Slashdot Mirror

1. Download a compiled wget binary using curl
2. chmod 755 wget
3. put wget in /usr/local/bin
4. use the new wget to download some other code

...download wget...
if [ `cksum wget | cut -f1 -d\ ` != 2989954681 ]
then
echo "Someone is playing silly buggers..."
exit
fi
...install wget...

> it seems that a lot of people have been mislead by this statement

I would say that people were mislead by the incorrect reporting. I never said that we were dropping support for PPC, but based on the sensational reporting, it is easy to see why people could be decieved. That's sad, because they missed out on some great free software. I faced alot of acrimony because of it, but I don't hold it against them, and we continue to support them anyway. I hope that people will be considerate if I have been too severe in correcting the errors.

Regards,
proclus

http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

It is a shame that some are so intent on propagandizing against the Distribution, and I think people are getting sick of the lies that have been spoken against us.

I'm not trying to insult you personally, Graff, but there are all too many poeple who go on repeating these tired old saws. They need to get a grip on reality and check with the source instead of believing what people tell them about the Distribution.

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

GNU-Darwin just happens to be the best-selling UNIX on the market today mostly because of the Mac OS X GUI layer running on top of it.

Actually, that'd be Darwin, not GNU-Darwin.

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

http://www.apple.com/scitech/stories/cornell/

We are also about the freedom part, which is why we are so excited to bring software freedom to Apple users. That is why we make sure that our software works with OS X, and we help newbies with it.

Finally, there are problems with the APSL from a free software perspective. If you already have a free OS, and you are happy with that, then you should stick with it.

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

http://www.osxfaq.com/Editorial/open/
http://www.osxfaq.com/Editorial/open/index2.ws
http://www.osxfaq.com/Editorial/open/index3.ws
http://www.osxfaq.com/Editorial/open/index4.ws

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

http://www.gnu-darwin.org/packages.shtml
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/x86.shtml

I've written an article which clarifies the relationship of GNU-Darwin to Apple.

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/1/20/191655/929

Yves de Champlain has also written a very helpful article explaining Apple's relationship to open source and free software.

http://www.osxfaq.com/Editorial/open/index.ws

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

http://www.gnu-darwin.org/packages.shtml
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/x86.shtml

I've written an article which clarifies the relationship of GNU-Darwin to Apple.

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/1/20/191655/929

Yves de Champlain has also written a very helpful article explaining Apple's relationship to open source and free software.

http://www.osxfaq.com/Editorial/open/index.ws

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

http://www.gnu-darwin.org/packages.shtml
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/x86.shtml

I've written an article which clarifies the relationship of GNU-Darwin to Apple.

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/1/20/191655/929

Yves de Champlain has also written a very helpful article explaining Apple's relationship to open source and free software.

http://www.osxfaq.com/Editorial/open/index.ws

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

http://www.macslash.org/comments.pl?sid=02/12/18/2 332242&cid=8
http://www.macslash.org/comments.pl?sid=02/12/18/2 332242&cid=28
http://www.macslash.org/comments.pl?sid=02/12/18/2 332242&cid=49

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

http://gnu-darwin.sourceforge.net/war.html

All of our packages contain md5 checksums. Although it is not the norm to checksum binaries which are used in one time bootstrapping procedures, it is not a bad idea. We will probably implement this feature eventually. If you are impatient, you should feel free to submit a patch.

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

clarifications anyone?
by proclus on Wednesday December 18, @07:05PM EST

Sorry, I just couldn't let the story to out this way, because truth is important to me.

All machines that are currently supported will continue to be supported in their current configurations, so we are not pulling out the rug as it were. The situation could be better than this, but the ball is now in Apple's court. I will say that Apple has been moving in the right direction with respect to these issues over the past few years. If projects like ours can stay engaged with them, there may be a chance. It is not easy, and may be overly optimistic, but there it is. I'd like to give some time for Apple to respond.

The main source for the Apple/DMCA story is at the following link, although it has been covered extensively on the web as an 'Apple DMCA' googlesearch will reveal.

