A general philosophical question about MacPorts

[James Linder]

> On 20 Feb 2019, at 8:00 pm, macports-users-request at lists.macports.org wrote:
> 
>>> 
>>> So my philosophical question is “Why MacPorts these days?”. 
>> 
>> Same reason as always: to help you install software on your Mac. If
>> you prefer installing software in a VM running a different OS, by all
>> means do so, but it's not the same thing.
> 
> Another philosophical question you might want to ask
> yourself is "Why macOS these days?" That's only a bit
> facetious (a large bit, admittedly). If you mostly use
> a VM, you might be better off just installing that OS
> on the hardware and replacing macOS. Just a thought.

I’ve tried linux on my iMac27.
While it works, Apple for all their faults do a much better job of managing the hardware:
Bluetooth pre boot.
MacOS fiddles the sound to make it ‘sound’ nice, on linux it is tinny.
MacOS sleeps the unused cpu cores, linux throttles them. The linux way runs much hotter.
I use MS word occasionally. MS in their anti-linux mode don’t do a Word. I use CrossOver but a native toolset is noticeably nicer.
I sat my wife, as a totally naive user in front of Word and OpenOffice and she quickly gravitated one way. I have  to accept that being a borg does not stop ypu writing nice software.
If you use a touch pad the MacOS gestures are much better managed than linux making a VM attractive,
There is a whole world I have not explored using a VM app in a native window. (think it is called seamless mode on VirtualBox)

> The only reason I use macos at all is because it's
> unixy. I spend most of my time in full screen X11 using
> many programs and languages from macports.

I assume that the general anti-X11 rant comes from people who have no idea! The whole wayland push fills me with dread. I use multiple computers, usually from one seat. (X11 lets you do that) for all the Mac stuff I resorted to nomachine. Thats a poor subsitute.
Again much of macports let you choose X11.

> Even without
> X11, macports makes it easy to install and upgrade lots
> of software that would otherwise be cumbersome to
> install individually, let alone keep up to date. I
> wasn't even aware that Apple supported macports. Apple
> doesn't really support X11 like it used to either and
> it doesn't work quite as well as it does under Linux
> but it'll do.
> 
>> From my point of view, macports makes it possible to
> keep using macOS. Without it, Linux in a VM or
> replacing macOS altogether would be hard to resist.

James