Is X11 the new Flash for Apple?
So on Labor Day I decided to sit back, relax and try out some new fat install wiki software. I like to use Zim but after messing around with Microsoft One Note which is stupendious I am really dying for something that would let me paste in images without a lot of work. I looked and settled on vetting KeepNote and RedNotebook. My requirements: cross platform local wiki. Anyone who know me knows I work in the big three environments at any given time: Windows, Linux, Mac and being an application user, not an OS frek, I like cross platform stuff like Eclipse. JEdit still hasn’t passed my test, since Notepad++ on Windows and Textmate or ANYTHING ESLE on Mac are superior in performance.
MacPorts Purgatory
So its time to install KeepNote and RedNotebook. Interestingly enough they are both Python applications, run in X-Windows. Of course there’s no .dmg for a Mac install. OK, so that means I can install them via Macports. Simple . . . .
I start the install with a MacPorts selfupdate. Takes about 20 minutes. Upon installing the new wikis I get missing python library errors. Then I get python version errors. Apparantly python 2.6 is conflicting with 2.7. One of the wiki instructions says uninstall Fink (another packaging tool for Mac). Christ. I do some fixes and now py27-nose won’t load.
As I get farther down the road, i decide to do a full clean and self update for MacPorts. It takes 3 effin hours to re-download and build everything. Then I start getting perl errors. More versioning errors. So I remove all the perl versions and get the “right” one in, another 45 minutes. We’re up to about 5 hours of time now.
Perl is good now, I get errors install the GTK libraries. More dicking around with MacPorts. Finally, I get an install. Total time has been 6 hours — but its not over!
8 total hours to update all my libraries to install two python applications on my Mac. Talk about productivity.
When I fire up the apps X11 pukes, throwing a terminal error. A couple of Googles later I have update to the latest latest pathc of Snow Leopard and install a special X11 dmg package form the open source site.
Irony
Finally! They’re running! A few errors but I can run both KeepNote and RedNotebook. But guess what? THEY LOOK AND BEHAVE JUST LIKE FRIGGIN ZIM!!!
That’s right, except for image pasting the icons, everything are just the same Python UI pieces and the applications aren’t even as good as Zim for what I need. Jeez.
X11=Flash With More Tenacious Developers
You know, I don’t think Steve Jobs wants anyone running X11 applications (like Gimp or my wikis) on a Mac. Apple is notorious for controlling is UX; for instance the banning of Flash off its iPhone platform. X11 is an open source project for Mac to run the dang X-Windows apps on the mac, which is basically running over a Next core. But Jobs, I am guessing, doesn’t want it. Or whoever is ruling Apple now.