X Windows & OS X Aqua Seamlessly Side by Side
Sladhdot brings us some rather great news for the OS X user. A company known as Tenon has released public betas of two OS X applications. One, Xtools, is an X Window server for OS X which, as the press release states, "will provide seamless integration between an X Window display environment and Macintosh applications." The other, iTools, is an Apache port with many useful additions (above the base install) integrated, such as sendmail, SSL, etc.
Of the two, the X Windows servers is far more significant.
One stumbling block to bringing most graphical Linux apps across to OS X is Apple's proprietary Aqua GUI. While arguably superior to X Windows in many, many ways, it is a whole new technology that an X Windows application developer would have to learn before porting his/her app. With this integrated system, porting such an app would require
almost zero effort. X Windows apps run alongside
native Aqua apps (screenshot) and, while not offering the user all the nicities of a true Aqua-based app...at least the app would
exist
for OS X. And especially here at the beginning, that really will magnify the versatility of MacOS X...which is clearly a good thing.
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