Late last week we ran a story on how the Google Chrome team had decided to use Gtk+ as the graphical toolkit for the Linux version of the Chrome web browser. It was a story that caused some serious debate on a variety of aspects, but in this short editorial, I want to focus on one aspect that came forward: the longing for consistency. Several people in the thread stated they were happy with Google's choice for purely selfish reasons: they use only Gtk+ applications on their GNOME desktops. Several people chimed in to say that Qt integrates nicely in a Gtk+ environment. While that may be true from a graphical point of view, that really isn't my problem with mixing toolkits. The issue goes a lot deeper than that.
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Member since:2006-02-06
And again the same old thing. I would really enjoy using GNUStep, with or without Étoilé, and I would surely take the time to dig into Objective-C to create the apps I need for it, if there was a Web Browser with it. There should be a massive campaign for the full port of WebKit (if I recall correctly, there's an offering of help from the ones involved in WebKit to port it to GnuStep).
Unfortunately I am aware that I'm not skilled enough to do that, since I have no idea what goes behind a Web renderer engine and knows little about Obj-C.
But as soon as a Web browser were available, I'd jump on it and start working on small apps that could be useful, because it really fits the way I believe computers should be dealt with.
Member since:2006-02-04
Once I was also quite interested in Gnustep & Etoile. I even learned ObjC and had some plans for a small project. But as a Desktop environment gnustep/Etoile is basically unusable: there is no webbrowser, KDE/Qt/Gnome/gtk applications do not integrate at all with gnustep. Instead of porting webkit, people want to code their own HTML rendering engine. Obviously that is o.k., because people are doing this in their spare-time and it is probably much more fun to code your own HTL rendering engine instead of porting an existing one. But as a potential gnustep user, I think it is totally wrong. There is no way to write something like webkit for such a small team as the gnustep/etoile people. Even the KDE people cannot create all the test-cases and do all the regression testing like Apple can. Instead of learning more ObjC I decided to write a small Qt/KDE application. I think Qt/KDE is quite nice from a programmer's point of view. I do not have enough experience with Objective-C/Cocoa/gnustep to judge which framework is actually better.And actually I don't care too much. I think KDE has a great community and KDE4 is moving forward quite fast and I am quite happy with it.
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently.
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing."The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together.
"It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian 'sid' at the time of the Debian 'wheezy' release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." Important note: 75% of Debian packages are supported bu Debian GNU/Hurd. Impressive.
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run."There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
Member since:
2006-10-20
yeah there's a horizontal menubar addon called EtoileWildMenus.
defaults write NSGlobalDomain
"/usr/GNUstep/System/Library/Bundles/Camaelon.themeEngine",
"/usr/GNUstep/System/Library/Bundles/EtoileMenus.bundle"
to install it. There's more information in their documentation. I'm building from svn at the moment but the bundles have been around for a while.
AFAIK there's no actual mac theme that makes it look exactly like osx but I bet a decent theme artist could whip one up.
I will go as far as saying that etoile is expected to run with those modifications applied. Because they have released an application called EtoileMenuServer which basically recreates the entire mac bar. if you think of each app as making the DictionaryReader Edit Windows Services etc
menus. This program creates a bar that those menu entries are overlaid on top of, and that bar creates the "apple icon" menu (A star in etoile's case). A screenshot is here:
http://etoileos.com/uploads/screenshots/etoile-0.4-starryreader.png
There is also an api for little menubar applets. There's volume control, and calendar as well as battery meter and services so far. Personally I'm waiting on msn/icq and a webbrowser then I plan to make etoile my primary Desktop. I only really use the pc for msn/icq/irc/browser/music/videos. Normally I use mplayer or XBMC for video so I don't need a player. Etoile has irc/e-mail/music so it won't be long now. If I knew more about writing the backend of objective-c apps I'd develop my missing tools.
Edited 2009-02-16 15:23 UTC