A Late X Server 1.7 Means No Update For Ubuntu 9.10

There's twelve days left until the release of X Server 1.7 and X.Org 7.5! Wait, there still is not even an X Server 1.7 Beta, which should have happened last month, so chances are slim to none on seeing a final release this month. The release schedule for X Server 1.7 / X.Org 7.5 has already slipped a few times, after it was supposed to be released back in April.

X Server 1.7 will finally introduce X Input 2.0 and Multi-Pointer X along with some other improvements, but the tardiness of this release is beginning to jeopardize its inclusion into the next round of distribution updates for the Q3~Q4 refresh. For one, Canonical's Bryce Harrington has announced that X Server 1.7 will not be included within Ubuntu 9.10. Due to the lateness of X Server 1.7, it will not be included in this next Ubuntu update, but they will continue to ship with an X Server 1.6.x point release. Ubuntu 9.04 was paired with X Server 1.6.0 while Ubuntu 9.10 will likely be met by the just-released X Server 1.6.3.

Bryce went on to add in his mailing list message that the Intel driver is running great with X Server 1.6, besides our few performance problems. Bryce additionally mentions that the new ATI code still needs to hit Ubuntu 9.10, which includes updates to the DDX, Mesa, and the libdrm. This includes ATI kernel mode-setting support.

Getting back to the heart of the matter, what other Linux distributions will end up diverting away from their X Server 1.7 / X.Org 7.5 plans as a result of this belated release with no definitive schedule? Ubuntu 9.10 is being released at the end of October and they have now said no to X Server 1.7. OpenSuSE 11.2 and Fedora 12 are targeted for release in November, and they both have hopes for using the new X Server, but of course Fedora will ship with the latest code regardless where as the Novell distribution might end up cutting back too. What do you think of the current situation? Let us know in the forums.