Download

System requirements: macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later. Universal binary — runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel.

MacXServer is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple. How smoothly the first launch goes depends on which browser you download with. Pick one of the two paths below.

Download with Safari (recommended)

Three steps:

1. Click the download button above. Safari auto-extracts the .zip.
2. Drag MacXServer.app to your Applications folder.
3. Open it from Applications.

That’s it. The app launches.

Download with Chrome, Firefox, or Edge

Same download, one extra approval step on first launch:

1. Click the download button above. The browser saves MacXServer.zip to your Downloads folder.
2. Double-click the .zip to extract it.
3. Drag MacXServer.app to your Applications folder.
4. Open it from Applications. macOS shows a dialog: “Apple could not verify … is free of malware,” with Move to Trash and Done buttons. Click Done.
5. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the Security section near the bottom, find the line “MacXServer was blocked …” and click Open Anyway. Authenticate when prompted.
6. Double-click MacXServer.app again and click Open on the final confirmation. It launches normally from here on out.

This is macOS Sequoia’s standard one-time approval flow for any notarized app downloaded from outside the App Store. It’s not a malware warning specific to MacXServer; Sequoia just shows it for every quarantined app on first launch, regardless of who signed it. Safari downloads usually skip the prompt entirely; downloads from other browsers don’t.

Once it’s running

• The app puts an icon in the menu bar. Click it to see the server’s status (running / port / connected clients) and open the preferences.
• Default listen port is 6000 (X display :0). Point an X client at this Mac’s hostname or IP and its windows show up as native NSWindows.
• For Sun workstations specifically, see the setup guide on the GitHub wiki .

Older versions

All historical releases are on GitHub: github.com/toddvernon/MacXServer/releases .

Tags follow MacXServer-vX.Y.Z.

Source

github.com/toddvernon/MacXServer — the whole server (and the companion macXcapture app) is open source. Build from source with Xcode or swift build -c release.