On Wed, 6 Sep 2000, brendan strejcek wrote:
> (any, just curious, how is it that powerpcs can use xfree86 at all?)
> ^^
Originally it was meant for ia32 (formerly known as `x86'), just like Linux.
When Linux was ported to the m68k processor family (initially Amiga and Atari),
XFree86 was ported to the m68k as well in late 1994 and became known for a
while as `XFree68'. The actual X-server on m68k (which used the frame buffer
device) was called `XF68_FBDev'.
Later XF68_FBDev got `ported' (read: was recompiled) on PPC and since both PPC
and m68k are big endian and ia32 is little endian (isn't it nice: `86'
reversed is `68' :-), we kept the name `XF68_FBDev' for big endian platforms,
while the same X-server on ia32 and other little endian platforms (e.g. AXP)
was called XF86_FBDev.
But these days, almost every Linux platform uses just the plain `XFree86', and
its sole X-server `XFree86' (in 4.x).
Gr{oetje,eeting}s,
Geert
--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
-- Linus Torvalds
