Slashdot Mirror
KDE Ported to Mac OS X
benh57 writes "KDE has finally been ported to Mac OS X, by the Fink team. Source packages and pre-built binaries are now available. Read the announcement and instructions for installing. Woohoo!"
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
I'm technically helping, but I can't access CVS due to SSH problems. But it looks nice from the screenshots I've seen.
Oh, and first post.
I've really enjoyed how the Linux/UNIX community has poured their time into making things work in Mac OS X. While OS X users have a really good interface already (and aren't likely to switch for good), adding KDE makes working around in X (as in XFree86, that is) that much easier. Further, it adds an additional arsenal of desktop tools that an OS user can take advantage of in the occasional event that an OS X native app doesn't do what you would expect.
I'll wait for KDE/OSX to get rid of a couple of more bugs, and then I'll try my XDarwin out on the fruit-juicy goodness of KDE.
Hopefully, this'll get the GNOME guys a little jealous and they'll wrap up their port.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
What's wrong with this picture?
in't it?
Like an idiot, I accidentally deleted the
[hobbsg4:~] jeff% fink selfupdate
sudo
Password:
Your Fink installation is set up to update package descriptions directly from
CVS. Do you want to use this setup and update now? [Y/n]
I will now run the cvs command to retrieve the latest package descriptions.
After that, the core packages will be updated right away; you should then
update the other packages using commands like 'fink update-all'.
cvs -z3 update -d -P
cvs update: could not open
cvs [update aborted]: use "cvs login" to log in first
### cvs failed, exit code 1
Failed: Updating using CVS failed. Check the error messages above.
[hobbsg4:~] jeff%
Does anyone know how to get fink running again? Reinstalling from
~jeff
First I'd like to say that choice is always good, and the more apps on OS X, the better.
:-)
But, Aqua is a really nice window manager already. I use OS X and Aqua at home, and Linux/KDE at work, and IMHO Aqua is by far superior to KDE.
I'd like to see konqueror on OS X though...
Have you ever used KDE before?
There are so many great apps for KDE that you wouldn't believe. I admit, OSX interface is much better and cleaner but application make the difference.There is no better browser than Konqui, no better terminal app than Konsole, no such IRC client for OSX as Kvirc... I could give you at least twenty more apps that OSX crowd would really appreciate. I just wish that QT for Macs is GPLd, this would mean those apps could be ported to take full advantage of Quartz and Aqua on top of it.
Does anyone know what happened to Macslash.com tonight? I was on it earlier today and now its some hosting site!
Have KDE running on my personal server I dink around with for about 2 years. (Maybe only had KDE for about a year??) I do Mozilla. I been doing Netscape since before it was Netscape. Apple's Terminal.app isn't very impressive. It does all I want. Don't do IRC. I do Photoshop and Illustrator and crap like that, surf with Mozilla and change email clients every two months. I do most of my writing in BBEdit. I run Apache with my Mac boxes and the Linux box (an oversexed hp) when I'm in the mood. Have big hummer graphics cards of 64MB all ready for Quartz Extreme and my two monitors (3 if I want). I mostly take pictures and write books. OSX has more than I want. I do data base for my motley little bunch of pics I sell in FileMaker Pro and it's faster than I need and stores my little collection of about 10 or 12k pix very nicely. In short I'm a looser because I buy proprietary software because it does what I want it to do. I do have fun playing with my little SuSE box, KDE, X86 et al but it's more of a toy than a fun and/or working machine. I confess. I'm hopeless. Like most I'm not a programmer so if something is broke I get something else that isn't. While I do appreciate all the ports coming over from BSD and Linux to OSX I haven't found any of them yet worth keeping or using. What I mostly like about Linux is the folks that use it. :)
i kinda really like aqua and i for one am not going to switch to anything else. i think it is very coo that kde is up though because when i get a new box, hopefully soon, i will try running that atop darwin for shits and giggles.
I want 2D games back.
I'm pretty sure that this effort was originally directed towards OpenDarwin, which is the core of OS X and it is portable like *BSD. if you are confused, think of KDE for OS X as a side effect of KDE for OpenDarwin
Okay really... kde is nice and all... and will help Darwin users... if you use XDarwin & KDE is a bloated peice of crap... over kill big time. But if your using KDE just as a darwin user its fine... get OS X out of the name for this...
yes i know darwin is the bsd core of os x... blah blah blah yada yada yada.
<rant>how long before pocus for the GNU/Darwin fame claims GNU/Darwin ported KDE and sounds out more shameless PR plugs?</rant>
I totally agree that KDE's interface is far inferior to OS X but KDE has some great applications that porting KDE to OS X has gotten us OSX users much closer to being able to use.
