[pwolfe1]

I just purchased a 12" powerbook. I have been a linux user for about 4 years now and am very curious about this new OS. I have had a chance to use OSX with the X11 extensions to use my open source apps.

Is it true that I can use any of the -nix window managers in place of Aqua? If so, is it possible to have at the login screen a way to choose what GUI I want to use for that login?

[NetworkShadow]

On top of Aqua as far as I know, and I don't think you can do anything at the OS X log-in screen other than log-in to OS X. You'll get a better answer from someone a bit more knowing with X11, I'm sure.

[u2zoo]

Apple's X11 works with quartz-wm ... Apple's Aqua friendly X11 window manager... it supports cut and paste between Aqua apps and X11 apps and all sorta of friendliness (included faster GUI rendering).

You can technically use any wm by updating your X configs just like you would on linux - but that's not going to give you the chooser you are looking for.

What you really want is to run in "console mode" and use a different X11 install than Apple's... because Apple's X11 won't run in console.

At the mac os xlogin prompt you can type:

>console

hint enter and you are dropped out of Aqua into Darwin/BSD land.

from here you need an X11 server that supports console mode like XDarwin or you can compile xfree86 from source... it is hardware accelerated, etc. running in >console mode is technically like booting up to linux and not having any window managers, etc start up. just the base-os bits. since you are linux user, I suggest you get out there and do the research and get this running and see how you like it.. I wouldn't suggest this path for newbies to X11 but it just isn't worth the effort for most of you.. Apple's X11 runs smoothly with Aqua and everything just works(tm).

to be clear on something - you CANNOT run Aqua apps in >console mode.... you are stuck running command line apps and x11 apps.

this is sorta the halfassed, early in the morning explanation of all this, but you have enough to dig deeper now. it can be done, and it is not particularly difficult.

[pwolfe1]

when you say aqua apps, are you referring to things like itunes, and the ilk?

Thanks for the reply though U2zoo. I was unaware of a XDarwin project. Your explanation seems easy enough though. When I get the pbook, I will take a look into it and write a nice little howto if I get it running..

[u2zoo]

Correct, itunes, ichat... adobe's photoshop - anything written in carbon and cocoa that is designed to use the Aqua/Quartz native mac os x GUI engine.

So you couldn't run Microsoft Office side by side with xEmacs in >console mode. Which sorta takes away the whole fun on this world we have. But from a hackers/tweakers point of view I could see where it would be useful to maybe switch into >console mode to do some heavy X11 development and you didn't want the overhead of Aqua.

(this thread is really more of unix one at this point, mods...)

Apple's X11 simply does a damn good job of making standard X11 apps feel like they are running in the normal Aqua/Quartz environment.

The XDarwin group seems to be positioning themselves for a head to head battle for speed with Apple X11's ... so kudos to them. It is a project to keep an eye on if you are into this.

Good luck, and any how-to you write would certainly be welcome. O'Reilly ran an article a long time ago about running xfree on mac os x (including >console mode)... but it is clearly out of date as so much has changed (for the better) in the os x & x11 world. Write it up and submit to the macosxhints.com folks - it'll make the rounds (thru blogs, macslash, etc) from there.

[pwolfe1]

It'll take me a shile to try this out, but I will be sure to document it as I go.

Thanks for the links btw.