Warning: "Hard to use"
Apple has worked hard to make sure that both Aqua and X11 window systems can work simultaneously, allowing users to run applications that require the X11 window system easily.

However, in the past, Unix style computers were only used by very technical users, like scientists and computer programmers. X11 catered to that audience, and so it is very difficult for "non-geeky" users. Because it is a different user interface, the mouse behavior, the keyboard behavior, and everything you think you know about the computer changes.

Unfortunately, Apple can't make X11 applications look or behave more like applications written for Apple's Aqua interface. It is up to each application developer to do this. And some applications will never do this because the developers want their application to look the same on all platforms, and that is more important to them than looking the same as other applications on the same platform.

Aqua	X11
Works ok with a 1 button mouse. Holding down modification keys while clicking performs many "optional" click functions, such as display contextual menus. The modification keys are option, control, shift, and command (aka "Apple" key). These types of clicks are called "option-click", "control-click", "shift-click", or "command-click".	Requires 3 button mouse, or emulated 3 button mouse. Macintosh computers with mice that have multiple buttons, the middle mouse button is the scroll wheel. On Macintosh computers with one button mice, the middle button is emulated by pressing the option-clicking. The 3rd button is emulated by command-clicking. Control-clicking will also show a contextual menu no matter what type of mouse you have.
Menus are always located on the top of the screen.	Menus are sometimes located at the top of the screen, sometimes in the document window.
Applications mostly have the same look and feel (see snapshot above).	Applications create their own look and feel, often looking very different from each other (see snapshot above).
Graphically appealing, smooth color changes, appealing background textures, "lickable" buttons and widgets (see snapshot above).	Grey and blockly, and often contain no thought for any aesthetics at all (see snapshot above).
Intuitive, often requiring no manual at all.	Ease of use is sometimes never thought of in some X11 applications and require users to read lengthy manuals. But it must be noted that most of these types of applications are specifically targeted for very technical users who are use to reading lengthy manuals. And this doesn't describe all X11 applications.
To copy, you select text, then you select the menu "Edit" and then "Copy" (or press command-c).	To copy, select the text. That is all. Some applications also offer control-c.
To paste, put the cursor where you want to insert the text, then select the menu "Edit" and then "Paste" (or press command-v).	To paste, press the middle mouse button. Some applications also offer control-v.
NOTE: to copy from an X11 application so that you can paste into an Aqua application, you have to select the text and also press command-c. Selecting the text alone will not allow you to paste into Aqua applications. To paste something into an X11 application that you copied from an Aqua application, press the middle mouse button (be sure not to select anything before you paste).
Keyboard shortcuts use the command (aka "Apple") key as the modifier key. For example, command-v is paste.	Keyboard shortcuts use the control key. For example, control-v acts as paste in many (not all) X11 applications. There are also many different key combinations that are completely foreign to Mac OS users.
Nearly every application supports drag and drop so that you can move one item or text straight from one application to another.	Drag and drop does not work at all.
The Dock shows running applications.	Some X11 applications will be shown in the Dock, but not all. And in some cases, the launcher application is shown, but not the X11 application. In the image below, the dock icons for The Gimp and OpenOffice.org are NOT the X11 applications, but the helper applications. The MATLAB icon is the X11 icon. The Netscape icon is not shown (and can't be because it is running off of a remote computer using display forwarding). So X11 dock icons aren't consistent. To get a list of running X11 applications, right-click or control-click on the X11 Dock icon.
The default way to interact with the computer is by using the Finder application, which shows you a graphical representation of your hard disks, and allows you to find Applications and launch them.	The default way to interact with the computer is through a terminal window called xterm (text based interaction). You type commands into xterm to get a text listing of the hard disk, and you launch applications by typing in the path to the application that you want to launch. To learn the commands to navigate using xterm, see the Unix tutorials above.

Launching X11 applications


MATLAB 6.5.1
MATLAB is a high-level technical computing language and interactive environment for algorithm development, data visualization, data analysis, and numerical computation. Using MATLAB, you can solve technical computing problems faster than with traditional programming languages, such as C, C++, and Fortran.

Read more about MATLAB.

To launch MATLAB, in the Finder, double click on "/Applications/General/X11/Matlab_6.5.1/Matlab 6.5.1". The icon that appears in the Dock at the bottom of the screen is NOT MATLAB, but a helper application that launches MATLAB. It will bounce alot because it is set to bounce for about 30 seconds no matter what else is happening. Eventually it will go away and a second MATLAB icon will appear in the dock. That is the real MATLAB application.

