System x - x86 servers for Windows and Linux

What is the X Windows System?

To say that the X Window System is a GUI is a considerable overstatement. It is a client/server architecture that allows a client application to write to a graphical output, most commonly a terminal (and that is now a very loose definition), and for the client application to get keystrokes and pointer data from the server. X itself does nothing to provide a GUI, other than to define and independently manage unadorned windows on its console. As such, it provides much of the underlying framework with which to create GUIs. Levels of software that refine the raw X server into a GUI are Window Managers and Desktop environments. Other toolkits such as Qt, GTK, Motif, etc. also allow an application to use canned sets of features such as window adornments, user interface widgets, and tools to permit rendering of generic graphical elements.In many Linux environments it should be possible to start an X server without any of the GUI-providing frameworks, simple by typing 'X' at a console commandline. Doing so will most likely produce a fairly ugly blank, dark screen with an 'X' mouse cursor in the middle. No amount of clicking or other pointer manipulation will result in further action by the X server. It is also quite possible to run an X server that has no pointer (mouse, pen, joystick, stylus, etc.) and no display hardware (monitor) on which a client application's output will be visible. This is rarely needed, but there are times when an X server is required to support X client applications, even though there is no need to see or interact with the server. The xvfb tool which can run on a Linux host provides such capability.

How do the default file systems differ between OS X and Windows 7?

Most modern Macs use HFS+, where as Windows typically uses NTFS.There are plenty of differences that are fairly trivial (i.e. NTFS supports volumes up to 16 exabytes, whereas HFS+ (only!) goes up to 8.The main differences are in how the OS presents the FS to the user. Windows acts as if NTFS is case-insensitive (i.e. a file called Foo and foo are the same), whereas OSX shows HFS+ as case sensitive. (NTFS is actually case sensitive as well, it's at a higher level that the case insensitivity shows)NTFS is often cited as being more susceptible to fragmentation, though OSX automatically defragments files on opening them if they are larger than 20MB.All in all, other than case sensitivity, things are not that different for the end user.