W Window System

The W Window System, or simply W, is a discontinued windowing system and precursor, in name and concept, to the modern X Window System.

W Window System

Original author(s)	Paul Asente, Brian Reid
Developer(s)	Stanford University
Operating system	V operating system
Successor	X Window System
Type	Windowing system

W was originally developed at Stanford University by Paul Asente and Brian Reid for the V operating system. In 1983, Paul Asente and Chris Kent ported the system to UNIX on the VS100, giving a copy to those working at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science.^[1]

In 1984, Bob Scheifler of MIT replaced the synchronous protocol of W with an asynchronous alternative and named the result X.^[2]

Since this time, the X window system has gone through many fundamental changes and no longer bears any significant resemblance to W.

See also

• Free Software portal

• History of free and open-source software