What do you mean by "customized for Aqua"?
How is it that native Aqua app's don't launch X11/Xterm before running, and GNU/Linux based X11 apps which have been ported do ?
Because they improve your productivity and generally make things much
easier for you, as a developer. I'm not kidding; Xcode bundles a lot of POSIX documentation with it; man pages in HTML format etc etc. No free software has yet been able to match the raw power and ease-of-use that some of the developer tools from Apple give you.
Agreed. However, its not ``just" about productivity is it? Anyway DRM was never productive for anyone.
I was indeed running Gentoo Linux natively but it didn't take me long (6
months) to come back to OS X. Part of the reason was that I invested a lot on the Apple hardware but wasn't able to utilize it to the fullest because of the lack of drivers on Linux.
i wonder why that is so? ;-) Anyway, let's face it it DOES happen on quite a few laptops.
Also, I can now develop free software for both Mac and Linux; which is
awesome. I have a setup where I run Linux in a virtual machine;
Out of curiosity which one do you use? i had tried some stuff with Bochs, but that was just to see what works and what dosn't. On the intel macs parallels is an option, but a proprietary one.
ssh to
it through X11 forwarding and run Linux-Mac apps side by side. This also means that I am free to play around with the kernel as much as I want without fear of screwing up the system. Basically; I'm in a much better position to develop software for Linux by running it on OS X, and wasting minimal time doing it thanks to the awesome, albeit non-free Apple applications (try the debugger bundled with Xcode; it will change your life forever)
True. i admit i was especially impressed with Interface Builder. i would probably like to play more with Cocoa(mainly for studying how it works) when time permits.
My conscience doesn't hurt me when I use non-free tools to create free
software. There are also several Free Software built natively for the Mac; and I am now in a position to contribute to them. Short version: I'm loving it :)
If you are using it to contribute to make free software, which would give users the 4 freedom's then yes, its not something to be bitterly opposed :-) But its not something i would over enchourage either.
Regards,
- vihan