The X Window System

#aka X

Anyone familiar with The X Window System, also known as X, will find ViewTouch quite recognizable, but anyone not familiar with X will find themselves at the beginning of a learning curve. There are many sites on the Web which explain what X is but in a simple sentence X can be described as a remote graphical display/input protocol which allows remote sessions of applications to be served up to users who are running the remote graphical display/input software - the X Server. X began at M.I.T. in 1984 so it's very mature and its use is widespread. X remains under continuing development after more than 30 years of growth and enhancement.

This portion of the ViewTouch Wiki doesn't attempt to explain what X is or how it works but instead merely explains an aspect of the location of X files for the benefit of anyone attempting to build ViewTouch binaries on various Linux distributions.

Locations of X binary and library files

X11R6 references should have been replaced long ago when X11R7 appeared, in 2005, after which the X Window System stored its executables in /usr/bin/X11. In 2012 the files in /usr/bin/X11 were consolidated into /usr/bin, one directory level higher than /usr/bin/X11

/usr/bin/X11 has this symlink to /usr/bin to retain backwards compatibility X11 -> . This command simply links the files that used to be in /usr/bin/X11 one directory level higher to /usr/bin.

The X Window System library files which used to be in /usr/X11R6 are now in /usr/lib/X11.