For the longest time, the X Window System has been the "glue" between your applications, and the operating system itself. First originating in 1984, it ended up being the default windowing system for most UNIX-like operating systems, including Linux.One of the standout features that it had was network transparency, meaning that applications which are actually running on some big mainframe could display their user interfaces on a thin client, and be used seamlessly.X11 is old. As the name suggests, it's the 11th version of the protocol, and for a variety of reasons, including clashes between big operating system companies from the days gone, and the emerging open source community, X ended up staying on version 11 since 1987, instead implementing new features through extensions. Feature creep took hold, and X servers grew to include all sorts of features, including handing power management, and, for some reason, a print server.At this time, one implementation called XFree86 was...
