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From: hasty@netcom.com (Amancio Hasty Jr)
Subject: X and You!
Message-ID: <hastyCtvtJr.Hoz@netcom.com>
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Distribution: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Date: Tue, 2 Aug 1994 00:33:27 GMT
Lines: 89
Well, a little while ago I send mail to X inside inquiring about
whether they had an X server for FreeBSD . The respond was
that I was the second person in two months inquiring about their product.
Why, am interested in their product well it offers very high-end
performance for products such that XFree86 will not take on such
as Matrox MGA and also 16bit and TRUE color support.
Amancio
------------------ The bottom line -------------------------------------------
From jdc@crab.xinside.com Mon Aug 1 15:41:28 1994
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Subject: Re: hi
To: hasty@netcom.com (Amancio Hasty Jr)
Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 17:03:36 -0600 (MDT)
From: "Jeremy Chatfield" <jdc@crab.xinside.com>
In-Reply-To: <199408012134.OAA01557@netcom14.netcom.com> from "Amancio Hasty Jr" at Aug 1, 94 02:34:21 pm
Organization: X Inside Inc, 7900 E Union Ave, Ste 1100, Denver, CO 80237, USA.
Phone: +1(303)470-5302
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Status: R
Amancio Hasty Jr writes:
> Well, I am willing to pay however I refused to buy BSDI or run Linux.
> If you can compile the X server then is not a big deal to compile one
> for FreeBSD given that XFree86 already runs FreeBSD and that it can map
> all of card's video ram to memory. As for me being the 2 person,
> if you sell it people will buy it.
I'm afraid that I have to contradict you. It is significant effort to
port to a new OS. The costs are derived from two significant factors:
1/ We use an OS neutral dynamic linker. Once in place, this
reduces maintenance effort, since all other binary components
can be generated once on one OS, instead of being separately
ported on each OS. Making the dynamic linker work on a BSD
derivative involves adding a device driver to permit memory
mapped files.
2/ We test. We don't just assume that compilation success is
adequate. Testing is far more expensive than porting/compiling.
Finally, all OS's have bugs. We have yet to port to an OS that works
correctly (substantially as documented for all system calls on all
processor speeds with and without Floating Point Emulation, etc). It
is significant effort to find and work round the problems that are
significant to the X Server.
The significance of the dynamic linker is that we can have a new
chipset supported on all OS's concurrently. This is not an issue for
XFree86, since they assume that all users are willing to compile the
software and that the user will be willing to keep up with the
sources. This may not be an issue for an active 'net user, or for a
student. Compilation and source tracking is a heavy burden for commercial operations whose main
business is not software development.
The question for any commercial organisation is where to best spend
efforts. We have many other supported OS's. We can spend effort on
those, or add new ports. With only two inquiries in seven months, it
doesn't seem a very active market. On the other hand, we get up to
half a dozen email inquiries for Linux each day. If you were in
business, where would you spend your effort?
--
Jeremy Chatfield, +1(303)470-5302, FAX: +1(303)470-5513, email: jdc@xinside.com
X Inside Inc, 7900 E Union Ave, Ste. 1100, Denver, CO 80237
---------------------------------------------------------------
--
FREE unix, gcc, tcp/ip, X, open-look, netaudio, tcl/tk, MIME, midi,sound
at freebsd.cdrom.com:/pub/FreeBSD
Amancio Hasty, Consultant |
Home: (415) 495-3046 |
e-mail hasty@netcom.com | ftp-site depository of all my work:
| sunvis.rtpnc.epa.gov:/pub/386bsd/X