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You could use the GNU OSX archive: http://www.osxgnu.org/

Of course as you mentioned there is Fink which lets you do things like this relatively easily ...

... the native OS.X installer for *.pkg packages does not seem to have an uninstall feature (at least on one that I am aware of) which obviously starts to really suck as soon as you try to remove some crappy *.pkg packaged program you downloaded on a whim. Fortunately there is OSXPM but it still sucks that Apple did not do a better job at thinking the OS.X package manager system throug.

1. pico for quick editing before I've got X up and running.
   
2. NEdit the best programmers' text editor ever!
   
3. fvwm2 a good, fast, customizable window manager (I suffer through twm until this is in place)
   
4. ddd a simply wonderful front-end to gdb.
   
5. mozilla my browser of choice, warts and all (though konquerer is giving me second thoughts)
   
6. xscreensaver nothing makes me happier than xmatrix.
   
7. xpdf simple PDF viewer, no frills.
   
8. ROX-filer a fast and simple file system browser (though I've been leaning towards konquerer for about a year)
   
9. unclutter makes the mouse cursor disappear after several second of inactivity.
   
10. xv in case I need to fiddle with image files.
    
11. xine in case I need to watch a movie.
    

On top of this I have a set of configuration files archived for several of the above programs (i.e. fvwm2 and NEdit) and general system setup (fstab, XFree86, and bash/sh profile).

They don't need a CD, they already have Fink for bringing open-source and Free software into their systems.

http://fink.sourceforge.net/

Plus there are a handful of CDs full of open and/or Free software for OS X out there, many based upon the work of the Fink people(person?). Last I heard of one was when someone was distributing the GIMP port they made and calling it their own work, but I can only imagine there are even more out there now.

Say, for example, this.

Needless to say, pdksh is available for OS X too but you need to download and install it.

It's great. Does exactly what I want out of a shell.

Aside from the slight typographical error, you should be aware that these are NOT mutually exclusive goals. Please look here for more information.

Well, if your a unix head, using a mac, and have been under a rock for a long time, here ya go


http://www.osxgnu.org/ Go here for packages to install.

http://fink.sf.net Wow, apt-get for os x

http://finkcommander.sf.net Wow, a gui for fink

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/x11for macosx.html An x11 server that uses quartz extreme (or whatever you want to call it)


There are many other things to use, too

Yes there is a way. Use the OS X native version of Xemacs.

If that link doesn't work, there are other mirrors on OSXGNU's website.

Yes there is a way. Use the OS X native version of Xemacs.

If that link doesn't work, there are other mirrors on OSXGNU's website.

Here you go.

On a TiBook myself, and I mostly agree with you. This thing is nice, but far from perfect. Roughly following your points, first those you list as positive:

1. Excellent battery life, plenty of processor power, very nice hardware.
2. OS X is a very usable GUI, I greatly prefer it to Windows, in comparison to the infinitely more customisable X system of course it loses some points - but gains some back as well, as the defaults work reasonably well whereas X requires extensive tweaking for me to be happy with it. I'm still pissed that they screwed up the placement of window control widgets - I can get NeXT and even classic Mac widget placement on X very easily, but on a Mac I'm stuck with this Windowsish mess? Why? Oh well, you can't get a mac style menu bar on X, and the more I use it the more I appreciate it, so I guess it evens out, and I'm happy in the main - at the same time if anyone reading this knows a way to hack the problem away please post.
3. The command line is very nice to have, yes, I can't live without it, which is the reason I never even considered getting a Mac for myself before OS 10. Previously I used Linux for "real work" and windows for compromise work-play, DOS sucks, but at least it's there... on classic Macs there is nothing. Which is a good thing when you're setting up a box for the computer-illiterate graphic artist down the hall, but not when considering something I'll actually use myself. But with OS 10, best of both worlds, nice GUI, plus a real unix command line, much better than DOS or cygwin either.

Now the ones you listed as bad:

1. The mouse... ugh, too true. Using the control key and the command key in conjunction with the mouse button, of course, is the workaround, but it's definately not as good as having a real mouse.
2. Though there are, as others have pointed out, third party applications to give you multiple desktops, they're all proprietary payware (if I'm wrong please correct me, I'd love to know) and it's inexcusable really for the OS to lack such basic functionality.
3. As another poster said, TiBooks have a screw you can use to fix this problem, it's located between F5 and F6, pretty sure the iBook has it too? The problem I'm having with the keyboard is how to goddamn remap it. I have a keymap set up just the way I want (spent a good bit of time editing it last night) in ~/Library/Keyboards and another copy of it merged into the main localized.rsrc file and all of the information I can find says either should work... but my keymap is still not available. This is my biggest problem with the bugger at the moment. I need to have strange characters like öåäñáóéíç etc. handy, this is not optional for me. Switching around to swedish, spanish, etc. keymaps that I am not really familiar with just doesn't cut it, it's a pain and time consuming. In Windows (god I hate to say anything good about Windows, but in this area it is very nice) you just choose US-International keymap and voilá! problem solved. In X it's not too hard to duplicate that keymap really, and once it's done it works like a charm. On this Mac, well it took hours to figure out where the keymaps were kept and what tools I needed to edit them (one tool to split the resource fork out, another to edit it, then the first again to merge the resource fork back) and then after all that work it just doesn't work! I could cry... again if you know what's going on here please do take this as a request to post some help... I've pretty much exhausted everything on the subject google knows about..

One more thing you didn't mention but needs to be said... Free Software! Yes, the OS isn't Free, which is sad, but it's quite a bit closer than the Windows box I still had to keep on before, and it's a hell of a lot easier to port *nix applications to. Which is good for the user, and good for Free Software too, more ports and more eyeballs.

