XGL : X server on top of OpenGL
Apparently, a crazy individual has written an X server on top of OpenGL. The full gory discussion, discussing the numerous ways in which this pre-beta program isn’t quite ready for prime time, can be read here. The basic operation, as I understand it, is as follows. A normal X server is used to set up the screen, set the propery sync rates and such, and load opengl. The xgl server is then launched in the root window of the “bootstrap” server. This is obviously inelegant, and the best minds are working on solving the problem — what it comes down to is that at the moment, the (standard boring 2D) X server is what everyone relies upon to set up the hardware properly; this means that dropping the bootstrap server means exporting that complexity to some other software — possibly even to the kernel’s DRI and/or fbdev drivers.