[UNIX] Fink now supports KDE

[McFreggle]

Hi,

Fory those of you interested in exploring the UNIX environment of the Mac OS X system:

Fink (http://fink.sourceforge.net/) recently announced KDE-support.
Fink is a project to port Unix software to Mac OS X. KDE is one of the more popular Desktop Environment for X-windows under Unix.

http://fink.sourceforge.net/

k.

[Taft]

Have you tried it yet??

This is big news for Darwin. They needed a first class Window Manager ported to the OS. For OS X, though, its not as big a deal. I don't think many people will want to run two fully functional window managers at once (Aqua and KDE). I think most people are happy with a rootless or less obtrusive WM. Not to mention the big memory usage KDE is likely to have.

Taft

[McFreggle]

Originally posted by Taft
Have you tried it yet??

No I haven't... (yet)

This is big news for Darwin. They needed a first class Window Manager ported to the OS. For OS X, though, its not as big a deal. I don't think many people will want to run two fully functional window managers at once (Aqua and KDE).

Hmmmm... you need a Window Manager to run some Unix applications that haven't been ported to OS X yet. Like OpenOffice... they're planning to release a ported version for OS X, but in the meantime you can run it on a Window Manager, like, i.e., KDE.

I think many Mac-lovers will like KDE, because it's a nice interface. It even has an Aqua skin ;-) (screenshot (http://www.kde.org/screenshots/1152x864/kde300-snapshot1-1152x864.jpg))

We'll see...

k.

[Taft]

Originally posted by McFreggle

Hmmmm... you need a Window Manager to run some Unix applications that haven't been ported to OS X yet. Like OpenOffice... they're planning to release a ported version for OS X, but in the meantime you can run it on a Window Manager, like, i.e., KDE.

I think many Mac-lovers will like KDE, because it's a nice interface. It even has an Aqua skin ;-) (screenshot (http://www.kde.org/screenshots/1152x864/kde300-snapshot1-1152x864.jpg))

We'll see...

k.

Of course you need *a* window manager. I am sceptical about people choosing KDE as a window manager to run along side Aqua.

KDE is pretty big and full featured. Not dissimilar to Aqua, actually. It is also very large and requires a lot of memory. There are quite a few other window managers that work under OS X. fvwm(2), oroborus, OroborOSX (http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=12270&db=mac) are all very good and have very small footprints. OroborOSX even lets you run X Windows programs right alongside OS X programs and minimize X Windows windows to the dock.

What I'm saying is that I find it unlikely that people will run two fully functional window managers along side one another. People are more likely to pick a lighter, more integrated X Window manager than an Aqua replacement.

Taft

[McFreggle]

Okay, I understand, and you're completely right!

k.