Editing XFree86 (section)

=== 2002: Growing dissent within the project ===

By 2002, while Linux's popularity, and hence the installed base of X, surged, X.Org was all but inactive; active development was largely carried out by XFree86.<ref>[http://xfree86.org/pipermail/forum/2003-April/003127.html (forum) Another teleconference partial edited transcript] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050212013335/http://xfree86.org/pipermail/forum/2003-April/003127.html |date=February 12, 2005 }}, By Mike A. Harris, 13 Apr 2003</ref> However, there was considerable dissent within XFree86.

XFree86 used to have a ''Core Team'' which was made up of experienced developers, selected by other Core Team members for their merits. Only the members of this Core Team were allowed to commit to [[Concurrent Versions System|CVS]]. This was perceived as far too [[The Cathedral and the Bazaar|cathedral]]-like in its development model: developers were unable to get commit rights quickly and vendors ended up maintaining extensive [[patch (computing)|patch]]es.<ref>[http://www.xfree86.org/pipermail/forum/2003-March/002018.html (forum) Keith Packard issue] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050212013349/http://www.xfree86.org/pipermail/forum/2003-March/002018.html |date=February 12, 2005 }} By Ralf Nolden, 20 Mar 2003</ref><ref>[http://www.advogato.org/person/mharris/ Advogato: Blog for mharris]</ref>

A key event was [[Keith Packard]] losing his commit rights. Hours before the feature freeze window for XFree86 4.3.0 started, he committed the [[XFixes|XFIXES]] extension (which he developed himself), without prior discussion or without review within the Core Team. The Core Team decided to remove Keith's commit access, but without removing him from the Core Team itself, and the XFIXES extension was backed out six weeks later.<ref>[http://xfree86.org/pipermail/forum/2003-March/000125.html (forum) Suggestion for XFree86] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100423070141/http://xfree86.org/pipermail/forum/2003-March/000125.html |date=April 23, 2010 }}, By David Dawes, 20 Mar 2003</ref><ref>[http://cvsweb.xfree86.org/cvsweb/xc/doc/specs/Xfixes/Attic/ CVS commit: Finish removing XFIXES] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615131754/http://cvsweb.xfree86.org/cvsweb/xc/doc/specs/Xfixes/Attic/ |date=June 15, 2011 }}, By David Dawes, 12 Jan 2003</ref>