Network transparency argument

[Darxus at chaosreigns.com]

I was hoping that this subject just wouldn't get any replies.

The "network transparency argument" is pointless because network
transparency via the X protocol will never go away.

I think people who are concerned about this must not be aware that X
clients already run seamlessly with Windows or Mac OS as the native
graphical environment.


Windows and Mac OS use the same X server as Linux (Xorg) running rootless
("multi-window mode").  It's bundled with Mac OS as part of X11.app.

That means each application gets its own window, decorated by the
native environment (Windows, Mac OS, Wayland) and you can't even tell
the difference between native apps and apps which are connected via X.

It is ridiculous to assume this will not be wonderfully supported
under Linux.  (I expect an X server dynamically loaded only when an X
client tries to connect.)


So basically, everything will work exactly the way it currently does, and
you won't even notice the difference.  Except less overhead and smoother
graphics with applications using Wayland directly.


I expect the major graphics libraries (GTK and Qt) to add Wayland
support as a run time option, so applications using them will not lose
the ability to connect directly to an X server over a network.


I'm not in a position of authority to dictate these things, it's just
obvious how it will work.

I'm sure anyone who has been concerned about this came from Mark
Shuttleworth's Ubuntu announcement, and somehow failed to notice that
he made it very clear that X compatibility will be maintained.


There are screenshots of Xorg under Windows here: http://x.cygwin.com/
Xorg for Mac OS is called XQuartz: 
http://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/wiki


And requiring people to use HTML5 to get network transparency is incredibly
dumb.

-- 
"The future masters of technology will have to be lighthearted and
intelligent. The machine easily masters the grim and the dumb."
 - Marshall McLuhan, 1969
http://www.ChaosReigns.com