Re: X11 Mac OS X 10.3 emacs fink: only terminal?

[Joe Corneli]

   In article <mailman.5858.1103024787.27204.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>,
    Joe Corneli <jcorneli@math.utexas.edu> wrote:

   > Why would I want to use some parochial, proprietary, monolithic,
   > *nonfree* windowing system when I could use an advanced, portable,
   > highly configurable free one (i.e., X11 and ratpoison ;))?  I run OS
   > X, but my user experience is essentially indistinguishable from my
   > experience on GNU/Linux.

   If you don't care for Apple's GUI, why are you even bothering to run OS 
   X instead of GNU/Linux?  It seems strange to use a Mac and then 
   essentially ignore its distinguishing feature.


The machine isn't actually owned by me, so I'm a little uncomfortable
changing the OS, especially since I haven't bothered to hang on to the
install CD's.  I could probably make it dual boot, but even that might
bother the people I might have to give the machine back to someday.
Well, I don't know if anyone would really care or not.  And since the
UI I use is all free software and I'm not very likely to get
interested in what's happening in the lower levels of the system, I'm
not in a big hurry to switch OS's at this point anyway.

But besides that, I like the feeling that I've helped a little with
"porting" the free software experience to OS X.  I think that there
are probably a number of people who go Mac not because of the
windowing system but because they think that it will make it easier
for them to start using free-as-in-beer software.  (Probably a
misperception, though it would be pretty darn easy if Apple shipped
the machines with X11 and Fink preinstalled.)

Macs are more expensive and, I imagined at the time, slightly better
built.  I wasn't paying, Fink was providing the software, and so I
chose Apple.

Since then I've become much more of a free software aficionado.  

I don't think that Apple's "distinguishing feature" as you put it
really isn't so hot, or all that special, when compared with X11, and
it wasn't what attracted me to the system.

My laptop, and its replacements, have critically malfunctioned, in
total, about a half-dozen times in the last two and a half years.

Next time I get to choose a machine, I'll probably go with a sturdy
x86 model and try out GNU/Hurd.