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X Window System

Windowing system for bitmap displays on UNIX-like systems / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems.

Quick facts: Original author(s), Developer(s), Initial rel...
X Window System
Original author(s)Project Athena
Developer(s)X.Org Foundation
Initial releaseJune 1984; 39 years ago (1984-06)
Stable release
X11R7.7[1][2] Edit this on Wikidata / 6 June 2012
Operating systemUnix, Unix-like, MVS OpenVMS, DOS
PlatformCross-platform
PredecessorW Window System
TypeWindowing system
LicenseMIT License
Websitewww.x.org
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X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting with a mouse and keyboard. X does not mandate the user interface  this is handled by individual programs. As such, the visual styling of X-based environments varies greatly; different programs may present radically different interfaces.

X originated as part of Project Athena at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984.[3] The X protocol has been at version 11 (hence "X11") since September 1987. The X.Org Foundation leads the X project, with the current reference implementation, X.Org Server, available as free and open-source software under the MIT License and similar permissive licenses.

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