Embed Terminal on Desktop

[flipjarg]

Is it possible to embed a Terminal into the desktop? I've seen it done in Linux but cannot find anything on embedding an actual prompt into the OS X desktop. So far only displaying one command, like Top or Uptime.

 

[knightjp]

With all the UNIX flavor that OS X has, its kinda frustrating that Linux users can have this cool feature whenever they want and we can't.
I seriously would like to have this...

 

[revbarabbas]

I have been able to do it with an app called Geektool. It's available in the MAS or from their site, just google "geektool".

EDIT: sorry, replied too soon after mis-reading your post. You can only run single commands in geektool not fully interactive terminals.

 

[knightjp]

You can only run single commands in geektool not fully interactive terminals.

Tried geektool myself... I liked it but it works as something to display stuff through the terminal... like an activity monitor. I admit, its pretty nice and give the OS that techie look which is always cool, but like I said, Linux guys are able do more and are able to have other awesome features on their operating systems, but we cannot; even though we have the same UNIX power..

 

[cradom]

Don't know about "embed" but you can try this: http://lifehacker.com/5640624/visor-turns-your-mac-terminal-into-a-drop+down-quake+style-shade

 

[knightjp]

I wonder if the program the Linux guys are using to get this feature will work on Mac OS.. Or maybe there is a OS X version and we just don't about it.
I thought I was the only guy looking for it, but I guess I was wrong.

 

[knightjp]

A terminal embedded into the desktop - YouTube
This is what I want on my Mac Desktop...

 

[vansmith]

I'm going to guess that the Linux version isn't directly portable nor may it even be directly portable between desktop environments. I'm not sure what tool you're talking about but it is possible that it depends on libraries that are DE dependent. In other words, it may only run on GNOME because it leverages GNOME libraries.

This is one of the downsides of closed source environments - they're less easily customizable and harder to tinker with. You may be out of luck here. However, perhaps something like TotalTerminal will meet your needs. It doesn't embed a command line prompt on the Desktop but it does make one easily accessible.

 

[knightjp]

This is one of the downsides of closed source environments - they're less easily customizable and harder to tinker with. You may be out of luck here.

Closed Source?.. Haha.. yeah ur right... ;D
When OS X was first introduced, I was reading a tech magazine that had a large heading. "Apple Goes Open Source"... It was talking about Jobs stating that Apple decided to make Mac OS X more accessible to developers and they realized that there were really good programmers & developers in the open-sourced community and that by opening to them, they would be able to take advantage of that developer resource.

I guess Apple never really made it completely open or maybe decided to close it later due to the danger of propriety stuff being stolen or copied.. I don't know... I'm not well versed about it.

 

[vansmith]

My previous post doesn't do justice to the extent that Apple leverages open source software. They do use quite a bit of it. In fact, Apple is pretty good at posting the sources to the code that they do use (see here). At the same time however, Apple is a company that "uses and contributes" as much as they need to in the pursuit of their own goals. In other words, they give back only what they need to. This isn't a value judgment but rather an observation.

Apple's relationship with the open source world is a bit of a mixed bag. They've done a tremendous amount of good (thank you WebKit!) while at the same time, they've antagonized and alienated developers on projects that they depend on. For instance, there was quite a bit of frustration in the CUPS (printing) community when Apple started to push for changes that would only benefit OS X (keep in mind that CUPS was initially developed to serve the printing needs of the *nix community at large). So, on the whole, Apple's "middle of the road" when it comes to open source - they're better than a company like Microsoft (at least historically so) but quite far behind others like Google. Again, this isn't a value judgment since no model is inherently better than the other for business.

 

[knightjp]

Well at the end of the day, a company is supposed to make money.; otherwise its just going to wither and die.
So, I guess Apple fights hard to keep their stuff, their stuff basically. That's what you're seeing these days with lawsuits, etc.. Frankly I see this as history repeating itself. When Jobs was ousted back in the day, after he left, Apple went through a number of lawsuits and lost everyone. Those frankly put Apple in a mess which only began to get better when Jobs came back. I see the same thing happening now, ever since Jobs passed.
It looks like they need another wiz like Jobs to take them to the next level...
Alright.. forget that.. point is.. Apple will fight to protect its innovations and like any company, they will make decisions that will benefit them; even though they contribute much more to other communities than Microsoft ever will.

But this thread isn't about business plans. I'm looking to embed a fully functional terminal into my desktop. That's it and if I find anything out there that no one has heard of, you can be sure I'd post it here..

 

[anynamewilldo]

A terminal embedded into the desktop - YouTube
This is what I want on my Mac Desktop...

That is cool!! I want that too.