Previous: A NeXT Computer Emulator

Re:Previous: A NeXT Computer Emulator by squarefoot on Monday March 20, 2023 @07:54AM (#35230247)

Also Windowmaker. I have been using it for years back in the day, and just to be sure reinstalled it a few minutes ago to check how it behaves today: no problems whatsoever with Firefox, LibreOffice, Gimp, Handbrake, and other modern apps. Using it right now to write this post with Firefox, in fact. Not that I didn't expect it to work since the last stable version is dated 2020 and the GitHub repo is quite active (last update 3 days ago).

Nostalgia aside (I was lucky enough to attend a real NeXT demonstration in 1994/1995) WindowMaker has been literally a life saver over 20 years ago when I had to build a desktop for ~50 remote points of sale in which the operator could only perform a few tasks, and setting up it as a locked "kiosk on steroids" with a fixed dock that could open only the 4-5 needed apps allowed them to do their jobs without distractions or exposing the unnecessary/dangerous parts of the system.

https://www.windowmaker.org/

https://github.com/window-maker/wmaker

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Re:Previous: A NeXT Computer Emulator by jandrese on Monday March 20, 2023 @09:54AM (#35231525)

Windowmaker is my go-to on systems where there is no hardware acceleration so they get bogged down with anything trying to do compositing.

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Re:Previous: A NeXT Computer Emulator by prmoustache on Monday March 20, 2023 @11:46AM (#35233312)

Not saying it doesn't work. Just saying that the whole aesthetic is very easily ruined by a few apps.

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Re:Previous: A NeXT Computer Emulator by incanus77 on Monday March 20, 2023 @01:22PM (#35235082)

I used WM actively in the late 90s as my primary. I still put it on any Pi or things like that that I need a quick desktop for. So clean.

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Re:Previous: A NeXT Computer Emulator by jksmith on Monday March 20, 2023 @04:28PM (#35238164)

Yeah I saw a NeXT demo in same time frame at Atl Comdex. That display postscript was coolio.

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Re:Previous: A NeXT Computer Emulator by guenthert on Monday March 20, 2023 @06:25PM (#35239699)

A buddy of mine had a NeXTstation in '90 (or '91, memory fades). Sure it was nice, I mean really nice. The reason I wasn't completely blown off my socks was only that we observed the Amiga in '85 (a common friend even had one). For us youngsters those five years seemed like a long time and the progress was expected. DOS/Windows seemed like a regression to us. I'm sure these days the juniors wonder why we geezers bother with Linux and not use Android instead ...

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Re:Previous: A NeXT Computer Emulator by badsectoracula on Monday March 20, 2023 @08:39PM (#35240979)

I've been using Window Maker since the early 2000s whenever i use Linux. I have tried other window managers (including a long-ish stint with GNOME 2 back in late 2000s) but always end up going back to Window Maker.

Also occasionally i hack on a GUI toolkit in C that i use for a few utilities (mainly a music player and a filesystem browser) and i hope at some point to make it good enough to use as a backend for LCL/Lazarus. Here is an old shot with various example programs/tests and the two utilities i mentioned:

https://i.imgur.com/cMxfxQg.png

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