X is More...

X Is More Than You Think...

The industry is just beginning to notice the great flexibility that the X Consortium built into the X Window System from the start. Long thought of as simply a graphics display protocol for UNIX workstations, X is now being recognized as a the general purpose, cross-platform application display protocol that it is.

In the same way that the current excitement over the web is precipitated by a repackaging of existing telnet, ftp, and SGML/hypertext technologies into a powerful new computing paradigm, combining X with emerging networking paradigms offers powerful solutions to serving applications independent of the underlying operating system.

Run Windows, Macintosh, or UNIX Applications from Across Platforms?
Run Real Applications From Within Your Web Browers?
Serve Your Front End While Protecting Your Data?
Get the Most Recent Applications off Your Cable TV?
Imbed Any Application In Another?

Run Windows, Macintosh, or UNIX Applications from Across Platforms

The technology is here today

Click on this image (an Excel spreadsheet running in a Netscape window)
to see it full size. Use your browser's "Back" button to return to this page.

This can be used to:

Deploy the right tool for the job
Decouple your hardware purchasing from your applications needs
Allow better cooperation between users
Maitain existing skill sets
Leverage legacy solutions

Run Real Applications From Within Your Web Browers

The technology is here today

Click on this image to see it full size.
Use your browser's "Back" button to return to this page.

We have a plug-in and a web demo that you can run on your browser today to see this technology in action.

This can be used to:

Share applications across work groups
Create more complicated web interfaces
Serve demo applications to customers
Leverage existing interfaces and programming skills

Serve Your Front End While Protecting Your Data

The technology is here today

Click on this image to see it full size.
Use your browser's "Back" button to return to this page.

Get the Most Recent Applications off Your Cable TV

The technology will be here soon

Click on this image to see it full size.
Use your browser's "Back" button to return to this page.

By using X to serve application front ends to TV cable boxes, the boxes could be built with a very small application footprint and yet still display any application that can run on a UNIX, Windows, or Macintosh system.

Imbed Any Application In Another

The technology will be here soon

Click on this image (Macintosh "Meeting Maker" running in an Internet Explorer window)
to see it full size. Use your browser's "Back" button to return to this page.

A simple combination of Active X and X embedding technologies will allow existing applications and new applications built with existing programming models to be generally included into Active Documents. This simplifies the long hoped for future of custom application workspaces built using object paradigms. These custom workspaces have captured mindshare, but not become reality because the types of simple controls that can be included in them don't yet support the wealth of complicated data that would make them useful.

Š1997, The Open Group. All rights reserved.
Open Software Foundation, OSF, the OSF logo, OSF/1, OS F/Motif, Motif, X/Open, and UNIX are registered trademarks, and The Open Group, the "X" device, X Consortium and X Window System are trademarks, of The Open Group. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Permission is granted to reproduce any portion of the text or graphic images of this document provided that you prominently display both the copyright notice listed above and the following acknowledgment: