#What is xquartz for for mac os x#

In Mac OS X v10.4, Apple's X11 implemented X11 protocol release 6.6 (X11R6.6). 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, X11.app was an optional install included on the install DVD.

#What is xquartz for for mac os x#

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, which can be downloaded from Apple's website. 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 Mac OS X graphical user interface (GUI). The name derives from Quartz, the OS X graphics framework, to which XQuartz connects these applications. This includes numerous scientific and academic software projects. XQuartz is therefore a required component that allows cross-platform applications, many of which were not specifically designed for OS X, to run on it. The X Window System is a standard framework for creating applications with a graphical user interface on Unix-like operating systems. 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, for Mac OS X.