OS X and X11

2009-05-07

Apparently Matlab on the Mac is still in the stone-age of using X11, and it sucks.

Yes, Apple provide X11 with OS X. But you’re not supposed to use it. It’s not for lazy retards to base their Mac platform strategy on, it’s for desperate people who absolutely must use that X11 app that some scientist wrote back in 1993.

I find mathwork’s attitude a bit whiny. On moving away from X11: “this is a multi-year endeavor”. Well, yeah. I’m sure it is. But OS X has been out for over 8 years now!

Bottom line: if your answer to “do you have a Mac product” is “Yes, we use X11”, then you do not have a Mac product. You have an inexcusable pile of dingo turd. If the answer is “Yes, it’s written in Java” then you just upgraded your turd to offal. Congratulations.

Of course, this is just my opinion. My opinion and the opinion of every other Mac user. If we liked using X11, we’d all be using Linux already.

PS: Firefox gets it right. How hard can it be?

This entry was posted on 2009-05-07 at 15:55:01 and is filed under rant.

9 Responses to “OS X and X11”

  1. Andy Hefner Says:

    2009-05-07 at 16:40:35

    > PS: Firefox gets it right. How hard can it be?

    To be fair, Mozilla strugged with years for their UI substrate, which for years seemed like a brain damaged, horribly ugly, fantastically slow disaster, and through sheer force of will (or a lot of luck) turned it into something on the threshold of usability. I used to think we’d be better off (and that they’d have saved time overall) if every Mozilla port just used a custom native UI, which puts you right back where Mathworks is now.

    Reply
  2. drj11 Says:

    2009-05-07 at 19:05:42

    But Matlab doesn’t have a native UI on OS X. It has a horrible frankenstein of Java and X11. Apparently. And anyway, they’ve had 8 years to get their act straight.

    Reply
  3. Richard Kettlewell Says:

    2009-05-07 at 19:41:36

    What I _do_ like is being able to run applications on my Linux box and having a GUI.

    Reply
  4. Richard Kettlewell Says:

    2009-05-07 at 19:42:05

    Err, to clarify that last comment, I mean while sitting in front of my Mac to run &c &c.

    Reply
    • drj11 Says:

      2009-05-08 at 07:22:52

      Ah, you mean you use Apple’s X11 server to run clients on a separate Linux box. How novel and cunning. I can see the advantage of that. I don’t use Linux much and when I do I’m usually ssh’ed in and using Terminal. And if I’m really forced to use a GUI on Linux I’ll usually do it via the virtual head (it’s usually a virtual Linux box in my case!).

      Reply
  5. Gloria Says:

    2009-05-07 at 21:36:13

    Thanks for the article! : D

    Reply
  6. sm Says:

    2009-10-14 at 18:04:25

    i find your opinion a bit sad really, friend.

    why? because x11 is for everything unix and linux, the reason apple may not have used x11, is so they didnt have to share any code with gpl, so they have control on how its used better.

    also apple doesnt just ship x11, looking at thier install it seems custom, so apple must make a custom build in thier distribution on the disk.

    and x11 isnt just 90’s apps, its for even the new stuff :-)

    im sure you mean well, but it is very closed minded.

    and you dont represent all apple users because they all want different things.

    it is quite sad for ppl to say things on behalf of every user, when they dont know them personally, now dont take offence here, im not a windows fanboy, a penquin-ite or a mac fanboy either, in-fact i use all three.

    i just think its not right to say things like the way you have, while it did mean something, it didnt needed to be worded in such a way,

    kind regards,
    sm

    Reply

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