Voyager FAQ: Difference between revisions
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===How is this related to MacOS X?=== | ===How is this related to MacOS X?=== | ||
I talk a lot about MacOS X in my presentation for various reasons: | I talk a lot about MacOS X in my presentation for various reasons: | ||
* MacOS X does have a lot of things in common with the WPS, even if we just talk about some ideas and concepts here. The reason for this is quite simple: Apple, IBM and HP had a company called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taligent Taligent] in the 90ies which worked on an object oriented OS. The project got cancelled in 1995 but some of the concepts survived. Beside this MacOS X is also inspired by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT_Computer NeXT], which has quite some ideas in common with the OS/2 WPS. | * The MacOS X Desktop does have a lot of things in common with the WPS, even if we just talk about some ideas and concepts here. The reason for this is quite simple: Apple, IBM and HP had a company called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taligent Taligent] in the 90ies which worked on an object oriented OS. The project got cancelled in 1995 but some of the concepts survived. Beside this MacOS X is also inspired by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT_Computer NeXT], which has quite some ideas in common with the OS/2 WPS. | ||
* MacOS X is providing a powerful 2D engine called [http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/quartzextreme/ Quartz Extreme], we think this is the way to go nowadays and Voyager plans something like this with [http://www.cairographics.org Cairo] as 2D engine. | |||
* MacOS X is providing an X implementation for compatiblity with Unix applications. It's a similar approach like netlabs.org provides with [http://everblue.netlabs.org/ Everblue]. | |||
* Apple had to solve quite some problems we have as well with OS/2 and eCS at the moment (no real multiuser system, no real security concept etc). If you want to know more about that we recommend to read the [http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Kernel-date.html Kernel Programming Guide] at apple.com. | |||
Revision as of 23:42, 7 December 2005
Voyager Frequently Asked Questions
Assembled by:
- Adrian Gschwend, aka ktk
General
What is Voyager?
Voyager is the codename of the idea to have a WPS replacement on top of modern technology. This idea is the result of around 1.5 years of thinking a lot about what we can do in the future as current OS/2 and eComStation users. Note that it's absolutely impossible to write down in a few sentences what we plan to do, I had a speech at Warpstock Europe 2005 about it and this speech alone took 1.5 hours, you get the point :)
So before you continue you should probably consult:
- My presentation at Warpstock Europe 2005. Get the ALL06 PDF.
- My presentation as DivX or MP3 (available soon)
- The Voyager page in this Wiki.
- The Voyager mailinglist at gmane.org
Note that I will not do any discussions about if this is the way to go or not. Take it or leave it, it's our choice and we have our reasons.
How is this releated to OS/2 and eCS?
A lot and not much ;) Voyager is basically a reimplementation of a lot of ideas implemented in the WPS, the Workplace Shell of OS/2. As mentioned in the ALL06 PDF, the WPS has still unique concepts that are not implemented in any of the free well known desktops like Gnome or KDE. Our goal is to get the "WPS feeling" on top of new (but already existing) open source technology, more or less independent of the kernel used.
One of the main questions from current OS/2 and eCS users is for sure backward compatiblity. That gets addressed below.
I talk a lot about MacOS X in my presentation for various reasons:
- The MacOS X Desktop does have a lot of things in common with the WPS, even if we just talk about some ideas and concepts here. The reason for this is quite simple: Apple, IBM and HP had a company called Taligent in the 90ies which worked on an object oriented OS. The project got cancelled in 1995 but some of the concepts survived. Beside this MacOS X is also inspired by NeXT, which has quite some ideas in common with the OS/2 WPS.
- MacOS X is providing a powerful 2D engine called Quartz Extreme, we think this is the way to go nowadays and Voyager plans something like this with Cairo as 2D engine.
- MacOS X is providing an X implementation for compatiblity with Unix applications. It's a similar approach like netlabs.org provides with Everblue.
- Apple had to solve quite some problems we have as well with OS/2 and eCS at the moment (no real multiuser system, no real security concept etc). If you want to know more about that we recommend to read the Kernel Programming Guide at apple.com.