A graphical, network-based windowing environment originally developed for Unix and Unix- like operating systems (and since made available for other platforms) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; currently, it is under continuous development as an open-source program by the Open Group, a Unix industry consortium.
X (as the X Window system is known to UNIX users) provides the basic windowing services, including fonts and pull-down menus, for graphical UNIX applications. X is designed to function in a network environment.
See desktop environment, GNOME, KDE, UNIX, Unix-like operating system, windowing environment, and window manager, X client, X Protocol, X server.
Technipages Explains X Window System
X Window System is an open-source software package for designing the human-computer interface on a computer or a network of computers. It divides processing between clients and servers that run on the same computer or different computers on the same network. X window system is also known as X by its users.
An X window system interacts with, the software of the computer controlling the video output of a network or an application displaying to the window of another display system, of the clients. However, the server for X resides on the local computer being used directly by the user instead of on a separate computer in the network, and this makes it possible for the client user to be either on the separate computer or on his computer.
X from inception unlike contemporary display-oriented software programs which required users to be used with an attached display device, X was designed to be used over network connections. So X could be running on a computer in a network, and it will display its user interface when accessed by another computer in the same network. In 1984, a merger of Stanford University, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) aided by IBM (International Business Machine Corporations), it was originally designed for communications between X Terminals and UNIX workstations.
Common Uses of X Window System
- X window system network protocol allows for both 2D and 3D operations by an X window system client application which might be running on a different computer.
- There is no inbuilt audio function for the X window system, and compatible extensions can be adopted
- The user interfaces being used X window system users is not mandated by it, rather by the individual programs running on its platform
Common Misuses of X Window System
- X window system network features result in excessive complexity if only used locally, its recent version network capabilities can cause an undesirable performance hit
- While using X window system, administrators don’t manually have to edit configuration files
