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Etoile Project Releases Mac-Like Environment

Posted by kdawson on from the starry-eyed-penguin dept.

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."

4 of 311 comments (clear)

  1. Menus at the top! by kinabrew · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Finally, an open-source desktop environment whose developers understand that menus at the top are infinite targets and always in the same place and therefore are easier to hit.

    1. Re:Menus at the top! by kinabrew · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're not giving up real estate by having the menu bar at the top. If each program has its own menu bar inside its window, that uses several times as much real estate.

      For example, I have six windows open right now in OS X. Were I using an environment where each window had its own menu bar, that would use six times as much screen real estate.

      If menus are hidden and only activated by right-click, many people wouldn't realize the options that are available to them. That is admittedly easy for some people, but it's better not to require most people to memorize a whole bunch of stuff. Using a computer shouldn't be frustrating even for someone just sitting down for the first time. A luddite isn't going to know that they need to right-click to see menus.

      As for the dock(not actually called a taskbar), that can be hidden. I suppose it would be beneficial to let people decide whether to display menus in-window or outside, and do I agree that all commands should be accessible through contextual menus, but by default, I believe strongly that controls should be placed to waste as little screen real estate as possible, and to be very easy to hit, regardless of movement.

    2. Re:Menus at the top! by Space+cowboy · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

      --
      Physicists get Hadrons!
  2. Strategic importance of Etoile by pschmied · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Etoile may be in its relative infancy, but I believe it has great strategic potential for the FOSS movement. Etoile / GNUStep is building some great infrastructure, uniting the Mac and FOSS communities, and is building on some very interesting ideas.

    If you haven't already done so, I urge you to check out David's Core Object posting. There is some exciting stuff there. Smalltalkers will find it particularly interesting.

    Props to the Etoile team! This is even more reason for me to grow my Objective C / Cocoa / GNUStep skills.

    -Peter

    --
    . Penguins Surely Ca