9 The XFree86 Project, Inc.

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The XFree86 Project, Inc, has been founded to accomplish two major goals:

  1. To provide a vehicle by which XFree86 can be represented in X Consortium, Inc, the organization responsible for the design, development, and release of The X Window System.
  2. To provide some basic funding for acquisition of facilities for ongoing XFree86 development, largely to consist of new video hardware and basic computing facilities.
The first of these was the primary motivation. We have held discussions with the X Consortium on and off for many months, attempting to find an avenue by which our loosely-organized free software project could be given a voice within the X Consortium. The bylaws of the Consortium would not recognize such an organization. After an initial investigation about funding, we decided to form our own corporation to provide the avenue we needed to meet the requirements of the X Consortium bylaws.

By doing this, we were able to be involved in the beta-test interval for X11R6, and have contributed the majority of XFree86 to the X11R6 core release. The version of XFree86 in the initial X11R6 core is 3.0. The version of XFree86 in the current X11R6 patched release is 3.1.1. As time goes on, XFree86 will be involved with more of the development of The X Window System, as a full Consortium member. How exactly this will evolve is still being determined.

An additional benefit of this incorporation is that The XFree86 Project, Inc has obtained outside financial support for our work. This will hopefully give us the freedom to be more pro-active in obtaining new video hardware, and enable us to release better products more quickly, as we will be able to go and get what we need, and get it into the hands of the people who can do the work.

The current Board of Directors and Officers of the The XFree86 Project, Inc, are:

Email to <BOD@XFree86.org> reaches the board of directors.

Our bylaws have been crafted in such a way to ensure that XFree86 is and always will be a free software project. There is no personal financial benefit to any member of the Core Team or any other XFree86 participant. All assets of the corporation remain with the corporation, and, in the event of the dissolution of the corporation, all assets will be turned over to the X Consortium, Inc. It is hoped that by doing this, our corporation will be merely a formalization of what we have been doing in the past, rather than something entirely new.

Here is a list of the organizations and individuals who have provided sponsorship to The XFree86 Project, Inc, either by financial contribution or by the donation of equipment and resources. The XFree86 Project, Inc gratefully acknowledges these contributions, and hopes that we can do justice to them by continuing to release high-quality free software for the betterment of the Internet community as a whole.

UUNET Communications Services, Inc, deserves special mention. This organization stepped forward and contributed the entire 1994 X Consortium membership fee on a moment's notice. This single act ensured XFree86's involvement in X11R6. The XFree86 Project, Inc, welcomes the additional contribution of funding and/or equipment. Such contributions should be tax-deductible; we will know for certain when the lawyers get finished with the papers. For more information, contact The XFree86 Project, Inc, at <BOD@XFree86.org>

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