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-955805.html

Based on my experience with the Adobe boycott and other anti-DMCA activism, I consider Declan as a trusted source. Here are some good stories about the impact of the DMCA in general and on Apple users.

http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-656.html# lnk3
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06901

As for the APSL, this has been a long standing issue with the Distribution, which dates back to the founding.

http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=00/12/01/20282 54&mode=thread

Darwin is not free software, because the APSL is not consistent with the free software definition. For more information, check GNU Project.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/apsl.html

You may know Yves@gnu-darwin.org, who is a OSXFaq.com editorial contributor. His most recent installment is highly germain.

http://www.osxfaq.com/Editorial/open/index4.ws

Until Darwin is freed, activists such as myself will be leading users away from it instead of toward it. This antagonism towards Apple in the free software community has been aggravated by the DMCA fiasco. For example, Slashdot coverage of Apple has soured considerably since that time. We added the caveat to our Darwin distribution CD's soon after that (see grey box).

http://www.gnu-darwin.org/order.shtml

Clearly it is in Apple's best interest to repudiate the DMCA, to remove the onerous anti-privacy clause from the APSL, and to meet the standards of GNU Project, so that users can have a truly free OS, and so that activists can support Darwin instead of undermining it.

The message for users is to educate yourself about software freedom. In this world of economic contraction, the DMCA, RIAA, and the patriot act, that might take some effort, but it will be worthwhile in the event that free software becomes more difficult to maintain. Here is the starting point.

http://www.gnu.org

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

clarifications anyone?
by proclus on Wednesday December 18, @07:05PM EST

Sorry, I just couldn't let the story to out this way, because truth is important to me.

All machines that are currently supported will continue to be supported in their current configurations, so we are not pulling out the rug as it were. The situation could be better than this, but the ball is now in Apple's court. I will say that Apple has been moving in the right direction with respect to these issues over the past few years. If projects like ours can stay engaged with them, there may be a chance. It is not easy, and may be overly optimistic, but there it is. I'd like to give some time for Apple to respond.

The main source for the Apple/DMCA story is at the following link, although it has been covered extensively on the web as an 'Apple DMCA' googlesearch will reveal.

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-955805.html

Based on my experience with the Adobe boycott and other anti-DMCA activism, I consider Declan as a trusted source. Here are some good stories about the impact of the DMCA in general and on Apple users.

http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-656.html# lnk3
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06901

As for the APSL, this has been a long standing issue with the Distribution, which dates back to the founding.

http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=00/12/01/20282 54&mode=thread

Darwin is not free software, because the APSL is not consistent with the free software definition. For more information, check GNU Project.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/apsl.html

You may know Yves@gnu-darwin.org, who is a OSXFaq.com editorial contributor. His most recent installment is highly germain.

http://www.osxfaq.com/Editorial/open/index4.ws

Until Darwin is freed, activists such as myself will be leading users away from it instead of toward it. This antagonism towards Apple in the free software community has been aggravated by the DMCA fiasco. For example, Slashdot coverage of Apple has soured considerably since that time. We added the caveat to our Darwin distribution CD's soon after that (see grey box).

http://www.gnu-darwin.org/order.shtml

Clearly it is in Apple's best interest to repudiate the DMCA, to remove the onerous anti-privacy clause from the APSL, and to meet the standards of GNU Project, so that users can have a truly free OS, and so that activists can support Darwin instead of undermining it.

The message for users is to educate yourself about software freedom. In this world of economic contraction, the DMCA, RIAA, and the patriot act, that might take some effort, but it will be worthwhile in the event that free software becomes more difficult to maintain. Here is the starting point.

http://www.gnu.org

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

Look at the installer.

First they want you to run it by doing curl http://gnu-darwin.sourceforge.net/one_stop | csh as root, allowing them to run whatever they want as root on your machine.

Next, it downloads a bunch of GNU utilities (wget, killall, tar, and a couple of others) and replaces the standard system utilities with them, without checking checksums, or providing an easy way to back out the changes if something goes wrong ( some - but not all - are copied to /tmp before they are overwritten).

Then, these unchecked progams, are run as root, to download the rest of the packages. I see no attempt to verify that anything was downloaded correctly, let alone compromised.

You would think they could have at least used md5 or even cksum to try to make sure that they are downloading what they think they are downloading, or back up the system files they overwrite to some place besides /tmp...

Get the story here. It is only the government who saying that they failed to show intent, a self-serving smokescreen argument at best, which is unfortunately spreading via the media (I already heard it on NPR). The reality appears to be that the jury supported fair use for ebook users against the DMCA.

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

Yes, by all means... speak about it!

http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnu-darwin
http://www.gnu-darwin.org

http://www.gnu-darwin.org/webmail

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

http://www.gnu-darwin.org/webmail

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

2. yes, it's called darwin. yes it's avail on x86. go get it. no, the windowing isn't available (it's called aqua and consists of some Very Neat Technologies).

