[X-Unix] Which Window manager/Desktop Environment

[Stroller]

On Apr 17, 2005, at 7:53 pm, ~flipper wrote:
>
> Stroller, you mentioned Gentoo 'not being for the faint of heart". Is 
> that due to lots of using 'ln' and configuring rc files and whatnot, 
> as in not very 'automated'? That doesn't put me off either, but, for 
> all i know, there might be another issue, or issues, that I'm unaware 
> of re; the gentoo (tricky) thing.

You've pretty much put your finger right on it. With most other distros 
(for x86, anyway) you can put the CD in & get a GUI all the way through 
to the installed desktop, whereas Gentoo's install is entirely 
command-line orientated - you have to fdisk partitions for yourself, 
untar the base files, compile the kernel & install the boot-loader for 
yourself. For those that appreciate it there is something reassuringly 
old-fangled about installing Gentoo; it's like "this is how Unix is 
supposed to be". A GUI is optional.

It's also worth upgrading Gentoo on a weekly-basis; Gentoo ensures that 
you'll never have to do a complete reinstall on a system, that you can 
always upgrade, but at the expense of frequent updates. If you leave it 
a few weeks the number of updates can be quite daunting.

> I don't have X11 on the Mac now... Apple no longer distributes X11 for 
> Jag, Maybe X11 is on the Installers for jag, i'll check, but, if not, 
> then what?

1) I think I have a copy of X11 for Jag
2) Buy Tiger  (I thought you were dumping Jag, anyway? Aren't you 
buying a new machine for MacOS which will have Tiger pre-installed?)

> If I decide (very likely) to forego the Aqua/GUI and start out with a 
> clean Darwin install, I should look for a rooted x86 install, no?

"x86" means "PC architecture" - Intel & AMD & the like. Your Mac laptop 
will be a PPC.

>  Or can I go with KDE (which actually has all the XML apps, not Gnome 
> as i mistakenly 'remembered'), right on top of Darwin?

Theoretically, but I don't think there are actually many people using 
Darwin in that way. Does fink handle X11 on pure Darwin? What package 
manager do you propose using otherwise?

> And last but not least, the 'distros'. Can i start with a clean drive, 
> or do i need some basic architecture as a foundation?

A clean drive is fine for a Linux distro.

> About 18 months ago a friend gave me an 8-CD set that was a Red hat 
> installer. Now, that must sound ridiculous. It looked it. I thought, 
> "what sort of unix needs 5+ GBs for an istall????". I started out as a 
> troubleshooter on mid-70s IBM big boxes, and 5GBs would have hld all 
> of IBM's worldwide stuff. (ok, maybe not, but still, my 667 back then 
> would have been the size of a Sears store, i think). Lots has changed, 
> hasn't it?

Those CDs will include at least 1CD of source code (probably 2 or 3 in 
the case of an 8 CD set) & 1CD of commercial applications. The "core" 
first CD or two will include at least a couple of window-managers, X11, 
Open Office and perhaps a thousand or two command-line & GUI 
applications. You might, however, be pleased to hear that the Gentoo 
minimal CD is 38meg (get the 2CD set for precompiled X11 & wm, tho').

Stroller.