X windows and applications advice

[Ryan Schmidt]

On May 20, 2014, at 08:59, Frank Schima wrote:

> On May 20, 2014, at 4:27 AM, James Griffin wrote:
> 
>> I wanted to run some xterms earlier and found I needed to install
>> XQuartz. Then I remembered (possibly incorrectly) that I could use X11
>> built using Macports.
>> 
>> Would you say using the X11 implementation is better in terms of using
>> and availability of X applications, many of which I will install using
>> Macports? I mean, the applications from Macports, are they able to be
>> used on XQuartz X server, I'm guessing they can be. 
>> 
>> I'm not experienced with X11 on Mac computers really so I apologise if
>> this is a silly question. 
> 
> X11 acts the same on OS X as it does anywhere else. So you can ssh into a Linux box and run X11 applications from there on your Mac.
> 
> You basically have 2 options to install X11 on OS X. 
> 
> 1. Use Macports. 
> Type the following in Terminal:
> sudo port install xorg-server
> Follow this up by logging out and logging back in. 
> This is my preferred method because it uses Macports and is thus simple to keep updated. 
> 
> 2. Install XQuartz from <http://xquartz.macosforge.org/>. 

And in case it's not clear, XQuartz is the same software that's available in MacPorts in the xorg-* ports. The versions in MacPorts are just usually a little bit newer. I prefer to install X11 with MacPorts for this reason, and because there will be less duplication of files.