Enrico Weigelt, an active Xorg developer, announced the creation of an X.Org Server fork called X11Libre. The project aims to clean up the codebase and continue active development of X11 functionality without corporate influence, including Red Hat.
G. Ostrov
A significant event has occurred in the X Window System developer community — the introduction of X11Libre, an open-source fork of the popular X.Org Server. The initiative was led by Enrico Weigelt, an experienced developer with an impressive track record in systems programming.
Who's Behind the X11Libre Project
Enrico Weigelt is no newcomer to the open-source world. He serves as maintainer for AMD FCH GPIO and VIRTIO GPIO drivers in the Linux kernel, actively supports Xnest, and has made significant contributions to Xorg development with 1,831 commits over the past two years. This experience makes him a competent leader for such an ambitious fork project.
Reasons for Creating the Fork
According to Weigelt, the freedesktop.org project has lost its independence and is under Red Hat's control. He claims the company is deliberately slowing X-server development in an attempt to "bury" the X11 project. This position led to conflict with the community — Karol Herbst blocked Weigelt's access to the freedesktop.org GitLab infrastructure and closed over 140 of his merge requests.
Key Features of X11Libre
The new project promises to be completely independent from corporate influence. The first release is planned for the coming days and will include several important innovations:
Technical Improvements
- Xnamespace Extension Support — will provide client isolation through X11 namespace-level separation
- Xnest Modernization — migration to XCB with Xlib removed from dependencies
- Flexible ABI System — ability to install different versions simultaneously for seamless distribution updates
- Codebase Cleanup — elimination of technical debt accumulated over years of development
Controversies and Criticism
The project hasn't been without criticism. The community noted quality issues with some of Weigelt's changes that led to xrandr breakages and system hangs. His aggressive code cleanup in the X.org master branch caused constant ABI changes and build problems, which didn't solve existing issues but created new ones.
Project Philosophy
X11Libre positions itself as a project free from discriminatory DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) policies. Weigelt invites participation from anyone who treats others with goodwill and is interested in advancing X11.
Development Prospects
During the period of "artificial restraint," a large number of unaccepted changes and improvements have accumulated in the X.org project. X11Libre could become a platform for their implementation, providing an alternative to official X Window System development.
The project's success will depend on its ability to attract an active developer community and maintain high code quality while avoiding past mistakes.
Official X11Libre repository: github.com/X11Libre/xserver
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