The first release candidate for the GNU-Darwin Distribution .v 1.1 for PowerPC is now available. Get the installer here. Is is built for Darwin 7.x including Panther. It ships with GNOME 2.6.1, GNUstep, GNUMail, MPlayer etc.
GNU-Darwin-1.1rc1 for PowerPC 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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Can any GNU-Darwin user share their experience with this OS? Where does it excell? How does it differ from existing alternatives especially with regards to kernel functionality?
anyone actually use darwin as their main desktop or an a real server?
A GNU version of Darwin, or Open Darwin. I know the GNU platform is nice and all, but Darwin does have its own set of utilities…
Of course what it could seem to be is a testing bed for GNU ulilties on Darwin, but they might as well just use Open Darwin or Darwin or Mac OS X. To me this is just some people wanting to GNU a perfectly good OS, least what it seems like from the pages.
In a sense creating a GPL version of Darwin isnt bad, but im going to say my preference is the with the original Darwin or Open Darwin.
yes, really does anybody uses this distro as a desktop os?
I have searched in the web for some review of Gnu-Darwin but found nothing. As a server the main developer had some problems confgurin Gnu-Darwin as a mail server for his hardware.
Any review or personal experience with Gnu-Darwin?
Can it replace Linux ?
Can it replace Linux ?
Well, it depends on what you do with Linux.
That was an easy answer, you should have figured that out yourself.
AFAIK, Darwin is modelled on a microkernel architecture and looks like FreeBSD (as it was derived from FreeBSD).
Is this correct? Also, does it run better than Hurd (which is also a microkernel)?
look at the archives, I think arstechnica had a great article on this. BAsically they have a mach microkernel with some more stuff added to make it suck less, and a bsd layer on top of it, but still running in kernel space. So if bsd crashes there is no chance for mach to still work. And obviously it runs better than hurd
I hope for them that their distribution works better than their website! PHP errors thrown at you everywhere, including at the front page, and subpages that won’t work, don’t exactly give me confidence in the thing.
FreeBSD does *not* have microkernel nor mach. FreeBSD (as Open and Net too) have monolithic kernels – Apple wrapped Mach with BSD servers to make up Darwin, but these do not exist in FreeBSD. Tools are from BSD, however, but FreeBSD’s kernel is monolithic, like is Linux.
They seem quite preoccupied with selling you either a hard drive or a CD/DVD to install this version. The only bootable ISO for download I could find was based on the old Jaguar Darwin Core. Maybe that’s why not too many are running this.
Oops! I just noticed that even the HDs, CDs & DVDs that they are selling are based on the Jaguar Core. My bad.
I also noticed that they are bundling PlayFair with the distro. I’m pretty sure that will get them in hot water with Apple legal eventually.
Can I run GNU-Darwin or OpenDarwin on a PowerBook Wallstreet as an Mac OS X alternative?
Mac OS X 10.2 is too heavy for my old (but still working great) Powerbook Wallstreet.
An other problem is that it is the last Mac OS supported on this hardware (as it doesn’t have any USB and 10.3 require one)
and fink doesn’t support it anymore (Mac OS X 10.2)
So are the latest releases of Darwin still supporting my Powerbook?
Is it difficult to install, are drivers included (as for external USB controller) in the non official Apple Darwin distributions?
Cheers,
Fred
Fink still supports 10.2. I see the 10.2 tree updated frequently but support for non gcc-3.3 10.2 is on the decline as its a big pain to maintain two trees for 10.2. And 10.1 is still supported-barely and may be dropped when 10.4 comes out.
GNU-Darwin packages continue working +99% on 10.1, 10.2… 10.*, which means that you get a mountain of free software. As for your PowerBook, we would most like to support users of stranded Apple computers, especially at this time. You can try the packages on your OS X PowerBook now.
We hope to be able to release a new OS installer for PowerPC within the next week or two, which will be “free software only” in the GNU-Darwin tradition. Practically speaking, that means that we must remove some of the proprietary drivers in order to distribute the OS as free, and compatibility with your computer may suffer on that account.
There is only one way to find out if you can switch: We would like you to wait for the upcoming release of the our new OS installer disc, and try it on your computer. If the installer boots properly, then it is likely that you will be able to use Darwin instead of Mac OS X. If the disc doesn’t boot, then there is no harm done. Please be sure to let us know how it goes.
Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/
What about x86? I know that there is something for x86. Do you plan on an x86 release?
> What about x86? I know that there is something for x86. Do you plan on an x86 release?
Absolutely. I am trying for a…. well, some surprises are good ;-}. Even if I fail in all my expectations, there will certainly be updated packages and a GNU-Darwin free version OS installer for x86 in time for the 1.1 revision. Cheers!
Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/
Darwin on x86 does not support SMP.
If you have USB keyboard and mouse do NOT waste your time.
It does not install at all.On my hardware (two computers one
with i845 and another with i865PE chipsets) it installs perfectly with PS2 keybord and mouse.
I’ve played with Darwin on x86 – I had to build a machine to support it:- 3com Nic/Athlon/Ati Video/ATA. I’m familiar with FreeBSD and OpenBSD, and various Linuxen, but use Macs full time. It has *THE* easiest install of any Uni. i.e. do you want to install this yes/no – there is a more involved install – but I had a whole drive to devote to it. I ran it as a webserver for a while – and it seems really quick – but this contradicts the impression at the login, which for some reason feels like treacle – Much slower that on a Mac. I’ve installed Darwin ppc on a Rev A iMac – and that seemed much faster than the 2GHz Athlon (at the login anyway). The hooks are all there to control NetInfo – which kindof replaces most of what is normally found in /etc. Without the lickable gui tools of Mac OS X, these hooks seem crude to most other Unices, so really its waiting for a layer to take advantage of the NetInfo database, better framebuffer support, better hardware spport all round – it could then begin to compete – maybe….
So, I won’t forget to test this new installer and to give you some feedback.
I like a lot what you guys are doing.
Regards,
Fred