From DaemonNews.org: “The goal of the OpenDarwin project is to provide a binary compatible development environment for Mac OS X. The OpenDarwin project is based on the latest sources available from the Darwin project at Apple Computer. One of the key aspects of the project is to enable interested Mac OS X and Darwin developers to be able to retrieve, modify, build, and distribute operating system changes. It also seems Jordan Hubbard is a member of the OpenDarwin Core Team, recently resigning from the FreeBSD Core Team.”
The Birth of OpenDarwin
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Can someone in the know please explain to me why it was necessary the creation of OpenDarwin, while we already have Darwin and Gnu/Darwin and some other forks as well, as the Secure Darwin/SE one. Why more fragmentation? Why not work together with one of the projects mentioned above? I don’t quite get the point of OpenDarwin.
I have no clue. Perhaps the people who started this project were pissed off at the people in the other projects and didn’t want to work with them? Who knows.
And why do we need so many Linux distros? No one needs 20 distros that do the same thing… they could accomplish more if they worked together, but instead they compete.
btw, you made a typo on the title of the article, it says OpenDarwing instead of OpenDarwin.
It says on the frontpage why OpenDarwin was created, it is because very few are given access to the Darwin tree (which makes it hard to develop for). GNU/Darwin is just a “distribution”, this isn’t…
Eugenia, it was created because, as TS said, the others are just distributions. The ability to commit code (or at least have your code committed) was and still is rather closed on the Darwin side. With OpenDarwin, though, it’s truly open. Check in your code and some committers’ll look over it. Also, it’s not owned by Apple (which some folks will jump for joy over
It’s outside the firewall and beyond Apple’s corporate sticky fingers or whatever. Interesting idea – I’ll wait a while to see if it works as well as I hope. I personally want to give a go at bringing a good JVM to OpenDarwin – that’s all that’s holdin’ me back…
Darwin is the official source. It is mainly controlled by those closely associated with Apple.
OpenDarwin was created to give developers a little more controll over access to the source. I believe it will be run quite similarily to the BSD projects. Basically this branch will be good for testing out new ideas without breaking the official source — or making a mess of it. If apple likes what it sees in OpenDarwin then it can simply steal the code and put it in the official Darwin.
GNU/Darwin — Well damn, I don’t think anyone can explain this. This is Darwin polluted with GNU stuff. I don’t even know if this project really gives anything back to Darwin — Why do we have this? Well Why do we have a million linux distros? I assume whoever’s responsible for all the linux distros is responsible for this.
Others: beats me
Case in point:
Since it’s beyond apple’s control you can get access to the code, make usefull changes and don’t have to sign all the agreements that Apple forces you to.
Look at the kid that was denied access by Apple since he was to young to sign their agreements..
Look at the kid that was denied access by Apple since he was to young to sign their agreements..
Speaking on the 17-year-old student developer whose Darwin program membership was terminated by Apple — to much notice by the press — Jobs said that news stories on this were “untrue” and that his age was not an issue, as Apple head counsel Nancy Heinan clarified that a legal guardian can allow minors to participate in the program. Jobs contended that the student “did not follow certain rules,” but he refused to comment further.
Heh, just contact Finlay and ask him the skinny. Seems his parents wouldn’t sign the frellin’ agreement
for him. If his parents weren’t willing to, that seems to indicate that:
A) They’re Dale Gribble paranoid, or
B) They had a Good Reason(tm)
If he was my kid, I may have signed up. Then again, I was a certified Juvie D., so maybe I wouldn’t have – my apple mightn’t fall far from the tree
This is essentially something like Be’s release of OpenTracker, except with Darwin. It’s an official Apple project but quasi-independent.
I’m certainly interested in seeing where it goes, since my experience with GNU/Darwin could be charitably described with the word “fiasco.”
I think that OpenDarwin sounds great and I agree with TL Ford, I’m really looking forward to a nice JVM.
Eugenia asked why we need another fork, and others have mentioned the “millions” of Linux distros.
I think several competing versions of the same thing are a benefit to everyone. I think each distro tries to offer something new and better, or at least focus on improving a specific aspect. Look at OpenBSD. It focuses on security and does a fine job at it. NetBSD focuses on supporting every platform that ever existed and they do really well at that. OpenBSD may suit me, while NetBSD or FreeBSD suit my neighbor. Or, I may find OpenBSD more suitable for a specific application (like my web server) and FreeBSD may better suit my Workstation needs.
Each Linux and BSD distro has a unique offering, whether it be security, ease of use, raw speed and power, foreign language support, etc. I think these various offerings are what have helped Linux and BSD become as popular as they have. Can you imagine if we only ever had access to Slackware? The Linux scene would be much like it was in the early 90’s I would think. I would still be using it, but I doubt as many people would.
So I think we should hail OpenDarwin and any other “branches” as a solid means to improve the Darwin product as well as it’s popularity among users. I think this is a good thing and look forward to what the OpenDarwin project is able to produce.
Does this mean Open Darwin will become a mess of code such as the GNU/Linux distros. That is, heaps of shit you dont need?
Someone said it may be maintained similar to the BSD distros, lets hope so for OpenDarwins sake.
Live Free or Die! I love that motto. Y’all can go ahead and follow Apple, I’m running *Free*BSD. 🙂
Does this mean Open Darwin will become a mess of code such as the GNU/Linux distros. That is, heaps of shit you dont need?
These distros are not a mess of code, but rather a mess of preinstalled applications that you don’t need. I think it’s important not to confuse the two.
Also, distros like Debian, Gentoo, and several others allow you to install ONLY what you want/need quite easily, which is why I use Debian.
I understand your sentiment, however. 57 different text editors is nice if you are evaluating text editors, but it sucks if you already have a favorite.