Ah'm bailin out! There's a mutiny in Heaven!

[reddragdiva]

The Wikipedia article on the X Window System is on the front page on September 3rd. Knowledgeable geeks (with their references to hand) are invited to help tart it up as needed.

The difference between X.org and the remains of XFree86 was never more apparent than when I was trying to get the article to featured status in January. I sent the same message to both projects. X.org responded quite helpfully, both on-list and privately. XFree86 reacted like ... erm, this: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]. That was the entire public response, and also the most lucid response — I also got private messages saying things like I should be careful who I choose as friends. Like, what the fuck. X.Org is the project that's alive and well; XFree86 is somewhere past "dead project" into "undead zombie project, dropping green radioactive bits on the pavement."

Me: Hi, I'm writing about X and want to get it right. Can you help?
X.Org: Sure! (info)
Me: Thanks!
XFree86: YOU! YOU'VE BEEN TALKING TO THEM, HAVEN'T YOU! YOU'RE CONSPIRING WITH THEM! THOSE GUYS! THEY STOLE IT ALL! THEY PUT A RADIO IN MY HEAD! LINUX/BSD WEENIES! I'LL SHOW 'EM! HELL YES!
Me: Er, thanks. (wipes spittle off)

Also: if there's someone who thinks they could describe how X actually works in detail off the top of their head, the spinoff article X Window System protocols and architecture is a pile of fragments and needs to be more or less tripled in size and given a structure.

Update: The Cautionary Tale of XFree86 describes how almost all XFree86 contributors basically just got up and left one day. Wheeler attributes this to the GPL-incompatible license change, but I think that was just the last straw.

Comments

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

I am a great supporter of the Open Source software development model but it doesnt always work. Sometimes a project is killed by obnoxious people who just dont get it. Sometimes the project limps on with all the smart people moving on to work on a different code drop. *sigh*

This was just one person though and sometimes you just need to ignore the dickheads and move on. Did you get any contructive help from other people?

[steer.livejournal.com]

Well, the reactions are not a surprise. The wikipedia article reads as an endorsement of X.org and a criticism of XFree86 (I don't know enough about the history to know whether this is correct or not). Therefore X.org people will say "right on commander" and be helpful and XFree86 people will say "you're wrong". The only thing that is surprising about this is that you're surprised by it.

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

From the protocols and architecture article: "If you can get 90 percent of the desired effect for 10 percent of the work, use the simpler solution" is probably the reason why X will be the last system to get modern graphics capabilities, or, indeed, a robust device model (as opposed to the flaky pile of hacks there is now). And so, now it's the Windows users' turn to laugh.

Btw, you have seen this essay on the state and future directions of graphics on Linux (http://dri.freedesktop.org/~jonsmirl/graphics.html), right?

[reddragdiva]

Nope. That was the entire public response, and that was also the most lucid response.

[reddragdiva]

I suppose it's too much to expect that saying "this is a problem, can you help me fix it?" won't just get back "no, because this is a problem."

[reddragdiva]

Yep. About half of it should go into the architecture and protocols article.

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

that reminds me. There are faults in the wikipedia entries for the various My Chemical Romance folk. How do I go about fixing it? :)

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

Read the Wikipedia documentation and become a contributor! It is, after all, the free-content encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

[reddragdiva]

Click on the link marked "Edit this page", just like it says on the can. If you don't know the MediaWiki syntax, just write in plain text and include your references - content is more important than format (which you can learn at your leisure), and references are fantastic things!

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

In that case, I shall have to get someone to poke me to do it. (Atm, my brain would look at the documentation info, go "bleh?" and that'd be it. :) ) (Perhaps I shall take a nap and try again after...)

[reddragdiva]

Content with references first - formatting can wait!

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

I've put out a call with my mychem friends for info with references. (A lot of these things, I know the info, but I wouldn't know which interview it came from, etc.)

[reddragdiva]

Excellent! Excellent!

Good references are the most lacking thing in Wikipedia pop culture articles. Put those in and your work immediately goes up in quality.

[arkady.livejournal.com]

And there are always other editors who seem to spend all their time on WP just wikifying entries; sooner or later one will come along and tidy things up appropriately.

[reddragdiva]

Oh, and the article's talk page ("Discussion" or "Discuss this article") is a good place to list the stuff you know but can't find a reference on.

What's your Wikipedia username? (If you don't have one, create one - anon/IP editors don't get no respect.)

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

Don't have one yet. Will create one before I actually do anything. :)

[steer.livejournal.com]

*laugh* You just asked coders to write documentation... what did you expect?

[vatine]

I think, if I remember my timeline correctly, that the current free ad for X.org is partly due to the XFree86 reaction when asked to check facts.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Ah... so the article is biased anyway? Could be a reason why XFree86 people are reluctant to co-operate.

[reddragdiva]

You mean, they refuse to have their say now because they haven't had it yet? Then it's really their responsibility to move, not mine. I'm really not here to extract information from fuckwits. If the info is out there, you point me at it. Note that the present history is peppered with references (many from xfree86.org) that so far have yet to be questioned by anyone.

[steer.livejournal.com]

(shrug) If you write an article supposedly NPOV then it is your responsibility to get it NPOV. It is not the responsibility of the groups you write about to correct you. Probably wikipedia is not that high a priority for them.

[reddragdiva]

You've asserted it's defective. Tell me where it's actually defective.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I made no such assertion. I rather specifically said that I did not know enough to say. vatine asserted that it was a "free ad for X.org".

[sinibar.livejournal.com]

Indeed. In a commercial software house when people disappear up their own arses, their toys can be taken away and then the clue stick applied. If that doesn't work they can then be moved into a department that's shortly to be abolished.

In the last 5 years we've had to dump 1 software engineer and 1 code monkey out of a team of 50 or so. It's surprising how much of an affect on morale and productivity bad staff have.

Fortunately in the few OS projects I've contributed to, all the other developers have been great.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Is it just me or is this similar to the Sunnis refusing to play ball with the Iraqi constitution?

[reddragdiva]

It's probably more like HITLER!!!

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I bet Marc Aurele La France only has one testicle... JUST LIKE HITLER!!

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

I never really gave a shit about XFree86 vs X.org - but over time, through the kind of things I've seen from XFree86, I've kind of retroactively taken to supporting the break wholeheartedly.

You change the license after everyone and their ducks - vendors, developers, etc - says they don't like it, and then you whine when the world tells you to go fuck yourself? What did they *expect*? When I heard about the license change, right when it was announced, I *knew* they were fucked if they did it. It was obvious to everyone but the few who seemed to think it was just grand and somehow the world would bend over and take it.

Now they whine about their side of the story not getting out - instead of helping to get it out.

Fuck 'em. Another failed branch on the evolutionary tree. If they end up forgotten, it is their own fault for sulking - and for being dipshits in the first place and *driving* everyone away.

[reddragdiva]

Basically, since Keith Packard got involved, the centre of X development has been wherever Keith Packard is. And they KICKED HIM OUT. m0r00ns.