The X.Org Foundation is proud to announce a special birthday: 30 years ago,
on 19 June 1984, Bob Scheifler announced the X Window System.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X11#Introduction
Over these 30 years, X has come to be the base for Unix desktops everywhere.
With desktop environments such as GNOME, KDE, XFCE, Unity, Enlightenment,
millions of users are using X as the underlying technology today.
The X developers have pushed the boundaries and moved X from a system
originally written to run on the CPU of a VAX VS100 to one that runs the
GUI on today's laptops with 3D rendering capabilities. Indeed, X predates
the concept of a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) as we currently know it, and
even the company that popularized this term in 1999, Nvidia.
X continues to see improvements and despite its long service record, it will
stay with us for a while longer.
And in case you're wondering, X predates:
* Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, Microsoft Windows
* POSIX, C89, C99, C++, Java
* the World Wide Web
* the GPL and the FSF
X was one of the first major open source software projects, years before the
terms Free Software and Open Source Software were commonplace. Celebrate with
us, for without X, the desktop would not be what it is today.
- The X.Org Board of Directors
