Re: Win32 port of Debian ?
Hi
On Wed, Feb 10, 1999 at 11:06:41PM -0800, Jim Pick wrote:
>
> "Brimhall, GeoffreyX L" <geoffreyx.l.brimhall@intel.com> writes:
>
> > I remember seeing a few months back someone hinting at starting a win32 port
> > of Debian, that would be built on top of the cygwin posix emulator for
> > windows.
> >
[snip]
> >
> > The reason I'm wondering about this is I was interested in porting the
> > libggi on top of DirectX, and the easiest way I could think of to do this
> > was to use the cygwin posix emulator. In attempting to kick off building
> > libggi, I quickly found myself wanting and building handy unix shell tools.
> > Then I though, "Well, this is the beginnings of a linux port". Finally, I
> > had the realization that if libggi is ported, then the Xggi-server (which is
> > a full-blown X server) should be able to port which would make a very nice
> > full blown free-ware X server for MS windows.
Some people probably think creating a win32 port of Debian is a
rather pointless thing to do (including me sometimes, depending
on what mood I'm in. ;)
I do think it could be very useful, though, to people who have
to use NT, but want a Unix-like environment. I don't know if
Cygwin is quite ready for production use (it's still in Beta
anyway and there are certain problems with it) but I'm sure a
Debian port could be started using it.
For a while, I have wondered why nobody wrote an X server using
DirectX. I know practically nothing about DirectX and how it
works etc., but it seemed to me that a DirectX X server would be
a whole lot better than the Windows X servers I have tried out
before. A DirectX X server wouldn't have to run your X desktop
in a Windows window, would it? You would be able to have each X
client running in a Windows window (i.e. Windows would be the
window manager), wouldn't you?
I have no idea how this would all work, but it sounds like it
would make a decent X server.
Using GGI would be an even better idea, since the X server is
already written. It might have to be modified slightly, I
suppose. Also, GGI would allow other GGI apps to be ported (I
know there aren't that many at the moment.)
> > And if there is an X-server and a linux port, then cool apps like the Gimp,
> > X-emacs, to KOffice could run on a windows platform (and I could work on my
> > linux apps at work when I have a touch of free time).
[snip]
Well, someone is already working on a Gimp port. To use it, you
need an X server, so it should run fine on
XGGI-on-libggi-on-DirectX-on-Win32 :) I think (I may be wrong)
the major porting effort with the Gimp was porting gdk. Maybe
someone could port gdk to use libggi :) (Then you could run
Mozilla on a libaa display :> )
--
Michael Wood | Tel: +27 21 762 0276 | http://www.kingsley.co.za/
wood@kingsley.co.za | Fax: +27 21 761 9930 | Kingsley Technologies
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