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What exactly is that X11 app that comes preinstalled?
- Thread starter Dragoro
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Look, if you don't know what X11 is, you probably will never need to use it.
The links I provided explain all anyone needs to know.
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The links I provided explain all anyone needs to know.
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Simplified answer:
It allows you to run programs on a remote computer as if they were on your computer as long as the Xserver and Xclients are setup.
Simplified example:
Computer A is a Windows computer. You load an X11 clone on Computer A.
Computer B is a Unix computer.
Using the X11 clone for Windows, computer A could connect to computer B and run Unix programs on Computer B but have them streamed to Computer A, showing up on Computer A as if the programs were on the hard drive and native to Windows. So you could be using Mutt, a Unix mail client, on your Windows computer but it's actually being run on a Unix computer in Finland.
Unlike VNC (another application), where you're seeing the entire Unix desktop, with X you only see the application you are interested in running in a separate window. It's pretty cool but it's been many, many years since I've used it.
I used Windows to Unix for the example but it can be between any two computers set up properly.
I use X11 to open Unix windows. I was just cleaning up some directories on my Mac. David Pogue's column said that X11 no longer was available with Mountain Lion. I guess that is not true. I've been holding off on upgrading. I love my X Windows, been using on Unix since Mac's were on System 7.
A more common use is if you had *nix applications locally installed which depend on a graphical toolkit other than Cocoa, Eg, GTK.
To confuse you further:
When you run the Unix software from your server, that software is an xclient and the X11 server (which displays the app) is running on your local client
To confuse you further:
When you run the Unix software from your server, that software is an xclient and the X11 server (which displays the app) is running on your local client
Even Apple says it's not included in ML, so my guess is you didn't do a clean install and it's been carried over from Lion.
http://xquartz.macosforge.org/landing/
X11 is not on mountain lion by default after a clean install.
This works...at least for MATLAB.
Even if so, ML will not allow the X11 app from Lion to launch and instead points to a kbase article on getting an updated version from the xquartz project. But you're right ML doesn't delete your X11 app on upgrade.
My read is that the guy is still running Lion, not ML.
Come on folks!!! It's just small app to tell that X11 is no longer included and gives you the option of finding out more through a KB article.
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