We introduce networked windowing systems here as from the point of
view of distributed systems they are really a communications
mechanism. They have interesting requirements from the lower layers
that distinguish them from other conventional communicating
applications. We shall see in chapter 8 how they can be
distributed to multiple users.
Because all these machines have completely incompatible hardware, lots
of different window systems have evolved.
A consortium of computer manufacturers, software vendors and researchers decided to rectify
this, by designing and implementing a free, portable windowing
system.
They called it X.