[Kde-nonlinux] Considering Imac

[John Velman]

John, 

I've got a couple of (probably dumb) questions -- the answers are
probably obvious to anyone with Mac experience; anyhow, google hasn't
helped so far.

Please see below:

On Wed, Aug 15, 2007 at 12:13:54PM +0100, John Levin wrote:
> John Velman wrote:
> > I've decided to retire my old 400mzh 128mb dual boot (linux, win98) machine
> > and am considering one of the new intel based imacs.
> > 
> > I've gotten to like KDE on my old machine.
> > 
> > It appears I can install KDE on the imac, but haven't been able to locate
> > much information.  Would like to know more before taking the plunge.  I'm
> > not sure what questions to ask at this point.
> > 
> 
> 
> 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!

> 
> 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.  

(I also understand that leopard (OS X 10.5) will be out in a couple of
months and has X11 "included".  Am putting off my purchase till then (after
8 years, what's a couple more months?) )

> 
> 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?)


> 
> 4: Install linux
> You can dual boot or even wipe OS X altogether, and install the 
> kde-flavoured distro of your choice.
> Haven't done this so google is a better friend than I.

Hoping to get away from dual boot all together by going to IMAC.  (I dual
boot windows now mainly for taxes, and a very rare other program -- these
all have Mac versions, so far.

Thanks again!

John V.


> 
> HTH
> 
> John
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