File:X11.svg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
X Window System
Sign in to saveAlso known as X11, X Window, X Windows
graphics controller and network protocol for UNIX-like systems
The X Window System is software that lets computers running UNIX-like systems display graphics on screens and communicate these graphics over a network. It matters because it standardized how different computers can share graphical displays and interact with each other across networks, which became foundational to how Unix systems handle visual computing.
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Wikidata facts
- Official website
- x.org
- Image
- X-Window-System.png
Show 7 more facts
- publication date
- 1984-00-00
- Commons category
- X Window System
- software version identifier
- X11R3
- Stack Exchange tag
- unix.stackexchange.com/tags/x11
- name in kana
- エックスウィンドウシステム
- inception
- 1982-00-00
- source code repository URL
- gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg
Sources (8)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Article
The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X originated as part of Project Athena at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984. 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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