> One of the things you would gain by using _XFree86_ is the ease of use of > the debian packages. Using the packages, X usually works 'out of the box', > and sometimes requires minor tweaks to get it running.
The third-party server vendors don't distribute libraries, fonts, and so on. They require XFree86 be installed, and then they supply the server executable and whatever goodies they need to run and configure it. I have a Matrox Marvel framegrabber/video card which MetroLink supports. There's a real-time video extension to their X server which XFree86 doesn't have an equivalent of. The third-party servers are pretty cheap, are drop-in replacements for the XFree86 servers, and at least MetroLink has a very snappy configuration interface.. it runs X in 640x400 SVGA mode, with a Motif configuration app that just uses keyboard commands (tab, etc) to fill out a form, with a list of card names and monitor models. I think XFree86 is great, but there are reasons to use the commercial servers. Bill Gribble
