Mac OS X Power Hound, Second Edition

X11 Hints

Panther includes full support for Unix applications based on the X Windows system, opening up a whole new world for Mac users. Based on the Xfree86 project, this environment includes a window server (the Unix equivalent of the Aqua environment), the necessary programming libraries, and Xterm, a terminal application.

You launch the X11 environment by double-clicking the X11 application, which is housed in the Applications → Utilities folder.

Note

If it’s not there, then you didn’t install it when you installed Panther. You can do so now from disc 3 of your Panther CDs: just double-click the Packages folder of the CD, double-click the X11User.pkg file, and follow the Installer instructions.

With all the work you now have under your belt, you’ll feel right at home running X11 applications. You can minimize windows to the Dock, copy and paste data between X11 applications and Mac OS X applications, and use any three-button USB mouse in X11 with no additional configuration. X11 also uses the keyboard layout you’ve selected in your Panther preferences, so you don’t have to worry about confusing Unix and Mac layouts.

There are three ways to install X11 applications: using a standard Mac OS X installer, compiling them from their source code (which requires that you install the X11 SDK, found on the Mac OS X Xcode CD), or installing them using Fink ( Section 16.6.5).

Launching applications is simple as well. Either double-click an X11 application’s icon—which opens both the X11 environment ...