Luc Verhaegen is a bedroom hacker whose focus is almost solely on modesetting, he started http://unichrome.sf.net/ and spends most of his time bashing VIA.
X and modesetting, atrophy illustrated
X had a rich and diverse modesetting history, but with the advent of 3D acceleration and DRI, modesetting suddenly received a lot less attention. Some examples of the resulting cruft are shown and some shortcomings examined. Current developments are explained and possible future directions are explored.
Paper: X_and_Modesetting_-_Atrophy_illustrated_(paper).pdf
Slides: X_and_Modesetting_-_Atrophy_illustrated_(slides).pdf