I see your point, it is better not to get Apple
angry, even if 1000's of websites have hijacked
Apple's look and feel e.g. by using Aqua-like
buttons. They are not quite terrorists like RIAA but
they are proven to be litigious.
Still, there persists in the free software area
a problem needing a solution: Multiple widget/toolkit
systems, namely GTK+ and KDE, plus older stuff,
the coexistence of which is not an insignificant factor
preventing wider adoption of free software and
free OSes.
If GNUstep could be developed into something
superior to replace GTK+, KDE, Motif and the rest,
it could solve the desktop problem.
A first step in popularizing GNUstep might be to
approach graphic designers to request that they
work on a better look and feel for GNUstep. Then
take a vote and choose a new default. The original
NeXT look and feel is dull and out of date,
like bad 1980's music.
As for Hackintosh people using payware,
I can't blame them. They're practical and they
need the best tool at the lowest cost.
They can't afford to become free software partisans,
because the opportunity cost of going without
Apple's OS and apps is (for them) higher than
the benefits of using Linux etc.
-Zack
--- On Mon, 10/26/09, David Chisnall <theraven@sucs.org> wrote:
From: David Chisnall <theraven@sucs.org>
Subject: Re: A few questions
To: "Zack -" <zck101@yahoo.com>
Cc: discuss-gnustep@gnu.org
Date: Monday, October 26, 2009, 8:10 PM
On 26 Oct 2009, at 20:00, Zack - wrote:
> 1. Why is the glassy Mac-like theme not the default?
> The look and feel of the Mac is pretty popular
> even outside the Mac-owning community, and
> by making the glassy appearance the default you
> could expand the number of GNUstep enthusiasts..
Apple
owns the Mac look and feel. Creating a theme based on this would be a
derived work and Apple has, in the past, shown absolutely no hesitation
in the past in suing people who produce Aqua themes for other systems.
We, in general, prefer to spend our time coding, rather than sitting in court arguing with Apple lawyers.
> 2. As you may know, Hackintosh PCs, i.e. x86 PCs on
> which OS X has been installed, are increasingly popular
> due to the development of the Boot-132 installation disk,
> which allows installing from an unmodified retail OS X DVD.
> The Hackintosh idea has even recently been mentioned
> in the mainstream media. Given this popularity, why not
> form an alliance with the Hackintosh crowd to promote
> GNUstep as an alternative to putting actual OS X
> on PCs, which due to driver problems is often not
> completely possible?
GNUstep
is not a replacement for OS X. GNUstep is a replacement for Cocoa,
which is one part of OS X. The hackintosh community is in violation of
Apple's EULA which may or may not be valid in your jurisdiction.
Generally,
people who want to do this are interested in running OS X and
proprietary OS X programs. GNUstep would not help here. If people are
interested in running GNUstep applications then this is an option
already, with any *NIX distribution.
I am not sure what we would
gain by affiliating ourselves with a group that has shown that it would
rather use proprietary software and disregard the license conditions
associated with this software than use Free Software.
David
-- Sent from my Cray X1
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