Native Gimp (read: no X11 anymore) coming to Mac OS X

✎ Published: 2006-01-28 10:30:30

Gimp may soon be usable on Mac without X11, enhancing performance. Gtk+, originally developed for Gimp, is now Gnome's official toolkit and has been ported natively to Mac OS X. This opens access to numerous Gnome applications, which align closely with Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines, promising a seamless user experience.

Native Gimp (read: no X11 anymore) coming to Mac OS X

Soon you all may be able to use Gimp without that nasty X11 starting in the background (and slowing down your Mac). Gimp uses the so-called Gtk+ toolkit to display it's widgets & visible elements. Gtk had originaly been developed for use in Gimp but then continued on a bright path conquering all kinds of territory; it's now Gnome's official toolkit, used as the standard-toolkit for Mono (an Open Source .net development) and thus drives a lot of open source applications. Now some people have been working hard on porting it to Mac OS X - natively, that is without any X11. The benefit of this would be that, next to Gimp, a gigantic amount of Gnome-Applications would be available on Mac OS X. And since Gnome proposes and follow a HIG (Human Interface Guidelines) which is quite close to Apple's, there's a good reason to look forward to this event.