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: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.