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There's some software most Mac users probably haven't ever heard of that could make a big difference to the future health of Apple Computer. It's called X11 Windows (no, not that Windows), and as this CNET News.com article explains, it enables software developed for one version of Unix to run on other versions of Unix. Apple recently released its own beta of X11, and guess what that means?

Writers Joe Wilcox and Stephen Shankland say there 30 million X11 users worldwide, which is another way of saying there are many more Unix users, running one version or another, than there are Mac users. Apple's beta version of X11, already over the 100,000 download mark, offers the following way of bringing some of them into the fold:

" X11 provides a windowing environment that lets Unix programs run on Mac OS X essentially the same way they do on their native operating systems. The tool also makes the process of developing a native OS X application faster, while allowing programs to run on a Mac in the meantime. Also, X11 running on OS X gives Unix users a portable option they might not have with Unix."

X11 is a bridge between the two user communities, in other words, and one that offers great economic advantages.

"On hardware costs alone, Apple can make a case that switching to its systems from Unix makes sense. A Sun Blade 2000 workstation with 1GHz UltraSparc III processor, 2GB of RAM and a 73GB hard drive sells for $15,995. In comparison, a Power Mac G4 with dual 1.25GHz processors, 2GB of RAM and a 120GB hard drive sells for $4,599. The Mac also offers DVD recording and wireless networking, among other features not typically available with Unix or Linux workstations."

We think this is an exciting development and will keep a close watch as things progress.

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