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KDE Running on Mac OS X
GeoffP writes "AppleTalk Australia is running a story on running KDE on Mac OS X. For those that don't know, KDE is a graphical desktop environment used to access your computer's files. Finally, Mac users have a free (as in speech) approach to their filesystem."
A neat article.
However, I can't think really why you'd want to be running KDE on Mac OS X when you already have such a neat (IMHO) interface. I suppose it's good for a laugh, too.
Huh? KDE isn't a filesystem.
For those that don't know, KDE is a graphical desktop environment used to access your computer's files. Finally, Mac users have a free (as in speech) approach to their filesystem.
Is this an all-time low for a slashdot article? I can't imagine how it can be beaten.
Ummm... If I wanted to run KDE, why would I buy a Mac? I mean I love my Powerbook, but I know the Pentium M systems are faster, cheaper, and (if my experiences are the rule not the exception) more reliable.
The evil monkey commands you to dance.
I guess I should write up my tutorial on how to run fluxbox on OS X, and my follow up, setting environment variables to allow Terminal.app to interact with the X server.
Do it. Don't put down documentation on any process that others might not have done - there are many MANY people who might not have the experience to come up with the solution on their own, but who may benefit from it.
The attitude that writing documentation on the simple stuff is pointless is the reason so many man pages, web pages, FAQs and howtos on open source software sucks dog nuts.
Not everyone is geek enough to know how to do some of the cool things - that knowledge comes about for those of us who are geeky enough to enjoy learning the ins and outs of everything for its own sake. Other people, the majority, need to see how something can work when set up well before they'll accept it.
KDe, for all it's open source goodness, isnt a superior system to what OSX has. I dont get why you would bother - OSX is a delight to use.
Finally, Mac users have a free (as in speech) approach to their filesystem.
1. KDE has been running on OS X for many years now.
2. cp, ls, mv, etc are open source, and have been available on OS X since the beginning.
3. KDE is nice, but I didn't buy a Mac so I could run KDE, I bought it so I could run OS X.
Which isn't to say it's not good to be able to run KDE if you want, just that I've never heard someone lament, "oh, that only there were some form of free (as in speech) approach to the filesystem on my Mac".
Choice I suppose. If you ever needed a few KDE apps, then here's a solution. If you ever spent your time 50/50 in OS X and KDE, this is the best way to go - if only fink were a little more up to date with KDE packages in a consistent sense.
One of the parts omitted from the article was a demonstration by Si, the guy who wrote the article, of a KDE desktop running on one monitor and OS X running on the other - both controlled by the same G4. For him, it works well and documenting how it was done just makes sense. Not everyone has the complete knowledge needed to get this up and running if they DO need it.
It's certainly not going to suit everyone - nor even the majority of people using OSX/KDE, but it's going to make life just a little more comfortable for the few who need to use both regularly.
Hey, many many years ago I've ran Quake on ancient IRIX workstations. Oh wait... it was over X with the actual binaries running on a Linux x86 box. Oh, and I'm running KDE on Windows right now (Cygwin X server, of course, on a machine at work)! Hey, come, lookie, KDE for Windows!
How exactly running an X program over X can be considered a port? It just works as it should, but there is nothing special to it.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
KDE isn't just for browsing files, it is dozens of well-integrated applications. Porting KDE to the Mac makes lots of shareware applications obsolete and brings lots of new, mature applications to the Mac. And even KDE's file browser has a lot of nice features compared to Apple's.
The only limitation of this port is that it is based on X11; since Apple refuses to integrate X11 better into the Mac desktop environment, that's not a good solution for regular users. However, since the Qt toolkit underlying KDE has a native Mac version, we can expect a native port of KDE to follow fairly soon.
they ask me to install fink, which is a problem per se - fink is the package distribution system that usually breaks when you install a package, due to some compilation error or difficult dependencies, right?
Then they want me to get rid of Apple X11 in favor of Xfree86. That'll probably have consequences for other X11 applications.
In the end, I can run a sub-optimal GUI environment which doesn't really do anything useful I couldn't do otherwise, whose utilities/applications - in my experience - crash regularly. From a user-perspective: lost of wasted time.
It's not surprising that it runs on OS X -- OS X is Unix.
How exactly does Enlightenment push any envelopes? Looks like a blind rip-off of Aqua (with some randomly added Windows 2000) made by people who don't understand that most of the eye candy in OSX is functional.
