Zardon

Apple has been touting the Unix core of OS X for some time, but an important piece of the pie has been missing: the X Window System.

The X Window System is a common windowing environment used on all other flavors of the Unix and Linux operating systems. However, Apple went its own way with OS X. The company's choice to use the attractive yet proprietary Aqua GUI made Apple's Unix incompatible with all of the X applications already available for Linux and Unix.

At the recent Macworld gathering, Apple announced it is officially working on X11 for Mac OS X. The company's port is still in beta, but official support for X11 on OS X will put Apple on more equal footing with other Unix flavors. Armed with an arsenal of newly compatible X11 applications, will Macs become the Unix workstations of choice?

The X Window System, also called "X" or "X11" (but not "X Windows"), has been around for quite some time. It was developed at MIT in cooperation with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) way back in 1984, and the first copy of X11 was released in 1987. Control of X11 passed to the X Consortium in 1988. That group still stewards the project, and X11 is now an industry-standard protocol that can be implemented by third-party vendors free of charge.

X11 implementations include a few features not found in other windowing systems. Perhaps the most interesting one is the client/server model that separates the display from the host computer. Using X11, it is possible to run a program on one machine and display it on another. The two systems need not be running the same operating system -- or even the same implementation of X11 -- so long as they follow the specification. For example, a Linux user could run a program on a Solaris machine and have the program displayed on his or her Linux box. Now Mac users can join in the fun as well.

The most widely used implementation is XFree86, which is shipped with all major Linux distributions and also runs on FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD and several other operating systems.

According to Brian Croll, Apple's senior director of OS X product marketing, Apple chose to base its version of X11 on XFree86 as well. The XFree86 Project had already been working on a port for OS X, and Apple "took the ball and ran with it a little further and integrated it more tightly into the system. We also made it easier to download," Croll told NewsFactor. He added that the XFree86 port would have required users to download several files, whereas Apple has rolled everything users need into a single file.

But why did Apple choose to implement a system that few die-hard Apple users had ever heard of? "People asked for it," Croll said. Those people, though, were not the typical Mac audience. "We've been keeping our ear to the ground, tracking people in the Unix community ... listening to what people in that community are looking for."

Indeed, although the Mac has long enjoyed popularity among people who prefer their computers simple and command-line free, the latest additions to the Mac community come from different stock altogether.

According to Croll, Unix and Linux geeks have become heavily attracted to Mac machines. "More and more people are showing up in the Mac community that have never looked at the Mac before," he said. "What you're seeing is the Mac showing up where it's never gone before. Go to an O'Reilly conference and you'll see all these people with PowerBooks."

Although Apple's initial marketing push for OS X did not emphasize the operating system's Unix underpinnings, there is a lot of functionality under the hood for experienced Unix and Linux users. For example, OS X comes with many mainstays of Unix-type systems, including Perl, Apache and the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), among other programs and utilities.

Croll said the blend of a Unix core and a slick interface is "in a lot of ways the Holy Grail for the Unix community." One big win for Apple, he noted, is the combination of Unix with a native port of Microsoft Office.

Apple is also perceived by many as a good member of the open source community, especially since the company decided to use KHTML, on which the open source Konqueror browser is based, as the foundation for its own Safari Web browser. According to Croll, some KDE developers said Apple's contributions to KHTML were "like having Christmas again." For its part, Apple appreciated the ease of using the KHTML core. Croll would not specify how much time Apple spent developing the Safari browser but said that KHTML "allowed us to move extremely fast.... Building on the shoulders of giants, you can go much faster."

Unlike some companies, Croll said, Apple has no interest in convincing people to use one browser over another. "We're not going to take a high-handed, dictatorial approach.... We're saying to the end-user, 'Choose what you want.'
Apple has already had some success in luring Linux and Unix users. However, pursuing the Unix workstation market is a little different than simply appealing to Unix geeks who want Macs for their own personal use. Croll said Apple is eyeing some areas that have been traditional strongholds for Unix workstations, such as the high-end graphics and scientific research markets.

But not all pundits agree with Croll's optimism. Although OS X may have caught on with some Unix fans, Bill Claybrook, Aberdeen Group research director for Linux and open source software, told NewsFactor that Apple is not likely to go far in the Unix workstation business. "I don't think they'll be able to compete on the price and performance issues," he said. "That's what a lot of people are going to look at."

Instead, Claybrook added, the Unix workstation market will choose Linux over Apple. "Wherever Unix was ... that's where you'll see Linux." He foresees no gains for Microsoft in the Unix market, either. "All Unix workstations will be replaced by Linux, not by Windows. The Unix people like Linux, and they hate Microsoft."

He noted that the main issues are hardware choice and price. "I think [Apple is] going to have a tough time if they stick to PowerPC [chips] unless they make themselves open to ISVs. Linux is Unix as well, and it's probably cheaper, and you can buy it from just about anybody and buy hardware from just about anybody. No one wants to [be locked in to one vendor] anymore."

Croll disagreed. "You see Apple very strong in places where people have had a Unix workstation and a PC on their desk -- the scientific and technical areas," he said. "A lot of sys admins and developers are picking up the laptops."

If Apple succeeds in the Unix market, it will certainly have taken a scenic route to get there. And even after Apple has added X11 support, Linux and Unix users will still have one unanswered question: When will the company ship a mouse with more than one button? By Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier
NewsFactor Network