As always after a minor OSX revision, Apple has posted updated sources for Darwin.
Darwin 7.6 sources Available
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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What’s the deal with Darwin? Does anyone actually recompile their kernel on OSX? Do OSX updates include the new versions? Will Tiger contain the most recent Darwin build?
It seems like the function of the kernel in OSX is a bit different than on other *Nix distros.
“Do OSX updates include the new versions? Will Tiger contain the most recent Darwin build?”
OS X updates do contain the latest version. Tiger will most likely come with Darwin 8.0.
“It seems like the function of the kernel in OSX is a bit different than on other *Nix distros.”
Darwin isn’t a kernel like Linux, it’s an operating system, which the kernel is a piece of. Unlike the GNU/Linux system which comprises of thousands of pieces that get updated individually, it’s more like FreeBSD in that it is a whole system that gets a single release.*
*Although, to be honest, *BSDs aren’t really so much like this anymore.
Another reason for Darwin releases would be the fact that it’s open sourced and if you find a bug and write a fix you can do so.
*Although, to be honest, *BSDs aren’t really so much like this anymore.
Care to develop?
Oh my gosh! The last few weeks have been an absolutely stunning time for all of the *BSDs! First OpenBSD 3.6 was released, then FreeBSD 5.3, and now Darwin 7.6! Fantastic! NetBSD 2.0 is bound to be released in the near future. Does anybody have the exact (or as close as possible to therein) release date of NetBSD 2.0?
“Does anyone actually recompile their kernel on OSX?”
If you want you can. 🙂
Another other use is for the curious to diff against the previous release to see what real changes are under the hood from 10.3.5, seeing all the gory details instead of the brief changelogs Apple gives with 10.3.6.
“First OpenBSD 3.6 was released, then FreeBSD 5.3, and now Darwin 7.6! Fantastic! NetBSD 2.0 is bound to be released…”
Honestly, it’s hard to sport the pattern, but shouldn’t it be more like NetBSD 11.3 or something?
There are those who run Darwin without all the extra proprietary stuff (e.g. http://gnu-darwin.sf.net). And you can run it on x86 systems. So, basically it’s yet another free Unix-like system.
I’m not sure why you would want to run that instead of *Linux or *BSD, but hey, it’s there, it’s cool, why not etc.
I know this is a little of topic, but when I tried the new beta of Tiger from our company’s ADC account, the Airport Express card kept crashing the Wireless Router, just wondering if anyone has had similar problems.
P.S. I know its beta and I have e-mailed apple with a bug report.
You should have read the NDA that came with your ADC account’s because you just broke it whith this post.
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http://perso.hirlimann.net/~ludo/blog/
Oh thanks that’s really helpful. So sue me and the hundreds of other people who have posted reviews and comments on Tiger.
If you haven’t got a decent reply, then do me a favour and don’t reply at all
zerblat – Darwin tends to have better hardware support on Apple hardware than Linux does, since it pretty much uses the same drivers as MacOS X. That includes all the drivers included with the kernel, and third party drivers such as Nvidia or ATI graphics hardware or wireless networking hardware.
If I get the time one day, I’ll try setting up Darwin. In principle, it should be open source and have better drivers on a Mac (eg. hopefully sleep and semi-decent X). That said, there is one major detraction: netinfo. Because of that, you either have to relearn system administration or figure out how to turn the bugger off.
As for Tiger and the NDA: if I see one more glowing review I’m going to go on a Mac smashing rampage. This is particularly true if it contains words to the effect of “it is the most revolutionary version yet.” Don’t get me wrong. I use and mostly love Panther. On the other hand, nothing is perfect. I run into Panther bugs (little but annoying ones) every day. Now I just know that Tiger is going to be the same: a lot of great things, and a lot of annoying bugs. In my opinion, any review which doesn’t address the bad with the good is just being dishonest!
“Does anyone actually recompile their kernel on OSX?”
Access to the kernel sources DOES help device driver writers, *alot*… And open Development for OS X kernel happens in OpenDarwin project.
It might be quite possible