What is Mac X11

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Follow this step by step guide to learn what mac x11 is. Learn how to download, install and make xquartz the default x11 server.

In this tutorial, we will give you an overview on what Mac X11 is.
Mac X11 is basically an implementation of the X window system, more commonly referred to as the X graphical user interface. It is primarily used on UNIX based systems. X11 is basically the eleventh version of the X window system.
Mac OS X is completely made of the UNIX core structure and therefore Mac X11 allows you to run the applications developed on a UNIX environment on a Mac.

Step 1 -- Install X11
First of all, go to the Utilities folder and click on the X11 icon.
As a result, a dialog box will open up asking you to install X11. Simply click on the Continue button to proceed with the process.

Step 2 -- Download xquartz
If you are running MAC OSX Mountain Lion, X11 is installed by default. But for all the client libraries and server, you need to download the Xquartz package from the following link:

Step 3 -- Open the setup file
Once the package has been downloaded, simply open the wizard and go through the installation process to install Xquartz on your system.

Step 4 -- Log out
Once you are done, you would be required to log out and log back in order to make Xquartz the default mac X11 server.

Step 5 -- Use X enabled terminal
When you log in to your profile and go to the utilities folder, you will notice that the x11 icon has now changed.
Simply click on the Xquartz icon to open the application. Now there are a ton of things you can do with a fully functional X enabled terminal. For example, you can use UNIX based commands to navigate through and open applications.
For the purpose of this tutorial, we want to open the calculator application. In order to do that, type in the following:
/usr/X11/bin/xcalc and then hit enter.
As a result, a fully functional scientific calculator will open. In this manner, you can work with the mac x11 server.

[howtechmac]

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[EnderEncounter]

I had the Mac Lion then I downloaded something to make it Mountain Lion.. My Mac is currently on 10.8.5. Do I need to download this? Please help

[mnirwin]

Interesting ... my Mac Mini doesn't HAVE this. Wonder if it's only on newer models? Can I download it from somewhere?

[djknock]

How do you revert it from being the default mac server?

[camflaugelargeeeeee]

more plz! just stumbled onto that x11 app and I'm super curious.. maybe a sign from above :P this could be the start to something i always wanted to get involved in :)

[SupachaiAbusali]

how can you use X11 in collaboration with xcode

[ronwass]

Xquartz causes problems with Mavericks.  Scrolling stops working in browsers.

[JuanManuel-kjfu]

Hi, could you help me ? i'm trying to install openoffice on a mac, it tells me to install X11, wich i did, but now i dont know how to continue. i open the openoffice icon and a x11 terminal apears 

[abishekswami]

can i run windows software using this if yes how to do it .... pls share a link otherwise...
thnks:)

[nickzelner]

I 1000% have to do this to update to yosemite osx?

[FuzzyImagesLive]

Wait, but I dont see x11 in mine and I am using mountain lion. I did download xquarts, but I was told I needed this to run wine. Am I just being lead in circles with all this, whats this even do or even needed for ><

[mysteriousmrr]

The computer I am using is not mine, and if I do install this, will it 100% be safe, and will it change anything with the computer?

[grabacionymezcla]

i was looking for a free software that could help me to desing my own logo, somehow I found a program inkscape and on the description said I had to download the xquartz, so i thought that was my solution but it became my nightmare, i want to unistall this thing off of my mac, I do all my work on my mac and its very important to me to keep it as safe and "factory default" so to say. can you please help me?? this software it is been messing up my system. PLEASE HELP. Im not a super technical guy, iI dont know much about code and all that I just want it out of my mac once and for all. PLEASE PLEASE HELP

[olliveraira]

wonder if it is possible to see everything that my mac process every minute, because my mac has been a lot slower under the last time and I wan't to see if I got any type of virus or something else that runs in my background. Without activity Monitors

My OS X Yosemite has even been a little bit strange and I get a lot of errors in some programs and I am thinking about a clean install, but than I have to buy a external hard drive and I want to know if I should upgrade my computer or buy a external hard drive to move some pictures and so

[xxwavecreatorxx]

is it possible to unistall the Xquartz?

[BradenBest]

"More commonly known as the X Graphical User Interface"

Nope. I have never in my life heard anyone refer to it as that. The most common name for X Windows is X, or X11. Kinda like how nobody calls Linux (or GNU/Linux) the "Linux Kernel and Operating System" See what I did there? Not only is it inaccurate (X is a server/library pair to enable GUI applications, not a GUI itself; Linux is a kernel, not an OS), but it's also gratuitous.

Also, a this is misnomer; saying that X11 is the 11th X Window System. X11 is the 11th version of the *X protocol*, which is just a fancy way of saying "X API". It's mostly for the X library, Xlib, which allows a programmer to make a client for X. Just because the protocol and library are at version 11 doesn't necessarily mean the _implementation_ (the server) is, as the server and the client library are two separate entities.

[TheDisasterMaster]

my screen flickers while i was watching the video!

[arthurarmour]

I'm sure there must be a reason someone would want to type half a line of code to open a calculator, instead of just clicking on the calculator widget?