bug wrote:
>>>Anyone know what the deal is?
>>>
>>
>>Might it be that you have also fink installed? Juest guessing.
>>
>
>
> I do indeed - and maybe I am totally off base, but I don't see the
> connection. I thought Fink was just a package manager....
Not "just". Fink adds a lot of OpenSource thingies one is used to on
other Unix machines.
> If Fink is not
> the best package manager to use with X11, then what is everyone using.
It's probably the best as it seems to be the only mature one and it is
based on a good example of Debian. But it is not really connected with
X11 or anything else on the MacOS X applications side. It adds simply a
second system hierarchy to your MacOS X installation. The one you may be
well used to. The more "traditional" hierarchy of direct ports of well
known Open Source Unix software All fink things ;-) reside by default in
the /sw directory of your filesystem tree. They are, however, well
connected to the rest of the MacOS via appropriate ENVIRONMENT variables
settings.
> Honestly, I like Fink more than any other package manager I've used
> (Synaptic/apt (Redhat), dselect (debian), YAST (SUSE))....
Fink ditribution is in its big part based on Debian philosophy (package
structures, apt-get and yes, dselect too).
>
> So this is actually a different X windows implementation? So there is
> probably a difference between them and I should probably be using X11 to get
> the best results?
There are two chances. My best guess is that you have installed the fink
support for the Apple's own X11 implementation. In the latest fink
distro this is done via system-xfree* packages.
If this is the case (as I suspect) then you left your original (Apple)
X11 installation intact and added only some wrappers from fink, which
allow the fink dependencies to be resolved and also you can use the
"normal" Unix commands to start X server from the command line. These
include the "X" and "startx" commands. Both of them will try to run the
Apple's X server contained in the Finder visible "X11.app"
This gives you also some other easy possibilities like
$> X -query interesting_host
or
$> X -broadcast
which would be difficult to achieve when starting X11.app from Finder.
There is also a possibility that you have installed a second X11
implementation, namely the xfree86 from fink distribution, which would
give similar results on the command line but since (AFAIR) you said your
X applications behaved (and looked) the same (Apple's X window manager),
I find it rather unlikely. In such case you would be right - there
would be no real point in having two X11 isntallations, especially that
the Apple's one seem to be performing better.
>
> Sorry if the questions seem foolish, I'm pretty much coming from Linux so
> all the ways I have learned to see what is what are not quite the same.
>
It's a slightly bigger world. You can really pick the best of breed from
both the old Unix and the new Mac OS. Just hope that Apple would not
spoil this great idea in the near future. With the latest OS update I am
no longer so sure ;-)
To make it short:
Most probably you have only one X11 installation and this is the Apple's
native one. By installing Fink, you only added yourself a possibility to
start it using the more "traditional", Unix-style methods.
Cordially.
P.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
>> Stay informed about: Panther - X vs. X11 
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