Shitram Brown, PhD
Professor of Mathematics
Aqua goodness, brushed-metal goodness, unified tool bar grayish-ness, the new iTunes post brushed-metal dark grayish-ness, etc. Basically, whatever shinny inconstant interface turd Apple thinks is cool this month.
;)
And yes, I realize the irony of an Apple interface rant coming from some a-hole who's screen name is "Aqua OS X"
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Locally, but not using any of OSX APIs. It's trivial to port calculation-only code: both X libraries and the GNU tools are already ported. Thus, the whole glory goes to the portability of GNU tools, but this is not what this article was about.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Slashdot: Computer News for People New to Computers
Ever think there are different levels of geekdom? I'm a music geek first and foremost, and a computer geek second. I didn't know what Fink was, yet I've been a Linux user and casual Sourceforge browser for nearly 3 years and an OS X user for almost a year. I found this article useful even if you didnt, just for novelty value rather than anything else.
Just because you already knew how to do something, doesn't mean everybody does. If this was a PC World 'How to Switch on your Computer' article, you might have a case, but this is a site for all geeks, not just computer geeks; all reasonably smart people - people likely to enjoy this site - should know how to turn their computer on, but not all of them are going to know about something like this, which they might find useful for any number of reasons.
Rant over. I just don't like people who assume just because something is of no interest to them, or simple to them, that it's boring or obvious to everyone else.
I liked this article, it's something I might try out when I've got a few hours to spare. You can read something else if you want.
Thank you, slashdot, for enlightening me as to this smart bit of kit. Keep it up.
Dealing with lawyers would be a lot less tedious if they all looked like Casey Novak.
OS X is great apart from the Finder, which is an absolutly terribly designed interface. It's like something they'd make for Linux, except smack in the middle of all that OS X niceness. It's just terrible. It personally gives me a poor sense of spatial orientation when trawling through stuff in it. It deprives you of information about what you're looking at, you have to use the so called never needed right click to "get info" about files. This would not be a bad thing if you were given at least some information in at least one of the view modes about the files you are looking at (size etc) but no information is provided. Spotlight, as an extention of Finder, is just really not near what it should be. Again my complaint is tied to lack of information provided by the interface. Even when you expand your search to include all results you are still not told the filesize of the objects you are looking at. There are three folders named Music on my PowerBook, only one created by me which actually has Music in it. The rest are just folders created by certain apps which for whatever reason related to their function, think that you will be placing at least some music in those folders. When i type in the word "Music" into spotlight these three folders come up and no distinction what so ever is made between them despite one being massive and the others being empty or almost so. So I have to click through them hoping I hit my actual Music folder the first time. In short OS X is so so great and just works and wow yay! But Finder and by association Spotlight are shamelessly crap parts of OS X. OS X is in my oppinion way better than Windows or Linux or even BSD but it could be all the more so better if Finder and Spotlight were given a serious reworking, hopefully from scratch...and without that fugly Brushed Metal interface for Finder! :p
This guy are sick.
It deprives you of information about what you're looking at, you have to use the so called never needed right click to "get info" about files.
File Menu - Get Info
or
Cmd-I
This would not be a bad thing if you were given at least some information in at least one of the view modes about the files you are looking at (size etc) but no information is provided.
Go into the detail view, and you get "Date Modified" and "Size" fields. IIRC, you can also change this and pick which fields you'd like and in what order.
The rest are just folders created by certain apps which for whatever reason related to their function, think that you will be placing at least some music in those folders.
I totally understand your frustration here, but Apple can't be held accountable for folders created by applications that you install; furthermore, this is indicative of a shortcoming in those applications rather than a shortcoming in Finder. (I do agree that Spotlight should try to make some kind of distinction between them, though - perhaps displaying full path name relative to user dir if you hover over them.)
You're joking ... but it's not entirely a joke. The fact is that as a user who wants flexibility and customisation from my UI, in many ways I find KDE more friendly than the Mac OS X Finder. I find that Mac OS X's UI significantly hinders my ability to work quickly and effectively.
... my point is that "user friendly" to one person can be user hostile to another.
Yes, that's just a personal thing. Yes, most users are the opposite. Still
I don't understand why this entire article is a big deal, because of what you just said. I had a Powerbook for awhile between 2002 and 2003, and I used this trick to run Enlightenment all the time.
--- What
As opposed to the horrible interface inconsistencies of the Linux desktop? As if iTunes' smoothed look is ruining your desktop.
"Sufferin' succotash."
No, not really.
Or just use Preview.app's File->Grab.