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X Window System at 40

X11R1 on Sun Techfury90 CC0 I apologize that this post is a little late. On 19 th June the X Window System celebrated its 40th birthday. W...

I was part of the team that burned the midnight oil at MIT to get that release out, but my involvement started in late 1985.Below the fold are some reflections on my contributions, some thoughts on the astonishing fact that the code is still widely deployed after 40 years, and some ideas on why it has been so hard to replace. The anniversary bought forth several commentaries on its extraordinary longevity, including: Richard Speed's The X Window System is still hanging on at 40 is aptly subtitled "Never underestimate the stickiness of legacy technology" and concludes: In 2022, we wondered if "Wayland has what it takes to replace X." Kevin Purdy's 40 years later, X Window System is far more relevant than anyone could guess starts: Often times, when I am researching something about computers or coding that has been around a very long while, I will come across a document on a university website that tells me more about that thing than any Wikipedia page or archive ever could.

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