I have some moderation points that I was going to dedicate to this discussion, but I think that it would be better if I posted instead of moderated.
Let me ask this honestly: how can someone work in an organized fashion with the MacOS X style of managing windows?
I am an experienced Unix system administrator, but a complete newbie with Macs (in fact, I just bought my first macintosh 4 months ago, an iBook 600MHz, combo, 12") and feel completely lost trying to work with MacOS X.
I don't care for eyecandy and animated icons as much as I care for a functional environment, but the fact managing windows with MacOS X is much messier than with standard Unix window managers, where you can separate your desktops for different tasks. In my case, I usually have my first virtual desktop for an xterm and e-mail, my second for browsing the web and my third and fourth for other tasks various tasks.
On the other hand, when I am typing some important text in LaTeX, I usually reserve the first desktop for some command line hacking (say, with perl), the second virtual desktop for Emacs and the third for seeing the output of my text with xdvi (I usually use Windowmaker as my window manager, both under Solaris and under Linux).
I feel that this separation of tasks keeps me organized and makes me quite productive since I can quickly move between different aspects of my work, but how can I keep everything organized with MacOS X with just one desktop and with applications with more than one window (say, Appleworks)?
I also appreciate that I can do all that under Windowmaker with intelligently set key-bindings and having to use the mouse quite few.
So, this is an honest question: how are you guys productive with MacOS X? Is there any way to keep various applications organized?
I already tried Space for MacOS X and, honestly, its capabilities are nowhere near, say, windowmaker in terms of functionality.
So, when people say that MacOS X's user interface is so good, I can only think that they work in a different fashion than I do or that they are exploring features that I don't know about.
Also, today I tried installing Fink and was amazed at first, but after only two or three hours of using it, the fact that XDarwin is much slower than XFree86 under Linux (on the same notebook) makes me also suspect that I may not be using the programs correctly. I can't believe how slow it is. I would not even dare to run KDE on MacOS X (the topic of this story).
So, when people say that MacOS X's user interface is so good, I can only think that they work in a different fashion than I do or that they are exploring features that I don't know about.
Any comments are desperately appreciated.
KDE has been ported to *Darwin*. The fact that that means it can also run on Mac OS X is less important. Darwin, the bare Unix part, now has a decent window manager/desktop environment. Now (or soon anyway) people could use Darwin as an alternative to Linux. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but we now have a free Unix for the Mac that is binary compatible with Mac OS X. This will make it a lot easier for the community to work on Darwin as its own OS, with obvious benefits to Mac OS X.
The port begain before OpenDarwin existed... =)
WWJD? JWRTFM!!!
Rather that port KDE via XDarwin would it not make more sense to port the apps vie a port of the QT toolkit to Aqua? I think QT is available for OS X, the web page at Trolltech appears to say so http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt/index.html I don't know if this means you get an Aqua look 'n feel...
does anyone know what the menu bar weather app is in this screenshot?
Yea! I can finally run a file manager on a Mac that is easy to use and not just easy to understand. 2 panes make it easy to copy and move files with a couple clicks or keystrokes. I hate the search, click, copy, search, click, paste method of file management. cp with command completion is faster than that.
Check out:
http://krusader.sourceforge.net/
As a long time Mac user, I'd have to say that the answer lies in Apple's support for multiple monitors.
Most Mac users don't have the same level of desktop organization and task seperation needs that you or I have. I, too, am completely spoiled by virtual desktops under X and similar hacks added on for Windows.
Instead, most advanced Mac users just need more screen real estate to do their work on. The publishing and graphics design industres are the best example of this. Once you get used to having 3 monitors attached to a machine, it's just about as good as virtual desktops, though I prefer the latter.
As another poster said, though, many Mac users (and Windows users, I'd like to add) are honestly too easily confused by hidden virtual desktops. Clutter does not offend most casual PC/Mac users like it does some of the more advanced users. As a result, you'll probably never see official support for multiple workspaces in Mac OS X, just like Apple canned the support for official Apple windowing themes after finding that it confused some users.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
The Macintosh Way for virtual desktops is hiding. Apple-H hides an app and the Option and Command keys give you additional ways to hide and un-hide apps. Within an app, you minimize windows.
More info from OS X Hints.
Lies about crimes
Does this version include the KDE User Network Tool?
are point2focus & scrollbars on the right(left;-) side...xdarwin lets me, but i still have 2 put up w/ the finder:-p