http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/13050/
As a desktop it is nice to play with, and would be comfortable for people switching from Mac. The applications built for Etoile and GNUstep cover the basics, like IM, email, news, text editors, file managers, etc. but there are a lot of gaps which would benefit from more exposure and more developers.

The development being done is very cool, with recent activity such as a Just In Time compiler for Smalltalk (based on LLVM), allowing application development in Smalltalk with transparent access to all of Etoile's Objective C components (rather than being stuck in a Smalltalk-only world like Squeak).

At the moment there is an Ubuntu-based live CD of Etoile (here are some screenshots http://news.softpedia.com/news/Etoile-Live-CD-48502.shtml ). However this contains an old prerelease version of Etoile 0.2 from February 2007 (as far as I can tell). It includes a complete Etoile desktop on top of GNUstep on top of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu currently has a source package for etoile, but it only builds into Camaelon (a theming tool) DictionaryReader and WildMenus (which is a dummy package).

Getting an up-to-date version of the whole Etoile system means checking it all out of subversion and compiling. The etoile developers are not making packages for any systems at the moment, but they say they would be happy to help packagers with any problems they encounter.

The issue being raised in this rationale is that the innovative Etoile system and desktop, while packaged, are not being made available to users other than two applications mentioned above.

[18 votes] Solution #1: Improve the current packages


]]> en-us Thu, 11 Sep 2008 07:46:53 +0000 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:14:51 +0000 QAPoll module http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/13050/ Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:15:29 +0000 Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:43:35 +0000 Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:01:37 +0000 Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:27:37 +0000 Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:26:47 +0000 Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:27:31 +0000