New XFree86 X Server Rubs Linux, Unix the Wrong Way

by Justin Ward

In late January, the XFree86 Project changed its license in a way that many say goes against the GNU General Public License agreement (GPL) commonly used to distribute open source programs. As a result, the several open source Unix and Linux distributions find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place. Reluctant to include software in their distributions, which many no longer view as truly free because of the licensing change, they are surveying their options.

On the Linux front, Debian, a longtime stickler for GPL licensing, will continue to package the last XFree86 release to be licensed under the old license (version 4.3). Gentoo, also a largely grass-roots distribution, will do the same. Mandrake Software has gone back to XFree86 4.3 in its development tree. Red Hat has stated that it will not ship XFree86 4.4 under the new license, and Fedora developers (those who are working on the kicker to Red Hat 9.0 operating system that Red Hat stopped selling and threw back into the open source community last year as a testbed for new Linux technologies) are tossing around the idea of shipping both versions, possibly leaving the legal issues to the users. SuSE reportedly also does not plan to include the new version in its future Linux distributions, and may instead make its own modifications to the older version. With Novell behind it, SuSE now has some money and can afford to do this.

On the Unix front, OpenBSD has dropped all plans to include the new version, XFree86 4.4.0, and project leader Theo de Raadt has even mentioned the possibility of creating a fork of XFree86 based on the old license. NetBSD and FreeBSD both include the new version, but it should be noted that they use their own BSD license, not the GNU GPL. It is unclear what Sun Microsystems plans to do about XFree86 4.4 with its current Solaris 9 for X86 and future Solaris 10 for X86 releases, and similarly Apple hasn't said what it will do about the new XFree86 server with its MacOS X operating system, which is based on BSD.

To hear XFree86 president David Dawes explain it, "the purpose of these changes is to strengthen the 'except claim you wrote it' clause." This sounds perfectly reasonable--give tribute to the authors of the code that your code uses. Unfortunately, this requirement flies in the face of a specific clause of the GNU General Public License agreement, specifically that no further restrictions--such as requiring mention of other people--may be placed on GPL code.

Without a doubt, most Linux distributions do include software that is not licensed under the GPL. Apache, Netscape, Mozilla, and even older (pre 4.4) versions of XFree86 are under their own licenses. The problem with the new XFree86 license is that it covers many of the XFree86 libraries, causing the license to affect just about every Unix and Linux program that runs under X. Unix and Linux cannot exist without an X server. It is really that simple. Though Richard Stallman himself has stated that the new XFree86 license still "qualifies as free software," it still isn't sitting well with him or most other developers. This is a significant hurdle for open source Unix and Linux to jump. Sticking to an old version is acceptable for the moment, but is clearly not a viable long-term solution.

An OpenBSD fork for the X server would be interesting in that many Linux developers have been clamoring for an alternative to XFree86 for years, but it would also lead to a lot of duplicated effort and could easily end up a complete loss. No one has volunteered to produce this new implementation. It is also unclear if Unix and Linux distributors will cave to the XFree86 Project's new license Will Theo de Raadt create an OpenXFree86? Will it splinter off into several competing projects, much like we have competing distributions, window managers, and desktop environments? There is still no clear answer to any of these questions.

Justin Ward is a Unix and Linux consultant with a bachelor's degree in computer science who works part-time as IT manager for Guild Companies' Linux and Windows cluster. He is looking for full-time work, and comes highly recommended by Guild Companies.