Darwin, the BSD fork that OSX is built upon, is AFAIK developed openly and independently from the Aqua GUI. I have not tried it but you can download XFree86 for Darwin at osxgnu.org

Sadly, there is no X11 support in Mac OSX--X11 on OSX requires a separate download. It works acceptably well, but it is not well integrated with the OS. Also, when you upgrade to Jaguar, your X11 installation breaks and you need to reinstall it.

- Bash IS available for OS X. You don't even have to recompile anything. It took me 5 seconds to find this on Google.

- Vim IS available for OS X. Again, no recompile needed. About 3 seconds, again Google.

- Agreed, the Terminal is decidedly no-frills. I don't need to spend a lot of time in the Terminal though (thanks to those awesome development tools) so I haven't looked very hard for a replacement. For those inclined, there has to be something better available somewhere. Perhaps someone can recommend an alternative?

OS X works fine. I NEVER boot into OS 9 or open Classic. I've had two crashes since August 21st and my machine has been running almost constantly (I really need a UPS...). All in all, it is the most reliable computer I've ever used - including my SuSE Linux box.

Smbclient is built-in

I've never had a chance to try to use smb printer sharing. Sorry.

Smb sharing is done just like it is under Linux.

I run Oroboros-X on XDarwin. I run X apps from my Linux box for the fun of it.

I've compiled lots of Linux and BSD software w/out any major hassles. The GNU Mac OS X Public Archive has ports available as source and binaries. In most cases, I just download and compile apps as if I were on my Linux box.

I have a home network with three PCs (2 Win9x, 1 Linux), two Macs (one is ancient, one is a G4 w/OS X), and an AppleTalk laser printer.

First, there's the XonX project, where they've developed a way to run rootless XFree86. It's kind of a pain to get working, so you need:

XDarwin, which is a nice way to get XFree86 windows run next to MacOSX's Aqua windows. However, even this has its faults, so I highly recommend:

OroborOSX, which is an X11 window manager/environment. I've been running 0.75a3 and a4 for a little while now, and it's pretty good. I haven't successfully compiled any X applications for it, but I haven't had much time over Christmas break to work seriously on it.

If you're looking for UNIX software to run on Mac OS X, try Fink, which aims to port all sorts of UNIX software to OS X. There's also the GNU Mac OS X Public Archive, which I only just found, and some Mac OS X ports on Forked.net, which I used to solve some initial XDarwin issues I was having.

Anyway, Microsoft wouldn't be able to port Office for OS X to UNIX very easily, we can move UNIX software (and even X11 software) to Mac OS X without too much difficulty.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -Ghandi

Is OSX the new UNIX? Why not OSX instead of the traditional UNIX's. The usual XWindows apps are being ported to OSX, take a look at Gnu Darwin, Easy to install distributions are being offered by others too.

Jobs was smart by going after a market he stood a chance of capturing, instead of butting heads with MS.

BTW, I still run Linux, but not as much since OSX has become faster and flush with now software.

XDarwin is a very nice and very easy-to-install implementation of XFree86 which runs on top of OS X. You have now the choice of "rootless" operation where the various X windows lie around, mingling with the normal Aqua windows on your OS X desktop, or the "take-over-the-screen" mode, where it is just like running X with your favorite window manager (several available, as well as the usual X toys like xeyes, etc.) It is available for download at osxgnu.org which also has various window manager systems, including Enlightenment, AfterStep, and more. These are good, easy-to-use installers, and there is also the fink installer which works great.

One thing that OS X has going for it is that lots of the gnu tools are available and very easy to install via the fink mechanism and the other nice installers available. There is a good central clearing place of various tools, including XFree86, various window managers, and lots of good things at osxgnu.org which is worth checking out. For a while, XFree was broken in 10.1 but there is a patch there that works great. It seems like with so much available for OS X, it is harder to justify using LinuxPPC or the other linux distros for Apple machines.

Has a ton of open source tools packaged up and ready to install natively on Mac OS X. Not limited to GNU, as I saw Tomcat, PostgreSQL, Python etc. on the software list

Has a ton of open source tools packaged up and ready to install natively on Mac OS X. Not limited to GNU, as I saw Tomcat, PostgreSQL, Python etc. on the software list

Though the above post missed the point... I have had absoulely NO problems at all with Xfree4.1.99.1 on my Ti PowerBook running OS 10.1. In fact, the latest version of XDarwin (formerly called Xaqua project) runs X beautifully in rootless mode on top of quartz. (type: startx -- -quartz). XDarwin now supports dual head settups and runs rootless so you can have your xterm and Gimp run right next to terminal and Photoshop (not that I would do such a thing). I don't know why this guy had X break. I'm running a stock pre-compiled version of X for darwin and the latest XDarwin install. No special modifications, just upgraded from MacOS 10.0.4 to 10.1 and my PowerBook and I are happy as clams.

Though the above post missed the point... I have had absoulely NO problems at all with Xfree4.1.99.1 on my Ti PowerBook running OS 10.1. In fact, the latest version of XDarwin (formerly called Xaqua project) runs X beautifully in rootless mode on top of quartz. (type: startx -- -quartz). XDarwin now supports dual head settups and runs rootless so you can have your xterm and Gimp run right next to terminal and Photoshop (not that I would do such a thing). I don't know why this guy had X break. I'm running a stock pre-compiled version of X for darwin and the latest XDarwin install. No special modifications, just upgraded from MacOS 10.0.4 to 10.1 and my PowerBook and I are happy as clams.