Mellel - version that can run on Free BSD

[susancragin]

Now that Mac's base is FreeBSD, can Mellel run on it, or be able to run on it?
I would like to use Mellel for certain very long documents, but not all the time. My machine currently runs Ubuntu's Edgy Eft but I would put on a FreeBSD partition just to run Mellel.
(I would not buy a new Mac or even a new OS.)
I don't suppose there are any other Linux users on this list, but thought I'd ask.

[Stephen Still]

Mellel is built on Apple's Cocoa Objective-C framework, which is proprietary (although there is an incomplete open-source clone called GNUStep, springing from Next's OpenStep effort of years gone by). There's an outside chance that Mellel would run on GNUStep, but I suspect that it will have incorporated enough Mac-specific code that it just won't run. If it had been written in a cross-platform framework like Qt, WxWindows, etc, then the story might be different — but it wasn't.

I do use Linux, but not as a desktop platform, or with a GUI for that matter.

BTW: I know you don't want to buy a new machine, but Mac Minis are actually quite good value, and you can run Linux on them, including Ubuntu, with a bit of effort. So why not dual-boot Mac OS and Linux? Hell, you could even throw on a Windows partition if you were feeling masochistic. Just a thought…

[susancragin]

I need a laptop because I travel so much.
For my next machine I will probably get a high-end Mac running on an intel chip. I was going to do it this time, but I need Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition, which runs only on Windows. I don't mind dual or even treble-booting, as long as I get the programs I need. I've been dual-booting for years and the only thing I use Windows for is to run DNS.
By the way, the folks at CodeWeavers may be looking to port DNS8 to Linux and Mac. That would make me very happy, and ease my transition to Apple.

[Stephen Still]

By the way, the folks at CodeWeavers may be looking to port DNS8 to Linux and Mac. That would make me very happy, and ease my transition to Apple.

I certainly hope so. There aren't any packages which are nearly as good for Mac. I'm not quite sure what kind of voodoo would be necessary to get an input method going through WINE, but I'm sure it'll be interesting!

At the moment, the only real options are IBM (now Nuance) Viavoice, which seems atm to be abandonware, and MacSpeech iListen, which reportedly isn't as good as DNS (although better than nothing).

[susancragin]

You can do something to help. Find the WINEHQ site, go to DH|NS, and cast a vote for its development. Say you are a Mac user. (There are many more mac users than linux desktop users.) Promise you will spread the word tin the Mac community. Then do so.
Go to the CodeWeavers web site. Ask them about the chance of a commercial ($$) port, either sponsored by Dragon or available as an add-on.