I think that since gentoo has a reputation of being a non-newbie kind of distro, many (if not most) of new users reading the handbook will be linux users from other distros, and wondering why we say to emerge xorg-x11 when theres an xfree ebuild, or mayb get confused on the differance. I suggest something in the draft handbook to have just a small paragraph about xfree and why it is no longer updated by gentoo and discoraged in favor of xorg-x11.
Personal opinion: I don't think it's that much of an issue. I think the whole Linux user community knows why xfree has been shunned and deprecated in favor of the Free as in Speech xorg-x11. I also don't want to get in a habit of having to explain our every decision. :) Personally, I "WONTFIX," but if someone else feels it's necessary...
ok, just a thought I know some people who made their own ebuilds for xfree86, and thought that gentoo was being really messed up (to put it nicly) for not having it in portage already, so i figured there maybe more people who are less informed of these things.
I think the idea's good. A paragraph explaining Xorg and why it is described instead of XFree86, including a note that XFree86 4.3 is still available for those who want it. It's not too much hassle :)
Fixed in CVS.