1 Introductory Note about the ALPHA release 3.1.2D

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Before looking into this file, please check for any LATEST.OS2 files that may come with the binary distribution. Some statements made here refer to the official public version of XFree86/OS2, and may not be fully functional in the alpha release.

This version of the code is called XFree86/OS2 3.1.2D. The letter ``D'', according to the naming rules of XFree86, usually denotes a (public) beta version of the code. Since this is the first public version of XFree86/OS2 at all, this code is considered having ALPHA quality only.

The purpose of this release is to test it widely without restrictions in a large number of configurations and find bugs that are still existing in the distribution. It is also intended as a developer's platform to port and write applications based on the X11 programming interfaces provided here. This release is complete (with one exception) regarding the X11R6.1 ``core'' distribution. The ``contrib'' distribution containing some of the more interesting tools for the end user, will be issued together with a later release (no need to start porting it independently).

This version is therefore intended for the experienced and knowledged software engineer only, not for a casual end user.

This means - and this should be taken serious - that

You are urged to make a backup of your complete system and keep it in a safe place before you attempt to load any of this software on your disk.

This even holds if you already have a working copy of XFree86-3.1.2D running on another platform, such as Linux, and found it working without problems. This is XFree86/OS2 which differs in a number of critical aspects from any Unix implementation of XFree86.

If you are afraid to try out this code, simply don't use it and wait for a future, hopefully more bug-free version.

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