Tenon Intersystems : Press Release

Xtools: An Aqua X Window Desktop for Mac OS X

Public Beta Available Now

Santa Barbara, CA, September 25, 2000. Tenon Intersystems announced today a public beta of their new Xtools - a fully integrated X Desktop for Mac OS X. Tenon's high-performance X Window Server will provide seamless integration between an X Window display environment and Macintosh applications. Tenon's new X Window Server is an easy-to-use, flexible Mac OS X application that integrates the best elements of Apple's Aqua desktop with state-of-the-art X Window tools to provide a powerful extension to Apple's new OS.

Tenon's Xtools not only allows remote X Window applications to be displayed on the Mac OS X desktop, but also includes complete set of X Window tools and libraries to support local execution of X applications and X games on OS X. Extending Mac OS X with an X Window porting environment will enable high-resolution 3D-modeling & animation, graphical visualization and image rendering applications to be built directly on Mac OS X.

The X Window System is an open source, industry standard for displaying remote graphical applications. X is highly portable, being both hardware and operating system independent, so users on one computer can work directly with applications on another computer. The X Window System allows enterprise-wide personal computer desktops to connect to mission critical applications and information-based systems on UNIX, Linux, and NT servers. Having an X Window Server on Apple's new Mac OS X Aqua desktop will extend the reach and strength of Mac OS X. Apple's OS X will not only be the most appealing desktop, but by virtue of the strength of OS X itself and the power of the G4 platforms, with X Window support the new Macs can be the desktop of choice for all enterprise applications, be they local or remote.

Tenon's new X product, based on the latest X11R6.4 X Window release, will include a suite of pre-compiled X client applications. Tenon plans to work closely with the Mac OS X developer community to jointly produce a wide range of ported X applications and X window managers. The Xtools public beta supports rootless display of X Windows with an Aqua X Window Manager. In addition to the Aqua X desktop, the final product will include a full-screen mode, where X Window applications are displayed on a 'virtual screen'. Full 'copy and paste' is available between native Macintosh applications and the X Window Server. The new X will support OpenGL, a full range of X Extensions, use of a three-button mouse, CDE (Common Desktop Environment) fonts, and will be XDM (X Window Display Management) capable.

Tenon's Xtools is downloadable as a public beta from /products/xtools/pre-release_beta. An online discussion board is available for beta testers and X application developers. The final product is slated to ship when Mac OS X ships in early 2001.

Founded in 1989, Tenon Intersystems is a leader in high-performance networking. Tenon technology has provided the framework for world-class networking on the Macintosh and Tenon is continuing that tradition on Mac OS X. Tenon Intersystems can be reached in the U.S. at 805-963-6983, by the internet at sales@tenon.com, or via the web at www.tenon.com.

Tenon and Xtools are trademarks of Tenon Intersystems.
X Window System is a trademark of The Open Group.
All other product names are trademarks of their respective holders.