Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 16:40:39 +0200 (MET DST) From: Lawrence Mayer dsg <Lawrence.Mayer@dsg.ki.se> To: Jimmy Olgeni <olgeni@uli.it>, <olgeni@FreeBSD.org> Cc: ports@FreeBSD.org Subject: ROX ports Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.44.0205141637270.18918-100000@mbox.ki.se>
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Hi Jimmy, Thank you for porting ROX to FreeBSD. 1. ROX-Filer-1.3.0 was released on 2002-04-13. ROX-Session-0.1.14 was released on 2002-03-12 Both of these new releases require GTK+-2.0. Could you please port these 2 new ROX releases to FreeBSD? Why? Because: a. For Gtk+-2.0 users, ROX author Thomas Leonard recommends ROX-Filer-1.3.0 instead of ROX-Filer-1.2.0. ROX-Session-0.1.14 is the ONLY Session version that runs on Gtk+-2.0 (ROX-Session-0.1.13 requires Gtk+-1.2). b. In addition to better Gtk+-2.0 support, ROX-Filer-1.3.0 contains numerous improvements and bug fixes over v1.2.0. Although ROX-Filer-1.3.0 is a development release, author Thomas Leonard wrote me today that "There are no known important bugs in 1.3.0." GTK+-2.0 is not backward compatible with Gtk+-1.2, so many programs still require Gtk+-1.2. For the sake of FreeBSD users still running Gtk+-1.2, I recommend that you continue to port ROX-Filer-1.2.0 and ROX-Session-0.1.13. FreeBSD ports GTK+-2.0 (current stable release) side-by-side with Gtk+-1.2 (previous stable release). By porting ROX-Filer-1.3.0/ROX-Session-0.1.14 side-by-side with ROX-Filer-1.2.0/ROX-Session-0.1.13, we would be doing the same thing: e.g. giving FreeBSD users the CHOICE of running GTK+-2.0 (more features) or Gtk+-1.2 (compatible with older programs). Please note: there has been a documentation error in the FreeBSD ports of GTK+-2.0 and GLib-2.0. They were both mistakenly labeled "unstable development versions". This error is in the process of being corrected. In fact, GTK+-2.0 and GLib-2.0 are both stable releases, and their new port documentation explicitly says so. 2. Most of the world's population (and many churches, schools, and other nonprofit organizations) can't afford modern computer hardware. For FreeBSD users with older, low-resource hardware, a KDE or GNOME desktop environment is probably not an option. So I see a great need for a user-friendly Unix desktop environment, which is a lean alternative to KDE and GNOME. That is exactly what ROX strives for. In addition to ROX-Filer/ROX-Session, the ROX desktop environment currently includes the following 7 components: ROX-Lib-0.1.4, Archive-0.1.2, Edit-0.1.2, Memo-1.0.0, System-0.1.2, Wallpaper-0.1.1, and Wrappers-1.0.2 . Could you please port these additional 7 components? That would provide FreeBSD users with a more complete desktop environment. Note: Archive-0.1.2, Edit-0.1.2, Memo-1.0.0, System-0.1.2, and Wallpaper-0.1.1 require GTK+-1.2. The author plans to convert them over to GTK+-2.0 as soon as possible. Author Thomas Leonard wrote me today that "The python bindings for Gtk+-2.0 conflict with those for 1.2. Once this is fixed (specifically, the module needs to be renamed from 'gtk' to 'gtk2'), I'll port the other applications (Archive, Edit, Memo, System, and Wallpaper) across (to Gtk+-2.0)." Wrappers-1.0.2 is not a program at all but rather an "archive containing a collection of wrapper applications which make normal applications behave like ROX ones". I recommend porting it to FreeBSD. Is the ports tree still open pending the June 1 deadline for FreeBSD 4.6-RELEASE? If so, it would be very good if the extra CD's due to ship (June 1) with FreeBSD 4.6-RELEASE contain the ports (1)-(2) above as precompiled packages. That would allow FreeBSD 4.6-RELEASE to install out-of-the-box (via sysinstall(8)) with an up-to-date, complete ROX desktop environment. What an advantage that would be to anyone installing FreeBSD 4.6-RELEASE on low-resource or older hardware! To make that possible (if the ports tree is still open), if you have the time, could you please commit the above ports (1)-(2) as soon as possible, before the ports tree closes? Friendly Greetings, Lawrence Mayer <lawmay@ki.se> Ume=E5, Sweden To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-ports" in the body of the message
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