If the MATLAB application never appears, then try opening MATLAB in xterm. If there are errors, you will see them in the xterm window, and then you can report this to us.

You can launch MATLAB in xterm by typing:

/Applications/General/X11/Matlab_6.5.1/bin/matlab


OpenOffice.org 1.0.3
OpenOffice.org is an open source (free and multi-platform) office productivity suite. It includes the key desktop applications, such as a word processor ("Writer"), spreadsheet ("Calc"), presentation manager ("Impress"), and drawing program ("Draw"), with a user interface and feature set similar to other office suites. Sophisticated and flexible, OpenOffice.org also works transparently with a variety of file formats, including those of Microsoft Office.

OpenOffice.org 1.0.3 on the Mac may crash. It is also a version behind, and we will have the latest version out very soon. You should still be able to open, edit, save, and print files.

Read more about the features.

To launch OpenOffice.org, in the Finder, double click on "/Applications/General/X11/OpenOffice_1.0.3/StartOpenOffice.org. The icon that appears in the Dock at the bottom of the screen is NOT OpenOffice.org, but a helper application that launches OpenOffice.org. This helper application never goes away unless you click on it and tell it to quit (by selecting the menu "Start OpenOffice.org" and select "Quit"). If you quit this helper application, OpenOffice.org will continue to run. No dock icon for OpenOffice.org is displayed. You must click on the X11 icon to reveal OpenOffice.org if it is hidden.

To quit OpenOffice.org, you must select the "File" menu IN THE OPENOFFICE.ORG WINDOW, not on the Mac menubar. Then select "Exit". Notice how "Windows" it looks... :P

If the OpenOffice.org window never appears, then try opening OpenOffice.org in xterm. If there are errors, you will see them in the xterm window, and then you can report this to us.

You can launch OpenOffice.org in xterm by typing:

/Applications/General/X11/OpenOffice_1.0.3/program/soffice

Errors about "/usr/bin/lpc: No such file or directory" and "Could not get Printer PPD" will appear, and are known issues (that don't cause too many problems).


The Gimp 2.0
The GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is open source (free and multi-platform) software for tasks such as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

Read more about The Gimp.

The Gimp is much more Mac like than the other X11 applications. Just double click on /Applications/General/X11/The_Gimp_2.0/The_Gimp_2.0. The icon in the dock is still a helper application, but it is a smart helper application. When you quit it, it will quit The Gimp running in X11.


SAS
SAS provides tools for to perform and visualize statistical analysis methods such as variance, regression, categorical data, multivariate, survival, psychometric, cluster, nonparametric, survey data, multiple imputation for missing values, and study planning.

Read more about SAS.

To use SAS, you need an account on a server that has SAS installed. SAS will not install or run on a Macintosh computer. See the section below on X11 display forwarding for details how to run SAS and view it on a Mac.

X11 display forwarding
The X11 user interface allows users to run applications on one computer, but display the graphical interface on a different computer. This is called display forwarding.

Getting an account
To run X11 using display forwarding you must first have an account on a server that supports X11 forwarding and has X11 applications installed. The Math department is an example of one department that has both. In fact, the Math department offers many more X11 programs than our computers.

The Math department will create accounts for University of Utah students who can show justification to use their software. If you would like access to their programs, please visit their lab.

Read more here: www.math.utah.edu/ugrad/lab.html

There are also other departments on campus that will allow X11 display forwarding from their computers. Please contact your department's computer administrators to find out.

When you have an account on another computer, and you can login using "ssh", then you are ready to use X11 display forwarding.

Display forwarding
First open an xterm window by bringing X11 to the front and selecting the menu "Applications", then "Terminal". This will open an xterm window. Note, "/Applications/Public Utilities/Apple/Terminal.app" is very similar to xterm, but it will NOT do X11 display forwarding, only xterm can.

In xterm, enable X11 display forwarding by logging into another computer using ssh and add the "-X" parameter to the ssh command. For example, to use X11 on a Mac to view sas running on a Sun server, in the xterm window, type:

% ssh -X user@xserver.math.utah.edu
% sas

or to run only sas

% ssh -X -f user@xserver.math.utah.edu sas

You will not get much feedback that anything is happening. But if you wait, eventually windows should start showing. And that is it. Except you can not close the xterm window or quit X11. If you do, it will quit any X11 applications running in the xterm window.

Note: because of firewall settings on the Macintosh computers, not all X11 applications will work correctly when displayed locally but running on a remote computer.