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

--
  "the question is no longer between violence and non-violence; It is
between non-violence and non-existence."  :: martin luther king junior