Hi Randall,
In the message "[MAGNet] X windows for Macs", dated 2000-08-18,
Randall Cayford wrote:
>I need to get hold of an X windows server for the mac to connect to a unix
>box. The university used to distribute MacX but they don't seem to any
>more and MacX seems to have disappeared from Apple as well.
>
>What packages are out there and does anyone have a recommendation?
Some years ago, IST's Workstation Software Support Group ceased
distributing MacX 1.5, which is quite outdated. The campus (and UC)
did not have a software site license agreement for any subsequent
versions (e.g. 2.0) of Mac X. Today, Apple no longer sells or
supports any version of MacX.
Two alternative X Window System display servers are:
Tenon Intersystems' XTen, which is listed at $175 on their Web
site. One can download the product (sans technical support) for
evaluation.
http://www.tenon.com/products/xten/
Powerlan USA's (formerly White Pine's) eXodus. The vendor lists
the download price at $249 and the packaged price at $299 on their
Web site. One can also submit a form to request a demo copy for
evaluation.
http://www.powerlan-usa.com/software.html
A third freeware product, MicroImages's MI/X, was reportedly quite
buggy, and does not seem to be currently available for downloading.
(At least, the vendor's last listed Web and FTP sites are not
responding to connection attempts today.)
Some other alternatives include:
- Using the VNC viewer (freeware, currently in beta for the
Mac OS) to view and control the graphical desktop of a Unix,
Linux, etc. machine that provides an X Windows environment:
http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/
- Run a Windows-based X Windows environment under emulation
using Connectix's Virtual PC or FWB Software's SoftWindows
(commercial products):
http://www.connectix.com/products/vpc3.html
http://www.fwb.com/emu/sw98_mac.htm
- Installing Linux, BSD Unix, etc. on your Macintosh
(both freeware and commercial products are available)
which will typically come with an X Windows environment.
The Pure Mac "Mac Unix" page lists many of the Linux/Unix
OSes available for various Macintosh models:
http://www.eskimo.com/%7Epristine/unix.html
- Running Mac OS X Server (and later, Mac OS X,
which will come out in a public beta later this
fall) -- ditto. (Both are commercial products.)
http://www.apple.com/macosx/server/
http://www.apple.com/macosx/
Mac OS X (client) seems likely to draw considerable
attention from vendors of tools which have been
traditionally available for the major Unix platforms
and for Linux. One early entrant is from Tenon
Intersystems, which announced in mid-July 2000 that
a public beta of its "fully integrated X Desktop for
Mac OS X" is scheduled for release "as soon as Apple's
OS X public beta is available."
http://www.tenon.com/press_release/2000.7.17.html
Aron Roberts
Workstation Software Support Group
P.S. Along these lines, another useful resource is the list of
"X/Motif [products] for Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, and other OSs"
on Kenton Lee's extensive "Technical Window System and Motif WWW
Sites" Web page at:
http://www.rahul.net/kenton/xsites.html#XMicrosoft
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