<strong>I wanna see if you XDarwin cats have hardware acceleration turned on. I've heard a couple times that X11 is 'slow' compared to Quartz.</strong><hr></blockquote>XDarwin does not have hardware acceleration and that is indeed one of the reasons it "feels" slow. Tenon's XTools, however, does have hw. accel but I've never used it so I can't comment on the speed.
<strong>True, some *nix apps can simply be recompiled to run on OSX, but many require lots of code to be hacked, patched, or rewritten because they depend on custom libraries that haven't been ported to Darwin.
The fink project is a testament to that. They've gotten a bunch of stuff over as "quick n dirty" ports, but they clearly don't run natively (but that depends on your definition of "native"). Most require an XWindows environment to run, such as XDarwin. Unfortunately, these XWindows servers do not behave much like Aqua (though OroborOSX is getting pretty close). To get these apps to run seamlessly in Mac OS X would require a *major* rewrite. That's why I don't expect OpenOffice to be a true replacement for Microsoft Office any time soon; it requires the XWindows environment and thus has a lot of quirky behaviors.
For an example of XWindows on OSX, take a look at this snapshot. I'm running Mozilla, XMMS (a music player), and a couple Terminals in my XDarwin environment. Note the window dressings and the stark difference between them and Aqua windows.
<strong>I installed XDarwin. Now how do I get this little status bar at the bottom?</strong><hr></blockquote>That bar is actually a part of the Gnome package. I suggest using fink to install Gnome because there are a bajillion parts to it and fink will handle everything for you.
Just two more cents worth. Pardon me if this is somewhat ignorant or inaccurate, because I'm a complete newbie to unix. Fink is a truly great project, making compiling easy as pie. But pay attention to the warnings about how long it will take.
I did a basic X installation, and threw in a few other things using dselect (it just installs binaries). Then went back to fink and did the self-update. The original install was an hour or so (on cable). Downloading the source was roughly an hour, but the compile took something like 18 hours. This on a Ti-PB 667 with .5 Gig.
If you want to just fool around with the apps, stick with the binaries. dselect is pretty easy to figure out, and the fink site has some good tips about using it. Pay attention to the config stuff, because fink installs into /sw (for good reason) which isn't where a lot of other apps look for things. You also have to stick in some symlinks and cdmods if you want things to actually work when you're done, but it's all in the directions.
Please, if anyone has used or owns XTools, I'd appreciate the input. How is the speed? And is it buggy? I am thinking about getting it. It sounds easier than mucking about with crap that a Klingon could have named.
Xtools seems pretty easy. It's probably simpler than Fink, although the Fink site mentions some problems in Xtools' implementation.
Actually, it might be a good idea to read as much as you can tolerate of the Fink documentation before you spend money on Xtools. Tenon has a free demo, so you can fiddle with it before you buy.
<strong>Please, if anyone has used or owns XTools, I'd appreciate the input. How is the speed? And is it buggy? I am thinking about getting it. It sounds easier than mucking about with crap that a Klingon could have named.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I checked out the Xtools demo a few months ago, and I liked it alot. The interface is much simpler and more intuitive than XDarwin, and it has a native window manager. However, I was too cheap to shell out the $200. Also, if you check out the<a href="http://www.tenon.com/cgi-bin/BBoard/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=Xtools+:+Us ers&number=1&DaysPrune=365&SUBMIT=Go" target="_blank">Xtool discussion boards</a> on Tenon's site, you'll find many unhappy Xtool's owners. Tenon has promised that the next release will fix all of the problems. I'd wait until then.
Comments
<strong>I wanna see if you XDarwin cats have hardware acceleration turned on. I've heard a couple times that X11 is 'slow' compared to Quartz.</strong><hr></blockquote>XDarwin does not have hardware acceleration and that is indeed one of the reasons it "feels" slow. Tenon's XTools, however, does have hw. accel but I've never used it so I can't comment on the speed.
I'll try looking for that file you mentioned...
<strong>True, some *nix apps can simply be recompiled to run on OSX, but many require lots of code to be hacked, patched, or rewritten because they depend on custom libraries that haven't been ported to Darwin.
