Citát Jesse Ross <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:

> > Some time ago I was asking on GNUstep list, whether it is possible to have
> > running GNUstep from a portable media. I have received no answer so far.
> > Anyway, it can be great if instead of having Etoile Live CD for the Etoile
> > OS we can have Etoile Live package that can be put on a CD, USB key or
> iPod
> > and run from everywhere.
> 
> This reminded me of a couple of things:
> 
> Inferno as an IE plugin:
> http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/plugin.html
> 
> Puppy multi-session LiveCD:
> http://www.goosee.com/puppy/multi-puppy.htm
> 
> 
> And what it seems like you're suggesting is almost exactly what Squeak is:
> an image that runs on a platform specific VM:
> http://www.squeak.org/features/vm.html
>

Yes! :-) I did not wanted to say it. But ... isn't Etoile in it's nature, from
the point of view of an user, something like Squeak, but closer to reality of
being used not only as academical toy? Do not take me wrong, it is taken very
very very roughly. Squeak has almost-ideal object environment model, where
Etoile provides only an illusion of such pure object environment. In this case
I think, that the illusion is enough as far as you can get your work done and
stay connected with reality (that is, with existing applications and tools).

Squeak is very mature in its architecture, but I dare to say, that it is not
mature in tools for productive work. Not yet. Etoile does not have such
consistent and well developed object based core, but definitely has better
chance to provide usable tools. Why? In Etoile we can easily reuse what is
available until we have our own versions of tools. Also Etoile is meant to
cooperate with the outside world.

I know that I am trying to compare uncomparable, but from user's point of view
you can see it as I have mentioned. As user, I am comparing an illusion to real
object based environment. I would prefer the working illusion.

I hope that I will not be misunderstood.

> If we wanted to show a demo for people, we would just need to include all
> the VMs compiled for whatever architecture and environment we planned on
> showing.

That would be ideal, but later. I think from the beginning few platforms should
be supported. What platforms? Well, look at major cross-platform software
providers (Acrobat Reader, Firefox (pure download, not packages in
distributions), Java Runtime Environment, OpenOffice, ...) and see for what
platforms they offer their software. Take the majority of them and support only
those. There should be something about 3 or 4. That is manageable, if you
consider that at least 2 of them are linux flavours. Anyway, I think that most
of people will carry only windows + linux versions.

Also an advantage of this "portable solution" is, that it puts almost no barrier
on trying the Etoile, where full-featured OS is large barier. With portable
solution someone can start by tinkering around in his free time without
requiring to give up his work. Nice way for attracting people.

Stefan Urbanek

Before I start: Disclaimer: I respect and like Squeak, it is great environment.
It is excellent place for evolving OO technologies and other OO environments
should get inspiration from it.
--
http://stefan.agentfarms.net

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then
you win.
- Mahatma Gandhi

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