3. i have rent to pay too. and i own a (couple of) macs.

4. "underacheivers"? as compared to all those operating systems that were so wildly successful after porting to x86 like beos, solaris x86 and (ironically) openstep.

porting to x86 means being forced to support byzantine hardware and having to convince consumers to not only install yr os but uninstall the one that came with their computer.

if you think there is any good reason for apple to port to intel then you really aren't thinking at all.

Welcome to supercomputing.

I administrate a small cluster of the G4s, and real-time interactive graphics works great over the gigabit network.

Regards,
proclus
GNU-Darwin.org

I also just recently bought my first Mac, and iBook. I've been impressed with OS X. It was the real reason I bought a Mac. If you want to get all of your GNU Linux utilities you can download GNU-Darwin.

I downloaded these tools (about 1 GB full install). It's just like having your favorite BSD distrabution along side the Mac interface. XDarwin lets you run X-Windows rootless so you can run X apps along side Mac ones.

People know I'm a geek. When I tell non-geeks I bought a Mac they are like ewww... I didn't think geeks liked Macs. I just tell them They do now cause of OS X! But when talking with other geeks, they know exactly why I bought a Mac. I think we will start to see many Unix lovers use Macs for every day desktop stuff. I still plan to use Linux for servers. As the article said, there isn't much conflict here. Linux and OS X can live together.

I don't understand why they build GNUstep on linux. The logical choice would be to build it on Darwin. Then you would have the ability to create an interface which "...aims to be a user-friendly version of UNIX for the PC, similar to what Apple's OS X is to the Macintosh." (http://simplygnustep.sourceforge.net).

Not only that, but it would be a Mac OS like OS for PC that is based on the Mac kernel. Using the same kernel and API set as Mac OS would be really useful. There is already starting to be quite a presence of GNU software for Darwin (can be run on Mac OS X too, not just plain Darwin installs). You can check it out at www.gnu-darwin.org

I had to replace an OS X Server box with Yellow Dog because the AFP was completely instable under OS X Server. We spent about 300 bucks in Apple Care support before giving up. I installed Linux + Netatalk and haven't had a single complaint since.

Note that this was over a year ago, so OS X Server was completely different than OS X today. OS X server back then was based on Rhapsody/NeXT, not Darwin/BSD. There wasn't even a pretty Aqua GUI back then.

But today, I really can't see a viable reason to choose Linux over OS X on Apple hardware. All the GNU tools are being ported and OS X actually has decent web browsers, printer support, multimedia, GUI admin tools, and loads of other goodies built in.

• Loads of ported UNIX software thanks to the FreeBSD ports tree
• A free X server now with rootless support!
• Ass loads of Mac software on top of that

Basically, you can't get a cheaper laptop that will ship with a top notch UNIX system pre-installed. Sure you could get a PC laptop and dual boot windows and whatever, but why bother?

The iBook is very durable. I threw mine in a pillow case, then put that in my backpack so I could skateboard to school every day and it has withstood all the abuse I have given it.

It's great on the network. If the built in modem, 10/100 ethernet isn't good enough for you, you can have wireless for another 100 bucks. It's industry standard, too so you can fit in just fine on a PC network (did I mention that OS 10.1 will ship with SAMBA?) The networking code is all BSD goodness. It can't get any better than that.

Aqua is also the best GUI I have ever used. I grew up on windows, and used WindowMaker, blackbox, and enlightnement for X. Aqua blows them all away.

The only reason not to buy one is if you can't stand Apple computers or Steve Jobs for some reason. For me, I purchase computers based on technical merit, not based on petty biases, so the iBook was a great choice for me.

Here is a small sampling to the dumbfounding results of this arrest.

1. Radicalization of America's brightest kids.
2. Wide spread protests against Dmitry's arrest and the DMCA
3. Criminalization of constitutional protect fair use rights.
4. Attack against public libraries.
5. Computer professionals and scientist boycott the US in a vast brain drain of intellectual capital.
6. More tax money wasted on copyright enforcement
7. Black hat backlash.
8. This is only the beginning!

Regards,
proclus
GNU-Darwin.org

Sign if you agree.

Signed,
a fan

Regards,
proclus
GNU-Darwin.org

I'm stunned nobody else responded to this by pointing to the GNU-Darwin Project homepage. So here it is.

No, this isn't a joke.