07 March 2013, 10:19

X.org releases X Server 1.14

X.org Performance improvements in terms of software rendering as well as fixes for touch devices and hybrid graphics systems are among the major new features of X.org's just released X Server 1.14. The new X Server also includes modifications that affect the pointer barriers. GNOME 3.8 will use these pointer barriers to establish from what distance and at what speed a user has moved the mouse pointer to the bottom screen edge; if the values are big, GNOME will display the notification panel straight away instead of waiting for a second.

Like various other recent releases, the new version of X Server includes a modified ABI (Application Binary Interface), which means that drivers must be recompiled to suit the new X Server. NVIDIA's proprietary graphics drivers can already handle the new ABI, but AMD's drivers are unable to do so yet. This is one of the reasons why Ubuntu 13.04 will most likely not use the new X Server. In Fedora, the new X Server is just being integrated into the development branch and is due to be used in version 19 of the Linux distribution.

(djwm)

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