From kde-nonlinux Sun Aug 19 23:46:30 2007 From: John Velman Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 23:46:30 +0000 To: kde-nonlinux Subject: Re: [Kde-nonlinux] Considering Imac Message-Id: <20070819234630.GA2719 () cox ! net> X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-nonlinux&m=118756715609198 Thanks, Jonathan. Comments from someone who recently transitioned from Linux is particularly helpful. Please see below. On Sat, Aug 18, 2007 at 09:18:39PM -0600, Jonathan Stickel wrote: > I just made the transition from Gentoo Linux, with heavy use of KDE > apps, to Mac OS X. It has gone fairly well, but the Unix environment > that Mac OS X uses has a few "quirks". For example, the way shared > libraries are handled is different in ways I don't understand, and the > file system is not case sensitive which can bite you now and again. I I've been trying to find out about potential surprises. This would certainly be one! I try not to give different things names that only differ by case, but this could certainly cause a problem if doing so by accident. (Or accidently giving two versions of the same thing the names Foo.hs, and foo.hs.) > comment on a couple of your questions below. > > John Velman wrote: > >> Your KDE options for iMacs: > >> 1: Install KDE4 via http://ranger.users.finkproject.org/kde/index.php/Home > >> This is not the KDE desktop, rather it sits on top of OS X. You get all > >> the libs and apps. > > > > This sounds pretty good, and I think I understand it! > > I tried this out and found that it didn't work for me. Perhaps this is > because it is still "alpha". I also found the new "dolphin" file > manager to not work very well, at least not yet (konqueror is setup for > web browsing only in KDE4). Maybe it will be better after bugs are > worked out. Good to know. > > > > >> 2: Install KDE3 via Fink or MacPorts: > >> http://ranger.users.finkproject.org/kde/index.php/KDE_3_on_Mac_OS_X > >> Fink is apt-get for OS X, with the difference that the graphical apps > >> require X11 xserver.b This means you can run them on top of OS X, as > >> with KDE4, or have the complete desktop environment. > >> MacPorts is portage for OS X; haven't used it much so not quite sure how > >> it works. > > > > What does it mean to use the X11 server and "run them on top of OS X"? Is > > the X server somehow in parallel to the native GUI or does one switch from > > one to the other? If using X11 does one still have all the nice MAC things > > available? This may be important to me, since it appears that some other > > apps I want to run use X11. > > This all worked easily for me. I don't know what is standard for OS X > 10.4 since I got a corporate setup Mac, but OS X development tools and > X11 were already installed and configured on my machine. I tried out > MacPorts first, but found that Fink had more packages available and > switched over. The KDE3 installed in either MacPorts or Fink works just > fine, other than trouble copying text from OS X apps to KDE apps. You > can either run X11 apps directly inside OS X (same window bars and > stuff), or you can run X11 apps in it's own separate windows manager > that you get to with a keystroke. I do the former and am satisfied. > The only negative is that when cycling through apps (cmd-tab), the X11 > apps do not show, only the so-called 'X11' app. > Also good to know. > > >> 3: Use a Virtual Machine. > >> There's lots of VM systems for OS X: Parallels, VMWare Fusion, Virtual > >> Box. You're basically running linux (or BSD or whatever) in a window on > >> top of OS X. Full desktop environment. I use VMWare to run Kubuntu on OS > >> X, mainly because VMware cares about linux, especially Ubuntu. Virtual > >> Box is gpl, and Parallels only cares about running windows. > >> > >> http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/ > >> http://www.virtualbox.org/ > >> http://www.parallels.com/ > >> > > > > Do these run transparently on the OS X desktop? Or are the apps > > somehow "sequestered" in a separate window? (Or a separate desktop or?) > > I would avoid running a VM. For me, the whole point of getting a Mac > was to run corporate apps AND unix apps without using a virtual machine. Similar to one of my reasons for going to Mac, although VM sounds better (if it works) than dual boot. But as of now, I don't think I'd like to run Linux (or Windows) within Mac, so based on your answers and my other reading, I can stop looking into the VM route. Best, John V. > > Regards, > Jonathan > _______________________________________________ > kde-nonlinux mailing list > kde-nonlinux@kde.org > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-nonlinux _______________________________________________ kde-nonlinux mailing list kde-nonlinux@kde.org https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-nonlinux