SGI licencing of X windows

[Joe Garbarino]

In article <32066 at sgi.SGI.COM>, Mark Callow of SGI writes concerning SGI
X Window performance:

>  faster than the one you have now.  Our performance comes at or near the
>  top of the recently posted X benchmark table.  We have applied over 130
>  MIT patches and fixed a number of our own bugs.  I think you will be
>  more than satisfied with its performance.  Further performance...

>  On present SGI hardware XOR performance is at best adequate.  We therefore
>  recommend you run our window manager which does rubberbanding in the overlay
>  planes (it's written in PostScript, but that's another story) rather
>  than something like uwm which uses xor all over the place.

For our purposes, the two above statements are in conflict.  One of the
important points about the X Window System is that it allows the user to
become familiar with one mode of interaction with the windowing
environment.  One of the more important elements of the windowing
environment is the window manager.  If the window manager is not consistent
between platforms, a major component of the X portability is lost.

I can move between our other workstations, and even to my X terminal, and
still count on being able to use the same mouse/keyboard strokes for window
manager functions.  I also get to standardize on the window manager I like
best, not being forced to use the window manager a machine's manufacturer
gives me.

Until this XOR/window manager problem is solved, a major piece of SGI's X
Window System implementation is severely inadequate, and I will not be
satisfied with its performance.

Will there be an upgrade to current equipment to supply the missing
hardware XOR function?

					Joe Garbarino
					ERIM
					P.O. Box 8618
					Ann Arbor, Mi.  48107
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					jgarb at csd360b.erim.org