On Tue, 20 Apr 1999 10:38:16 -0700 (PDT) 
 Ross Harvey <ross@ghs.com> wrote:

 > >
 > > 	- i386 uses INSECURE so that the X server works "out of the box".
 > > 	  It's not necessary on the Alpha.
 > 
 > Right, that's what I figured, and since...
 > 
 >     * -E1 X is working again
 >     * we seem to have mostly multia users (poor guys :-)
 >     * the -E2 card is almost working
 >     * the X server is being accelerated
 >     * i'll be working on VGA X server stuff soon
 > 
 >     ... it seemed like it would be nice if X worked `out of the box'
 >     on alpha too. We will have 1.4 users for A LONG TIME, and I was kind
 >     of planning on building X against 1.4 in the coming year if we made
 >     worthwhile enhancements that didn't require kernel mods.

...um... The only reason it's needed on the x86 is because the X server
needs to mmap /dev/mem to get at the frame buffer.

On NetBSD/alpha, you actually mmap the frame buffer, and thus don't
need permissions to get at /dev/mem.

        -- Jason R. Thorpe <thorpej@nas.nasa.gov>