@ mdma
This is a common misconception about unix software. Just because GTK uses X on unix, doesn't mean that it has to use it on other platforms.
If you read carefully my post, you`ll notice that the problem isn`t the x-server: I want to install a ported application and I have to install an extra package(GTK) in order to make it run.
The point is that the ported apps, are so thightly binded to other packages that we have to port a lot of things. That means that we have to keep bloating the apps:
On Amiga or other OS`s, there are already native GUIs, as for the x-server GTK is a way to make usefull a graphic application on x-enviroment (in association with a window manager). The X-server by itself won`t let you even move windows on screen, exept from setting the x-y coordinates on an x-term!!!
It`s inevitable to do this, exept if there is a HERO who wants to re-event the wheel! Porting of apps that are based on this (GTK for example) will be easier and faster, but from the point of view of a simple user the obbligatory installation of GTK on my PC gave me only errors (unexpected) & distorted graphics (moving the x-chat window), things that never occured on X-chat 1.8, which had the graphics layout pretty much the same as X-Chat 2.x and I didn`t install the GTK.
For my 1.7GHz monster, speed is not an issue (not talking for the bugs i mentioned before, and which are inevitable on every program that is being under development) but if we start talking for Amiga, then the thing gets complicated. Take MUI for example : A nice GUI enhancement that give a lot of new features and is aesthetically much more attractive than the plain WB. But all these at a cost: speed & memory. This is acceptable because they have done a good work and everything was planed from bottom to top (the 68000 version as base), but if you have to port something that was developed and targeted for other machines and HAVE to base other apps on that (an extra load!) imagine what we`ll have to expect...
Practically now: I really don`t know what is your experience with real amiga (not speaking for UAE etc..) but I have installed unix apps on AmigaBSD: As MarkTime wrote, they are really slow! It`s not a fault, but more features more mem & CPU ;-)
To sum-up: Getting new apps designed for powerfull & high specs PCs, means an obbligatory migration to PPC or 68K-emulated on strong CPU else as i said before :
I think that it would be a resource-eater any port of linux apps, but since they don't exist any amiga-native apps, we have to endure...
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HONDA CM250
