Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!apollo!bowbeer
From: bowbeer@apollo.uucp (Joe Bowbeer)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Will X Windows be standard part of Unix?
Message-ID: <39ee61dd.7458@apollo.uucp>
Date: 27 Jan 88 21:21:00 GMT
References: <559@srs.UUCP>
Reply-To: bowbeer@apollo.UUCP (Joe Bowbeer)
Distribution: na
Organization: Apollo Computer, Chelmsford, MA
Lines: 23

There's been a lot of talk about the X11/NeWS merge on this newsgroup
recently. I question whether X11/NeWS will really be running on every UNIX box
soon. I realize Dave Rosenthal said this would be the case, but I also heard
someone from AT&T say that it won't necessarily be either free or soon. Will
X11/NeWS really be free with a UNIX license? When will it be available? Let's
hear from someone who speaks with authority.

I would also like to point out that without help from the other hardware
vendors, eg, Apollo, DEC, HP and IBM, the X11 in X11/NeWS won't perform as
well on these vendors' hardware as X11 from the X Consortium, and the
"PostScript" in X11/NeWS won't perform as well as Display PostScript (assuming
these vendors provide Display PostScript - DEC and NeXT, so far, say they
will). As every server implementor knows, there's a big difference in
performance between a sample, portable server and one which has been tuned to
run on a particular machine. Many hardware vendors have donated their code to
the X Consortium and I expect many will continue to do so. I can't see how
X11/NeWS can be more than a sample server without the help of other hardware
vendors.

Joe Bowbeer
{decvax,umix}!apollo!bowbeer

PS - I speak as an X server implementor and not as a spokesman for Apollo.