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Unit 2: RedHat Linux Basics

Fulton joined in January 1988 and Keith Packard in March 1988 as senior developers, with Jim notes
focusing on Xlib, fonts, window managers, and utilities; and Keith re-implementing the server.
Donna Converse, Chris D. Peterson, and Stephen Gildea joined later that year, focusing on toolkits
and widget sets, working closely with Ralph Swick of MIT Project Athena. The MIT X Consortium
produced several significant revisions to X11, the first (Release 2 - X11R2) in February 1988. Ralph
Mor and Jay Hersh joined the staff later. In 1993, as the MIT X Consortium prepared to depart
from MIT, the staff were joined by R. Gary Cutbill, Kaleb Keithley, and David Wiggins.
DECwindows CDE on OpenVMS 7.3-1In 1993, the X Consortium, Inc. (a non-profit corporation)
formed as the successor to the MIT X Consortium. It released X11R6 on May 16, 1994. In 1995 it
took on the development of the Motif toolkit and of the Common Desktop Environment for Unix
systems. The X Consortium dissolved at the end of 1996, producing a final revision, X11R6.3, and
a legacy of increasing commercial influence in the development.

Disability action committee for x (Dacx)

In fact, the X Window System has become the de facto standard on computer workstations.
Because of this, the X Window System provides an ideal place upon which to build accessibility
solutions: any solutions for X.
Windows will apply across many makers and models of workstations. Since the early 1980s, the
Trace Center has worked closely with companies that develop personal computers and their
operating systems to develop strategies which make them more accessible to individuals with
disabilities.
For people with mobility impairments, strategies have been developed to provide basic access
in a number of operating systems. Among these strategies are AccessDOS for IBM computers
running DOS, Easy Access for the Apple Macintosh, Access Pack for Microsoft Windows, and
those being built into IBM OS/2. Likewise, the Trace Center has worked closely with companies
such as Apple and Berkeley Systems Inc. to develop strategies to assist in their development of
products for people with visual impairments.
Building upon and expanding the model used to provide access in the personal computer
market, the Trace Center brought together a group of researchers, consumers and companies
interested in developing access solutions for workstations. This group, known as the Disability
Action Committee for X (DACX), had an initial meeting in conjunction with the Closing-The-Gap
Conference in Minneapolis, in October 1992. Discussion at the kick-off meeting centered around
what should be done to provide basic disability access to computer workstations.

To best utilize the limited resources within DACX, the group formed subcommittees to concentrate
initial efforts in three specific areas:
1. The definition of hooks and library calls needed to provide screen reader access to
applications (called “X clients”) running on a workstation;
2. Implementation of screen magnification in X;
3. Implementation of “built-in” features to provide basic access for people who have mobility
impairments that prevent them from effectively using the keyboard and mouse.
At the present time, DACX includes members from organizations like Bell Atlantic, Berkeley
Systems Inc., Digital Equipment Corp., Georgia Tech, IBM, MIT, SUN Microsystems, and the
Trace Center.

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