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The XOrg Foundation Open Source Public Implementation of X11 (the XOrg Server) is the official reference implementation of the X Window System. The current release is X11R7.1, released 22 May 2006. It is open source and free software.
The project is run by the X.Org Foundation and is hosted by freedesktop.org.
The modern Xorg Foundation came into being when the body that oversaw X standards and published the official reference implementation joined forces with former XFree86 developers.
X11R6.7.0, the first version of the X.Org Server, was forked from XFree86 4.4 RC2. The immediate reason for the fork was a disagreement with the new license for XFree86 4.4 final, but several disagreements among the contributors surfaced prior to the split. When the fork was created changes were folded in from X11R6.6 creating a common codebase. Many (some claim the absolute majority) of the previous XFree86 developers have joined the X.Org Server project.
The X11R6.9.0/X11R7.0.0 release primarily added a modular build system based on the GNU Autotools. 6.9.0 used the old imake system whereas 7.0.0 use the Autotools, both on the same codebase. The latter path (using GNU Autotools) is however the future direction of the X.Org server, and also saw the X11 binaries moving out of its own /usr/X11R6 subdirectory tree and into the global /usr tree on POSIX systems.
The X.Org Server is increasingly popular with the free software Unix-like operating systems, with most Linux distributions and BSD variants having adopted it in place of XFree86. (Notable exceptions: Debian and NetBSD whose stable versions are still using pre-split versions of XFree86 but are nonetheless moving to Xorg.) It is also being used in Sun Microsystems' OpenSolaris, although the proprietary version of the Solaris still uses their proprietary Xsun server. It is also used in Cygwin/X, Cygwin's implementation of the X server for Microsoft Windows.
Release history
See X Window System Release history.
Sources
"X.Org Server"