PearPC.net

by **PearPCUser** » Mon May 16, 2005 4:45 pm

[quote="alex_extreme":5309d532bc]
Moved to off-topic, and title changed
[/quote:5309d532bc]

Thanks for the title change. This reflects much better what the thread is about!

PearPCUser

by **Ekylypse** » Mon May 16, 2005 5:21 pm

Are you guys still planning on just skinning a window manager? or are you planning on making your own? The best way to get it to look like a Mac is to make your own.

by **Ekylypse** » Mon May 16, 2005 6:17 pm

Well, I've decided to go about what I said:

[quote:a25b4469e6]
1. Use FreeBSD, or even Darwin.
2. Create your own, skinnable, WindowManager with the power of Aqua/Cocoa
3. Create the crappiest, but useable, skin for it.
4. Next create the best OS X.4 skin you possibly can.
5. Install SoftPear, and hopefully by then we should be able to run apps with it like Dock.
[/quote:a25b4469e6]

It will be called OrangeOS, and I've already sent in on SourceForge so I should be getting space here soon.

I will need a Graphics Designer, or two, and a few C/C++ Programmers.

Please email me if you wish to join the team.

(orangeos [at] gmail [dot] com)

Thanks,
Anthony Dillavou

by **bigkahuna** » Tue May 17, 2005 3:57 pm

I picked up on this thread last night and read the whole thing (whew!). At first I thought the idea was pretty exciting, but thought I'd add a different point of view Iplease keep in mind I'm just trying to offer another opinion):

First a little background as I see it:

I'm guessing the whole reason the proposal (and for that matter PearPC) exists is that there is a desire to run OS-X on intel boxes. If Apple released OSX for intel boxes tomorrow, this idea (and maybe even PearPC) would probably evaporate over night.

That desire to run OSX on intel boxes is not just limited to this forum. If (as I'm sure most of you have already done) you search the net, you'll find lots of folks that have created some level of OSX's look and feel for Linux and Windoze. Some are better than others, and in most cases it takes a concerted effort on the part of the user to recreate a semi- Mac-like experience on their intel machine. Nobody (AFAIK) is offering a complete OSX-like OS for intel.

So basically there are two ways to go: "simulate" OSX on your OS or "emulate" OSX on your OS.

PearPC is, at present, the best PowerPC emulator for intel boxes. I think the majority of it's users (and I'm guessing here) are: a) developers that want to test their apps under OSX b) "looky-lou's" that want to give OSX a try without having to buy a Mac first, and c) "techno tweakers" (like me) that are just fascinated with the whole idea of running a different/cool OS on their intel box.

The problem, as I see it, is that PearPC is not -quite- fast enough or truely 100% OS-X compatible to allow someone to be 100% productive running OSX on an intel box. Not yet at least.

And, as many of you have already noted, many (maybe all?) of the OSX "simulations" (themes, icons, etc) don't really get the "Mac look and feel" quite right. To the casual observer it may look close, but when using it the differences become much more apparent.

I think the current proposal has merit, but I'm not sure why you've chosen BSD or Darwin. Yes, the OS might come very close to what OSX is, but what about software? If it won't run OSX software, then what software will it run? Is there a large enough software pool to support this OS you propose?

Personally, I think a better idea might be to develop a live CD (something neither OSX nor Windoze can do) that "blends" the best elements of both the OSX "beauty and ease of use" with Linux's "raw power and utility". Ask any Linux n00b what the worst part about switching to Linux is, and they'll tell you it's installing and setting it up. Plus the pool of existing applications for Linux is HUGE and almost entirely open source (read: FREE), thus making it even more compelling. If someone were to be able to merge these two technologies into an OS that was FAST, visually ATTRACTIVE, EASY to use, POWERFUL, STABLE, with lots of FREE applications and on a single bootable CD, I think that would be a very worthy project. (Personally, I think Kanotix/Knoppix/Debian might be a better base for such a project, but that's just me :wink: )

Just my 2 1/2 cents worth...