Evert wrote:I'm not too worried.
Macs are popular within the scientific community because it provides a UNIX environment, including X11. The moment it's dropped it will lose its appeal.
Sure, the scientific community does not dominate the market for consumer-based hardware, but it does provide a solid and reliable customer base on which to build.
Apple's Xserve rack mount started strong but the updates became less frequent over time and the model was killed a year or so ago.
The same thing seems to be happening to the Mac Pro line which hasn't been updated in 16 months, a record.
And so Apple's attitude towards the scientific community and the pro workstation community has become apparent.
That's too bad. But re X, it really is a horrible environment to develop for, and the user experience is not that great either (configuration and font management for example).
I would advise against relying upon the continued official support of X Windows running on Mac OS/X. For some time, Apple has been removing developer tools which cover anything beyond what is needed for making applications for its various iGadgets. All PowerPC development support is gone, the ability to run PowerPC applications via emulation is gone, etc. Essentially, if what you write doesn't help make money for Apple via hardware sales and their 30% commission on software, then tough luck buddy.
I don't know about the far future, but there is an active team working on the current current Apple X Window server. They are currently bringing it up to the current XOrg code base, and making it easier to maintain in the long term.
