Etoile Project Releases Mac-Like Environment

pschmied writes "Today the Étoilé Project released v0.2 of its Desktop Environment. Not only does Étoilé share user interface similarities with Mac OS X, Étoilé enjoys some source-level compatibility with Mac OS X as well. Many here undoubtedly remember NeXT, the revolutionary computer / development environment that gave rise to the first Web browser and later became the foundation of Mac OS X. Étoilé uses the FSF's own implementation of the NeXT development environment, GNUstep, making this a close technological relative of OS X. Screenshots and a source tarball are available."

Comments

Re:First web browser

[Stormwatch]

What is the historical basis for claiming that NeXT gave rise to the Web browser? Was NCSA Mosaic developed on a NeXT? Or are you referring to an earlier browser?

WorldWideWeb was the world's first web browser and WYSIWYG HTML editor and was introduced on February 26, 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee and ran on the NeXTSTEP platform.

Re:Trying to get this up and running

[pschmied]

No, it's not a window manager. It's more analogous to something like GNOME or KDE with their associated libraries.

Here's a rough step-by-step:

1. Install the dependencies listed here: http://gnustep.blogspot.com/2006/10/gnustep-on-ubu ntuppc-610.html

2. Use the GNUStep "Startup" package (you need a newer version of GNUStep than what is bundled with Ubuntu): http://www.gnustep.org/experience/Startup.html

3. Compile Etoile per the instructions in the tarball.

It's a bit different procedure than your average configure, make, make install. My hope is that someone will start packaging current versions for Ubuntu. Maybe I'll get off my duff and start doing that.

Cheers,
Peter

Re:Menus at the top!

[Space cowboy]

I'm not sure I understand your comment. I think you don't get the usual Mac workflow.

(a) The dock (which sort of doubles as a taskbar) is hideable. No screen real-estate need be sacrificed.

(b) The mouse-movement that the menu costs you is a lot easier than the mouse movement for menus attached to windows - that's the point of putting the menus at the top of the screen.

(c) If I'm using multiple applications on the same screen (and I'm not using a virtual-desktop, which to be fair I usually do), then I use Exposé to switch between them. It's bound to my 5th mouse button so it works anywhere and it's very quick.

(d) There are other ways the Mac tries to speed workflow, but to be fair, other systems have extras too, so I'll stick to what you identified...

You don't have to like the Mac way of doing things, but you ought to try it with a fair mind before criticising it...

Simon.

Re:Way to confuse NEXT with Mach and BSD

[HeroreV]

You are confused (or trolling). Here's a history lesson:

1. NeXT creates the NextStep/NeXTstep/NeXTSTEP/NEXTSTEP operating system
2. NeXT releases a specification for some of their API as OpenStep
3. NeXT makes NEXTSTEP conform with the OpenStep spec and rebrands NEXTSTEP as OPENSTEP
4. Apple buys OPENSTEP and uses it to produce Mac OS X
5. GNU implements the OpenStep API as GNUstep
6. the Étoilé desktop environment is built on GNUstep

Mac OS X's Cocoa API is based on the OpenStep API, so Étoilé and GNUstep are related to Mac OS X through the OpenStep API. If you really love the Cocoa API and you want to make an app for Linux, you should take a look at GNUstep.