The fink project is a testament to that. They've gotten a bunch of stuff over as "quick n dirty" ports, but they clearly don't run natively (but that depends on your definition of "native"). Most require an XWindows environment to run, such as XDarwin. Unfortunately, these XWindows servers do not behave much like Aqua (though OroborOSX is getting pretty close). To get these apps to run seamlessly in Mac OS X would require a *major* rewrite. That's why I don't expect OpenOffice to be a true replacement for Microsoft Office any time soon; it requires the XWindows environment and thus has a lot of quirky behaviors.
For an example of XWindows on OSX, take a look at this snapshot. I'm running Mozilla, XMMS (a music player), and a couple Terminals in my XDarwin environment. Note the window dressings and the stark difference between them and Aqua windows.
<a href="http://brad.project-think.com/images/XDarwinSnap001.png"; target="_blank">
Click 4 teh biggar!</strong><hr></blockquote>
I installed XDarwin. Now how do I get this little status bar at the bottom?
<strong>I installed XDarwin. Now how do I get this little status bar at the bottom?</strong><hr></blockquote>That bar is actually a part of the Gnome package. I suggest using fink to install Gnome because there are a bajillion parts to it and fink will handle everything for you.
[quote]
# $XFree86: xc/lib/Xft/XftConfig.cpp,v 1.8 2001/11/21 23:41:12 keithp Exp $
dir "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
#
# alias 'fixed' for 'mono'
#
match any family == "fixed" edit family =+ "mono";
#
# Check users config file
#
includeif "~/.xftconfig"
#
# Use Luxi fonts for default faces
#
match any family == "serif" edit family += "Luxi Serif";
match any family == "sans" edit family += "Luxi Sans";
match any family == "mono" edit family += "Luxi Mono";
#
# Alias between XLFD families and font file family name, prefer local
# fonts
#
match any family == "charter" edit family += "bitstream charter";
match any family == "bitstream charter" edit family =+ "charter";
#
# Alias older name for Luxi fonts
#
match any family == "LuciduxSerif" edit family += "Luxi Serif";
match any family == "Lucidux Serif" edit family += "Luxi Serif";
match any family == "LuciduxSans" edit family += "Luxi Sans";
match any family == "Lucidux Sans" edit family += "Luxi Sans";
match any family == "LuciduxMono" edit family += "Luxi Mono";
match any family == "Lucidux Mono" edit family += "Luxi Mono";<hr></blockquote>
I did a basic X installation, and threw in a few other things using dselect (it just installs binaries). Then went back to fink and did the self-update. The original install was an hour or so (on cable). Downloading the source was roughly an hour, but the compile took something like 18 hours. This on a Ti-PB 667 with .5 Gig.
If you want to just fool around with the apps, stick with the binaries. dselect is pretty easy to figure out, and the fink site has some good tips about using it. Pay attention to the config stuff, because fink installs into /sw (for good reason) which isn't where a lot of other apps look for things. You also have to stick in some symlinks and cdmods if you want things to actually work when you're done, but it's all in the directions.
Happy trails
<a href="http://fink.sourceforge.net/faq/comp-packages.php"; target="_blank">http://fink.sourceforge.net/faq/comp-packages.php</a>;
Xtools seems pretty easy. It's probably simpler than Fink, although the Fink site mentions some problems in Xtools' implementation.
Actually, it might be a good idea to read as much as you can tolerate of the Fink documentation before you spend money on Xtools. Tenon has a free demo, so you can fiddle with it before you buy.
<strong>Please, if anyone has used or owns XTools, I'd appreciate the input. How is the speed? And is it buggy? I am thinking about getting it. It sounds easier than mucking about with crap that a Klingon could have named.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I checked out the Xtools demo a few months ago, and I liked it alot. The interface is much simpler and more intuitive than XDarwin, and it has a native window manager. However, I was too cheap to shell out the $200. Also, if you check out the<a href="http://www.tenon.com/cgi-bin/BBoard/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=Xtools+:+Us ers&number=1&DaysPrune=365&SUBMIT=Go" target="_blank">Xtool discussion boards</a> on Tenon's site, you'll find many unhappy Xtool's owners. Tenon has promised that the next release will fix all of the problems. I'd wait until then.