Haiku is not as gnomic as it previously was . . .

[richmond62]

https://www.haiku-os.org/

Just possibly . . .

Our donations for 2024 were higher than any other year, breaking all previous records by almost $10,000!

is starting to gain traction (not before time).

If nothing else, Haiku is almost the stereotypical central example in a fuzzy category of 'the slow burn'.

Certainly its GUI is pretty good (and, after all, that is all that "peasants" like me care about) . . . and were an OpenXTalk build and/or the ability to prepare standalones for Haiku available it might be a preferable OS for schoolettes "out in the bush" (and whatever the Bulgarian government and press may say; Bulgaria is fairly far out in the bush: arguably further than some sub-Saharan African nations, despite the smug, racist attitude of most Bulgarians) to deploy than some 'shaky' Linux system (and with OXT Linux does seem a bit shaky).

Admittedly my schoolette will probably close in 2-3 years time as I become a pensioner (not before time quite frankly); but that does not stop me caring about other bonkers types trying to kick against the pricks . . .

[tperry2x]

The issue there is there's no BSD engine for LCC, so currently the only way is via wine on haiku.

[richmond62]

Is Haiku based on BSD?
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SShot 2025-02-28 at 12.13.49.png (24.49 KiB) Viewed 6347 times

[tperry2x]

Okay, so there's no dedicated NewOS kernel build either.

[richmond62]

Okay, so there's no dedicated NewOS kernel build either.

That does not mean there could not be one.

[tperry2x]

Only for the exact same reasons that there's not an Arm mac one.
Or {insert name of your current favourite OS here} version either.

[richmond62]

https://discuss.haiku-os.org/t/how-to-p ... iku/5875/2

Ok, for QT5 apps, here’s the quick and dirty way

Make sure someone else hasn’t already ported it.
install the QT5 and QT5_devel packages. These are large. There is also a QT5 documentation package, which is insanely large.
Download and unzip the app you want to port
Open a Terminal, cd to your unzipped files
If you are compiling on x86_gcc2hybrid, type “setarch x86”. If you are compiling on x86_64, you can skip this step.
Type “qmake”
If that gives an error message type “cmake .”
If that gives an error message, read the documentation. then return to step 4
type “make”
start praying
If the compilation is successful, start hunting for where this one put the damn binary.
If the compilation is not successful, read the documentation, fiddle with the code, then return to step 4. Repeat as required (or give up).
Send an email to the original author informing him that his code compiles on Haiku.
Start planning your .hpkg for distribution.

emphasis is mine.

[tperry2x]

But the engine does not use qt5, it uses gtk2
Does not seem like anyone has ported GTK2 to it. If they haven't by now, then they probably won't as GTK2 is depreciated.

But then, as good as Haiku is (and only getting better), it's a niche OS - even more niche than Linux of course. So as far as uptake and usage goes in the greater scheme of things, it's probably <1%. (which is a shame of course).

https://www.haiku-os.org/
...is starting to gain traction (not before time).
...were an OpenXTalk build and/or the ability to prepare standalones for Haiku available it might be a preferable OS for schoolettes

Ignoring the fact there's no engine for Haiku, you'd also have to write a standalone that could run on the NewOS kernel too (and you'd also need to write the routines for building that in the standalonebuilder stack).

...than some 'shaky' Linux system (and with OXT Linux does seem a bit shaky).

Well, not as shaky as others. I mean, it runs without giving you memory exception errors and security warnings. It is actually faster at rendering GUI objects than the MacOS version (there's a bug report re that), I can't crash the entire IDE by editing a menu on Windows and Linux, and it actually exists (perhaps more importantly) which of course the ARM version for MacOS does not. With the door closing on non-ARM mac-apps, MacOS will be the next OS to lose the ability to run it.

Admittedly my schoolette will probably close in 2-3 years time as I become a pensioner (not before time quite frankly); but that does not stop me caring about other bonkers types trying to kick against the pricks . . .

Even if that wasn't the case, and let's say all this was happening 10 years ago instead of now: (assume you weren't retiring and the schoolette was open, and you were looking for a way to keep running the xTalk IDE without paying) - you'd either be looking at running it on Windows (paying for Windows device licenses) - but since Windows 11 has quite strict hardware requirements, you'd find yourself running on an outdated windows 10 OS with no security updates soon.

... or running it on Linux (as that's the free option), as it currently runs on a huge array of distros and hardware.
Plus you can of course still even get security updates for 32-bit apps on a few distros, and you can run an updated browser on really old hardware. That for me is the attraction of Linux: it provides a way of keeping old hardware going when there's no affordable alternative available. And working in a school, with no budgets available, that's the only way half of the things behind the scenes continue to work at all.

Or alternatively, raise a thumb (or middle finger) towards Apple and recent MacOS versions and continue to run an older version of MacOS on intel hardware of course. Although with this option you aren't getting any security updates if you go online with those computers, and you'll find that getting browsers that keep supporting ever-changing web standards is increasingly hard - even Firefox ESR 115 requires MacOS 10.12 now, which is a stretch for older MacOS hardware. (for example, you are looking at a 2014 mac mini or a 2017 iMac to be able to run a semi-recent browser now) - something that renders all CSS and supports modern web technologies. Anything kind of 2015 (10 years old) won't run a modern browser or behave when running an online web app for example.