Quoting Harald Arnesen (harald@???):

> Red Hat 7 was released in 2000, according to Wikipedia.

Hey, you're right, thanks! That'll teach me to post from memory when
I'm jet-lagged.

So, Linux distributions have had even-easier X configurator tools
since at the very latest 2000. I'm reasonably certain they predated
that by some significant number of years, be could not say how early
exactly without research.