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FreeBSD GNOME Project Site Open For Business

Posted by timothy on from the doubletake dept.

Joe Marcus Clarke writes: "The FreeBSD GNOME project is proud to announce the opening of our project site. This site is devoted to the GNOME desktop and its development on FreeBSD." While the port is an ongoing project, quite a few applications are ready, as are instructions on putting GNOME on your FreeBSD box.

18 of 41 comments (clear)

  1. .Net? On FreeBSD?!? by ScumBiker · · Score: 2

    I'm assuming that someone is porting the mono project to FreeBSD also. Should be interesting.

    --
    --- Think of it as evolution in action ---
  2. So what ... big deal. by nosferatu-man · · Score: 2, Funny

    So what was so difficult about (cd /usr/ports/gnome; make install),
    anyway?

    (jfb)

    --
    To spur "enterprise Linux," Big Bang, the distributed two-phase commit.
    1. Re:So what ... big deal. by DrSkwid · · Score: 1

      that's what I was thinking.

      %ls -d /var/db/pkg/gnome*
      /var/db/pkg/gnomeaudio-1.4.0
      /var/db/pkg/gnomedb-0.2.90_3
      /var/db/pkg/gnomecanvas-0.14.0
      /var/db/pkg/gnomelibs-1.4.1.2_2
      /var/db/pkg/gnomecontrolcenter-1.4.0.1
      /var/db/pkg/gnomeprint-0.29
      /var/db/pkg/gnomecore-1.4.0.4_2
      /var/db/pkg/gnomevfs-1.0.3

      mind you I've never tried to run Gnome proper, enlightenment is my WM and I feel no compunction to change.

      --
      There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
    2. Re:So what ... big deal. by Arandir · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Difficulty #1: Gnome is written for Linux. Since FreeBSD doesn't follow the LSB (or what Gnome thinks the LSB should be), there are of course problems. Nautilus simply couldn't build under FreeBSD for the longest time.

      Difficulty #2: Gnome is written for Linux. Linuxisms abound in Gnome. To be fair, they abound in KDE as well, thus the existence of the FreeBSD KDE Project. Instead of submitting endless bug reports to Gnome, only to see them closed as "not a problem on my Debian box", I suspect the FGP will do much of this work fixing themselves, then submitting the patches to Gnome.

      Difficulty #3: This is still FreeBSD, after all. Someone has to maintain these ports. Since there's quite a few of them (and more being gobbled up by the 'g' prefix every day) it only stands to reason to have a central point of portage.

      --
      A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
    3. Re:So what ... big deal. by efgbr · · Score: 1

      1. Nautilus wasn't working on FreeBSD but was on Sun Solaris. Weird, huh?

      2. Could you please point out some "Linuxisms"? I'm curious.

    4. Re:So what ... big deal. by marcovje · · Score: 1


      Nautilus compiles and runs afaik, but is a bit shaky.

      I ran make install in and Gnumric and Nautilus ports trees just to see it, and it compiled instantly and
      ran. Both of them, with no Gnome installed before.
      (about a month ago btw)

      However IMAP functionality of Nautilus crashed, GNumeric ran fine.

    5. Re:So what ... big deal. by DrSkwid · · Score: 1

      gnome is *not* a window manager

      hehe oh yeah well never mind

      whatever it is I don't run it

      I prefer diet coke too

      --
      There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
  3. As a FreeBSD power user... by smnolde · · Score: 2, Redundant

    I will not be installing gnome bloatware^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcomponents on my workstation.

    1. Re:As a FreeBSD power user... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      As a FreeBSD power user...

      Nobody who calls himself a "power user" is actually a real "power user."

    2. Re:As a FreeBSD power user... by Arandir · · Score: 1

      Proof!

      --
      A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
  4. C'mon lads! by gruntvald · · Score: 1

    lets see if we can make a BSD story reach double digits in the number of posts!

    (intended to be funny, not insulting)...

    1. Re:C'mon lads! by taion · · Score: 2

      Is that counting the "*BSD is dying trolls", or not? (:

      --

      ----------
      Floccinaucinihilipilification - the action or habit of judging something to be worthless
  5. Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    After reading the problems certain users have had with GNOME I welcome a FreeBSD/GNOME site. Many Linux users don't realise just how based on Linux a few core GNOME components really are.

    One good example is the nautilus port. Not only did it take a long time to appear in the ports tree it still has a few problems (especially stability) on my FreeBSD-4.x systems.

    I think this site will also benefit Linux users because patches will most probably flow back into GNOME and make it more portable for other systems and expand the user base of many important projects, i.e. nautilus, evolution, etc.

    cheers

  6. Portable code. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    GNOME is an example of what happens when you try to clone Microsoft.

    You get bloated, non-portable code.

    1. Re:Portable code. by aphor · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This makes no sense, in a non sequitur way that pretends to know about software development.

      GNOME is an example of what happens when you try to clone Microsoft.

      You get bloated, non-portable code.

      In actuality, the reason Gnome is bloated is that making modular reusable code isn't easy. How general/compatible do you make the component functions/classes? How autonomous/integrated should you make your application? Which libraries should you depend on, and which should you rewrite? The reason Gnome isn't portable is that in order to simplify the above problem, inadvertently or on purpose, developers tend to forget about other platforms (system dependencies) and concentrate on application dependencies. It's a symptom of just how hard these problems are. We have some lofty goals for our software these days, please pardon them for getting it somewhat wrong while they figure out how to do things.
      --
      --- Nothing clever here: move along now...
  7. Oh, the pain of installing or upgrading. by Jayson · · Score: 4, Informative
    There are two great way to install on FreeBSD:
    pkg_add -r gnome
    or for those of you who like source:
    cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome; make install
    To upgrade application gnome-app:
    portupgrade -r gnome-app
    You might also want to install the package/port called gnome-fifth-toe, since that will include things like Gnumeric, GNUCash, Gimp, etc....
  8. Yes, but a port from Microsoft by Baki · · Score: 3, Informative

    See: this or this I'm not sure about the current status though.

  9. Re:Hard times for *BSD by marcovje · · Score: 1

    I'm BSD'er, but this is nonsense.

    The frequent inbetween releases for linux kernels
    are to be able to have some more broad testing, since
    keeping a "make world" environment working is somewhat more complicated with that much
    distributions, embedded use etc.

    But BSD isn't doing that bad. Yesterday installed FreeBSD 4.5 on my laptop, and to my surprise it detected all devices of both laptop and docking station.
    It's an older laptop, but still....