the XOrg Server) is the official reference implementation of the X Window System. ... In software, a project fork or branch happens when a developer (or a group of them) takes code from a project and starts to develop independently of the rest. ... XFree86 is an implementation of the X Window System. ... Xserver is an implementation of an X Window System server being developed by Keith Packard Unlike the X.Org Server, Xserver is not based on XFree86 code. ... Keith Packard is a software developer, best known for his work on the X Window System. ... XFree86 is an implementation of the X Window System. ... D-BUS is the name of a computer software system that provides a simple way for different applications to communicate with each other. ... DCOP, which stands for Desktop COmmunication Protocol, is a light-weight interprocess and software componentry communication system. ... Bonobo is a component model for compound documents used in GNOME, a desktop environment. ... Drag-and-drop refers to the act of (or support for the act of) clicking on a virtual object and dragging it to, or onto, another virtual object. ... A hardware abstraction layer (HAL) is an abstraction layer between the physical hardware of a computer and the software that runs on that computer. ... An operating system (OS) is an essential software program that manages the hardware and software resources of a computer. ... Xrender (aka X Rendering Extension) introduces digital image composition as the foundation of a new rendering model within the X Window System. ... In computer graphics, alpha compositing is often useful to render image elements in separate passes, and then combine the resulting multiple 2D images into a single, final image in a process called compositing. ... fontconfig is a library designed to provide system-wide font configuration, customization and application access. ... TrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobes Type 1 fonts used in PostScript. ... Cairo is a free software graphics library with multiple backends, that provides a vector-based device-independent API for software developers. ... In computing, the Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI) is an interface used in the X Window System to securely allow user applications to access the video hardware without requiring data to be passed through the X Server. ... KDE 3. ... Mesa 3D is an open source graphics library that provides a generic OpenGL implementation for rendering 3-Dimensional graphics on multiple platforms. ... OpenGL official logo OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a standard specification defining a cross-language cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 3D computer graphics (and 2D computer graphics as well). ... In computing, XCB (X C Binding) is a C language binding for the X Window System. ... In computer programming, Qt is a cross-platform graphical widget toolkit for the development of GUI programs. ...

External links

• Project home page (wiki-based)
• The Big freedesktop.org Interview (Rayiner Hashem & Eugenia Loli-Queru, OSNews, 24 November 2003)