David-
> 1. First of all, how do you make Squeak run directly on the frame
> buffer on Linux?  I know I have seen some discussion of this before
> on the list, but I couldn't find it by searching the list on GMane or
> searching the swiki.
I updated the Swiki to reflect this, adding a new node and updating the
PortsWishList page to point to it. I put up some of the info I ran
into in my search for an X11-less Squeak.
http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/3484
You can download the VM here-
http://www-sor.inria.fr/~piumarta/squeak/
The Linux binary packages include the .so needed for running on the
frambuffer, no need to compile it yourself.
> 2. Although having the X Server in Squeak would be cool and allow you
> to run Mozilla Firebird from "inside" Squeak, wouldn't it also be fun
> to use a plugin or FFI interface to Mozilla directly?
Another thing we've debated on the list before.  Having a Squeak plugin
that allowed Squeak access to Mozilla's rendering engine would be
*awesome*.  That has a few negatives-
1. Doing the work is apparently quite hard.  People have tried, and to
my knowledge, no one has succeded.  There has been at least 2 or 3
attempts mentioned on the list, with some of them having a big
investment of time. Mind you, this work was done by some pretty
intelligent folks. If you, or anyone else is able or willing to get
this working more power to you! I'd love this myself. On the other
hand, an X11 server at least is doable, proven by the package that is
up now.
2. A Mozilla plug-in may take up the same amount of time as an X
Server, but is much more limited in what it provides.  An X server
opens up the ability to run thousands of apps that we couldn't before,
whereas a Mozilla plugin gives us an HTML rendering engine, nothing
more.
Positives of a Moz plugin:
1. We'd be able to have a Gecko-based web browser that fit in with
Squeak more- Squeak buttons, window decorations, menus, etc.  It's
look a lot more like a Squeak app.
2. It'd be great to have the ability to embed Gecko into all sorts of
other places- Celeste, for example.
But most importantly- why does it have to be one or the other?
Regards,
Aaron