That old workhorse, the X Window System, is finally getting decent
rendering capabilities,
including alpha-blending and anti-aliased text (TrueType-only; not using the
standard text routines). Which is a Good Thing; translucent windows and menus
look pretty nifty, and before this, you had to do that kind of thing by hand,
using X just as a dumb pixel-pushing mechanism; not exactly an efficient use
of a networkable window system. (via Slashdot)