Who Killed x11?

[UncleUrgle]

There is no x11 for the intel macs. No sing of it on the horizon. Total silence. Does this bother anyone else?

Apple made much of the switch to the unix kernel, an much of the ability to run x windows applications. Like thousands of other users, I've come to value X11 and the various tools I run under it. I bought an intel mac. Nowhere (AFAIK) in the publicity for the intel macs is it mentioned that x11 is no longer supported. Nor does apple bother to offer any work around, or suggest any third party product.

Why did Apple dump x11? Was there a failure in software development or was in a managment decision? And most importantly, what is Apple going to do for the thousands if not hundreds of thousands of faithful but betrayed customers who have come to rely on x11 based apps in their work, as I have?

And does anyone know of a work around - an intel/tiger compatible x11 equivalent?

 

[Eidorian]

lol wut?

Did you make sure to install it?

 

[WildCowboy]

Um, yeah...try Optional Installs on your Tiger disc.

 

[theBB]

Before making grand proclamations, try asking questions.

 

[balamw]

Before making grand proclamations, try asking questions.

Or maybe even consulting the online help in your Mac. That's how I found out how to install it on my iMac.

B

 

[Warbrain]

Ha, I laughed quite a bit at this...

 

[mduser63]

Ha, I laughed quite a bit at this...

Yeah, it's funny how the OP's post is so serious and detailed even though the fundamental thing he/she's complaining about just isn't true. I'm a little confused as to how he/she missed it. X11 for Intel Macs is no harder to find/find out about/install than X11 for PowerPC. I've had it on my Intel iMac since the day I bought it, and I use it regularly for graphical SSH.

 

[dpaanlka]

There is no x11 for the intel macs. No sing of it on the horizon. Total silence. Does this bother anyone else?

Apple made much of the switch to the unix kernel, an much of the ability to run x windows applications. Like thousands of other users, I've come to value X11 and the various tools I run under it. I bought an intel mac. Nowhere (AFAIK) in the publicity for the intel macs is it mentioned that x11 is no longer supported. Nor does apple bother to offer any work around, or suggest any third party product.

Why did Apple dump x11? Was there a failure in software development or was in a managment decision? And most importantly, what is Apple going to do for the thousands if not hundreds of thousands of faithful but betrayed customers who have come to rely on x11 based apps in their work, as I have?

And does anyone know of a work around - an intel/tiger compatible x11 equivalent?

 

[RacerX]

There is no x11 for the intel macs. No sing of it on the horizon. Total silence. Does this bother anyone else?

Ummm... Yeah, right.

Apple made much of the switch to the unix kernel, an much of the ability to run x windows applications. Like thousands of other users, I've come to value X11 and the various tools I run under it.

First... the move to Unix was not done for X Windows. In fact, NeXT never provided a way of running X Windows apps on NEXTSTEP or OPENSTEP (all solutions were third party software). And when Apple started making the switch back in 1998, X Windows was no where on Apple's priority list. Apple didn't provide an X Window Server for OPENSTEP (which they continued to sell until around 2000), Rhapsody, Mac OS X Server 1.x or Mac OS X before 10.2. X11 was offered as a Public Beta in 10.2 and became part of the included (but not pre-installed) software with 10.3.

So from 1987 to around 2003 the lineage of this operating system had been using some form of BSD Unix... but never included X Windows.

The reason I point this out is that, like Windows on Macs, X11 is not a solution that Apple really wants to push because it keeps developers from making real Mac apps. And that is because a Mac running X apps or Windows apps is no better than a Linux/BSD or Windows box. If users don't see what is special about a Mac, they won't stay with it.

 

[wmmk]

what is Apple going to do for the thousands if not hundreds of thousands of faithful but betrayed customers who have come to rely on x11 based apps in their work, as I have?

well, um, i suppose they could make the default aqua desktop just be giant black text saying

"Just put in you OS X DVD and go to optional installs!!!"

 

[dpaanlka]

"Just put in you OS X DVD and go to optional installs!!!"

With a ghetto tone nonetheless.

"Put you DVD in yo drive and get to da optional installs."

 

[MrSmith]

Nicely done all. That's one newbie who won't be back.

 

[dpaanlka]

This should probably be wastelanded.