Editing X Window System (section)

===The Open Group===
In January 1997, the X Consortium passed stewardship of X to [[The Open Group]], a vendor group formed in early 1996 by the merger of the [[Open Software Foundation]] and [[X/Open]].

The Open Group released X11R6.4 in early 1998. Controversially, X11R6.4 departed from the traditional liberal licensing terms, as the Open Group sought to assure funding for the development of X, and specifically cited [[XFree86]] as not significantly contributing to X.<ref>{{cite web |title=X Statement |url-status=dead |url=https://lwn.net/1998/0409/xstate.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224185608/https://lwn.net/1998/0409/xstate.html |date=2 April 1998 |archive-date=24 Feb 2021 |access-date=28 Jan 2024 }}</ref> The new terms would have made X no longer [[free software]]: zero-cost for noncommercial use, but a fee otherwise. After XFree86 seemed poised to [[fork (software)|fork]],<ref>{{cite web|date=6 December 1998|title=XFree86(TM): Press Release|url=http://www.xfree86.org/news/pr-980407.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981206040516/http://www.xfree86.org/news/pr-980407.html|archive-date=6 December 1998|access-date=7 February 2017}}</ref> the Open Group [[Software relicensing|relicensed]] X11R6.4 under the traditional license in September 1998.<ref>{{cite web|last=Browne|first=Christopher|title=X11R6.4 Sample Implementation Changes and Concerns|url=http://cbbrowne.com/info/x11r6.4.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080601035445/http://cbbrowne.com/info/x11r6.4.html|archive-date=1 June 2008|website=Christopher Browne's Web Pages}}</ref> The Open Group's last release came as X11R6.4 patch 3.