Re: pure gnustep system

[Dan Hitt]

Thanks Riccardo and Stefan for your comments (also Jamie and Ivan).

So i downloaded the iso Stefan recommended, and was pleasantly
surprised that i could boot up my computer with it.

In fact, i'm using it right now (with Chrome as a web browser to type this in).

My biggest puzzle right now is how to install it on a partition on my disk ---
ideally it would be nice to do that directly from the cd but not so clear it is
possible.  So i need to research that further, but would appreciate any
suggestions from anybody.

Some other remarks just for reference:

(1) on boot up the live cd is really interested in dhcp, so one has to wait
     it out (unless, of course, some computer on your local net is doing the
     dhcp thing)

(2) the copy paste doesn't seem exactly right --- i wonder if it is somehow
     being layered on top of the x windows copy paste.  I can copy a string
     from the terminal in the dock to text edit as long as i leave the terminal
     running.  But if i quit the terminal, then the pasteboard server (or
     whatever is doing that job) forgets what has been placed on it, and
     so copying is no longer possible.

(3) right clicking brings up a menu labelled "Debian".  So it is possible
     to have two things that look like a main menu on the screen at once.

These are all small points, at least for now, imvho.  For example, my usb
keyboard works without problem (although in the bootup console it
doesn't).  And the "Debian" thing allows you to get to a web browser and
many other applications.  But if acted like an application itself, it would
be still better i think.

And the GNUstep design, even if so far imperfectly realized, is still better
than anything else (again imvho, and i do think gnome3 is getting better
and better).

So thanks everybody, and i'm all ears for advice on installation from a cd.

I sort of don't like building everything myself because i think it will be
less integrated and have unnecessary glitches or bugs, as well as being
undesirably unique.  I would like to have a base system just like everybody
else's.

dan

On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 8:15 AM, Riccardo Mottola
<riccardo.mottola@libero.it> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Stefan Bidi wrote:
>>
>> The only one I know of that is still being developed is
>> (livecd.gnustep.org <http://livecd.gnustep.org>).
>>
> I would add the VM disttribution "one step to gnutep" by Richard Stonehouse.
> While not a proper "distro" it contains all what is needed and is ready to
> be started up inside a VM. The goal there is to provide an immediately
> usable system for developers and a reference for those who fail to get a
> working gnustep.
>
> The RPM packages used to make it are available too. The only minimal
> complaint is that they are set up in FHS and not gnustep layout, which
> removes a bit the best experience in the workspace. The rest is very
> accurately done.
>
> If you like a good experience by suing ready made packages, I'd suggest
> either a RPM bad distro where you can use Richard's, or gentoo or OpenBSD.
> Definitely not Debian ones: they work, but they are split up in such a way
> that they remove much of the OpenStep concept.
>
> If you are ready to compile from source, then instead Debian & Gentoo I can
> definitely recommend for linux. Good and stable experience. For BSD I use
> FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD. They all work very smooth and I test everything
> on them by routine.
>
> My personal recommendation would be do configure with layout=GNUstep and
> prefix=/  thus you get a layout very close to the Mac and NeXT.
>
> Solaris works reasonably too and if you are really adventurous, I do test
> and try to make things work on GNU/HURD from time to time. There are
> screenshots on my blog to testify that things do work there sometimes quite
> well (http://multixden.blogspot.com)
>
> Riccardo