Unix Windowing Systems

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The phrase "windowing system for Unix" is nearly synonymous with X11 and, increasingly, Wayland. While X11 has dominated the Unix window system market for decades, it has coexisted with many others over the years. Some of them were early competitors that fell by the wayside, others filled niches that X was unable to, and still others are just fun little things someone made for fun or for a school project.

This project has three aims:

  • Gather information about these alternative window systems
  • Bring them up under emulation, where possible
  • Preserve them by porting them to modern operating systems, where practical

Early Competitors and Predecessors

  • ManaGeR (MGR)
  • SunView
  • NeWS / OpenWindows
  • NeXT Display PostScript
  • PERQ PNX / Sapphire
  • HP Windows/9000
  • CMU Andrew Window Manager
  • W (the predecessor to X)
  • prior versions of X (I'm aware X10R4 has been run in emulation)
  • mpx and mux from Research Unix 8/9
  • layers
  • the UNIX PC window system

Niche Window Systems

  • Xynth/XFast
  • QNX Windows
  • QNX Photon
  • QNX screen
  • RockLyte Athene
  • Maryland Windows
  • BSD window(1)
  • the A/UX window system

Novelties

  • Twin
  • Y Window System
  • Orbital
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