ray@mfgfoc.uucp (Ray Lillard) (01/12/89)
The following information is provided as a summary of what I have learned since posting a query reqarding X-windows and MacOS in mid-December. I received many responses ( more than a dozen ) but most were requests for me to summarize or E-mail the information I acquired. I therefore conclude that considerable interest exists and probably a good business opportunity as well. ############################################################################### >> From uucp Mon Dec 12 14:26 EST 1988 >> >From mips!ames!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!chrisj (Chris Johnson) >> Organization: U.T. Austin Computation Center >> >> Apple should be coming out with an X server for the Mac OS in the very near >> future. The product has already been acknowledged in the AppleGram. It will >> work on top of their existing TCP/IP product, MacTCP. The X Windows server >> will be called MacX, and if you want to find out about it, you might try the >> number for the folks in charge of MacTCP which is (408) 973-4667. >> >> I asked my local Apple Tech-Rep about MacX and he wasn't aware of it - if >> the folks at that number haven't heard of it, point out that Apple's already >> demoed the program at Interop 88 - so somebody must know about it. >> >> Hope this helps, >> >> ----Chirs ############################################################################### From: daver!sun!harvard.Sun.COM!mtxinu!bunny!uranus.gte.com!dcr0 (Dave Robbins) >> A little while back, I asked the same question, and got responses that >> can be summarized thusly: >> >> There are no products ready for sale at the present time, but there >> are two possibilities in the works: >> >> 1) White Pine Software (P.O. Box 1108 Amherst, N.H. 03031, 603-886-9050) >> is said to have a prototype they are working on. It is said to run >> only on a Mac II, use Apple's EtherTalk card, and use only DECnet >> protocols. An article in INFO WORLD, Jan 2, 1989 provides additional information on the above X implementation from White Pine Software Inc. They have announced a product called Exodus which runs on all flavors of Macintosh in current production. It will run concurrently (well as concurrent as one can be on a Macintosh) under multifinder and allow cut-and-paste operations between the X-window and other Mac applications running in other windows. Based on the telephone conversation I had with them the cut and paste activity will likely be limited to bit images, that is one will probably not be able to cut a rectangle of text from a Unix application and paste it as text into a word processer window. The initial release will support Appletalk ( LocalTalk ), DECnet and TCP/IP. Exodus requires all clients to use X11. Shipments are expected to begin this quarter. >> 2) Apple themselves are said to have one "in the skunk works" which they >> shown at the Xhibition. It is said to be only monochrome, to speak >> TCP or Appletalk, and to be compatible with Finder and Multifinder. >> Apple is apparently not free to discuss whether or not, or when, it >> will ever be a product. >> >> I have not at this point contacted either White Pine or Apple to pursue >> these possibilities, so I can neither confirm nor refute the above >> information. >> >> (I posted this summary to the net after receiving the responses.) I also the Apple phone number given above and after some run around I was able to speak with a real live person who stated that MacTCP will soon be a product which can be licensed to a site for $2500. -- Raymond Y. Lillard FOCUS Semiconductor Systems Inc. net: (sun!daver!mfgfoc!ray) 570 Maude Court att: (408) 738-0600 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA