Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 28th Feb 2008 19:52 UTC, submitted by Tyr.
"The iPhone (or iPod Touch) is a 667MHz computer (albeit one that is only running at 412MHz) with 128MB of RAM and between 4 and 32 GB of flash. For software, it is running a pared down Mac OS X with its standard compliment of a FreeBSD-based userland over a Darwin kernel. While some people wonder why anyone would attempt to use it as a Unix workstation, to me and many others it seems ludicrous not to."
Permalink for comment 303167
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Recent Original Stories
Recent Comments
Headlines
Random Comments
Random Stories
Random OS Link
Member since:
2007-05-01
APT, is a system for managing Software Packages.
Software packages, as distributed under say Ubuntu linux (based on Debian linux) are binary packages (they are already compiled into standard executables) unlike the port management tools such as is available currently for OS X.
Because software packages are pre-compiled against a set of libraries, the APT has to be super snazzy smart and be able to work out all the library dependencies and manage them. It is *very* slick. If you have some libraries but not the others, when you use APT to install a program it will also install the missing libraries and any others that need updating to the newer version that the package was compiled with.
In the reverse process, when you remove a package, the APT system can also check the libraries in your system and if something is not required it will remove and clean up your system as well.
As I have said, very slick.
Work has forced me to use Dell laptops, but this meant I forced it to run Ubuntu Linux. This underlying APT system with the graphical software update program and synaptec package manager makes Ubuntu scary easy to update and add to and really is the best competition to the Mac way OS X gives us.
I have tried other Linux distros and find the whole Ubuntu polish on the underlying package management system to be the best.
I have tried Desktop BSD and PC BSD and they are so far behind Ubuntu in a "Just works" or "Don't crash out on inability to handle dependency libraries" that they look very primitive from the end user standpoint.
I have also tried Fink and Darwin Ports on OS X and they fit a need but also are no where near the polish and level of an Ubuntu APT package management system.
Imagine Darwin Ports where repositories hold pre-compiled binaries of all the ports available for all the OS versions and all the processors and the end user doesn't need to know anything about the back end.
They simply type:
apt-get install someprogram
and someprogram gets installed correctly, works right away, and in only the time to download the file, not download source, and then compile and sometimes crash-out during the compile process with arcane errors the end use has to try and solve. (which most can not or simply won't.)