Written in C Type Display server | Operating system | |
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Developer(s) Jeremy Huddleston Sequoia, X.Org Foundation, Apple Inc. Stable release 2.7.11 / October 29, 2016; 5 months ago (2016-10-29) License Apple Public Source License
MIT License | ||
XQuartz (formerly and often still informally referred to as X11.app) is Apple Inc.'s version of the X server, a component of the X Window System (X11, or shortened to simply X, and sometimes informally X-Windows) for macOS. The name "XQuartz" derives from Quartz, the macOS graphics framework, to which XQuartz connects these applications. XQuartz is a required component that allows cross-platform applications to run on the macOS, many of which are not specifically designed for macOS. This includes numerous scientific and academic software projects.
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History
X11.app was initially available as a downloadable public beta for Mac OS X v10.2 and later included as a standard package for Mac OS X v10.3. In Mac OS X v10.4, X11.app was an optional install included on the install DVD. Mac OS X v10.5, Mac OS X v10.6 and Mac OS X v10.7 installed X11.app by default, but from OS X Mountain Lion (10.8), Apple dropped dedicated support for X11.app, with users directed to the open source XQuartz project (to which it contributes) instead.
In Mac OS X v10.4, Apple's X11 implemented X11 protocol release 6.6 (X11R6.6). This implementation includes an XFree86 4.4 based X11 window server, Quartz rootless window manager, libraries, and basic utilities such as xterm. "Rootless" means that X window applications show up on the Quartz desktop, appearing like any other windowed Quartz application (that is, not in a virtual desktop contained within another window). In Mac OS X v10.5, X11 was updated to use X.Org Server (X11R7.2) rather than XFree86. The source code for X11 is available from Apple. Some source code is available under the Apple Public Source License while the bulk is licensed under the MIT License.
Current version
The current version of XQuartz is a DDX (Device Dependent X) included in the X.Org Server and implements support for hardware-accelerated 2D graphics (in versions prior to 2.1), hardware OpenGL acceleration and integration with Aqua, the macOS graphical user interface (GUI). As of version 2.7.9, XQuartz does not provide support for high-resolution Retina displays to X11 apps, which run in pixel-doubled mode on high-resolution displays.
Mac-on-Mac
Mac-on-Mac (MoM) is a port of Mac-on-Linux for macOS. It is intended to be user-friendly. With this software, Mac OS X 10.0 through 10.3, Mac OS 9, OpenDarwin, and Linux can be run in a separate window on a Macintosh computer running macOS. The software requires X11 and a PPC-based Mac to run.