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They changed the name to MacPorts.

Actually, AbiWord is available through MacPorts, which uses Apple's X11 instead of Aqua. Should work like AbiWord for any other UNIX/Windows.

Indeed it is. It is now merely bad.

As I said. And it is still a rather uneccessary fork; there is nothing in webkit which could not have been integrated in KHTML by the normal channels.

In short, they try to make some of the more popular opensource projects work in OSX. Which is smart, of course.

Forgive me if I am not impressed :)

This article suggests that the relationship between the KHTML team and Apple is much improved over what it once was. They maintain a blog/svn at webkit.org and have a relatively open development process for a traditional closed-source shop.

If you want to see what else Apple gives back to the community, you can find it yourself at their main Open Source page, which includes links to their OS kernel (mainly Apple + NeXT), userland (mostly FreeBSD), Launchd (Apple), etc.

Apple also runs macports.org, which is a community-driven ports system for OS X, following along the example of the BSD ports systems. Apple contributes hardware & some development resources (not sure if they're paid for this or if it's voluntary, but they are there).

I'll try to address these 1 by 1 and see if I can come up with some solutions for you.

1. I have some cheap usb hardware (wireless network dongle, bluetooth, etc). No drivers for mac. (I've spent hours searching mailing lists)

Unfortunately, you are pretty well screwed on USB unless the peripheral is of some standard device class that Apple supports (e.g. keyboard, mouse, hard drive, most cameras) or Apple has provided support for it. As far as I know, most Bluetooth adapters do work, particularly the Dlink ones. Look for an OS X logo on it, although what Mac did you buy recently that didn't have bluetooth built in? The networking situation is similar where most of the time the built-in gigabit and 802.11 support is sufficient for 99% of people. If you really need more network ports it's like any other system really, buy supported hardware.

2. I want to adjust mouse acceleration. I can't figure out how without buying an expensive 3rd party app.

There's a few different solutions. A google search for OS X mouse accelleration will get you to a couple of different macosxhints.com articles, one of which mentions MouseFix. Another article mentions a rebuilt HID driver although I would do that at your own risk. Or you can pay the measly $20 for SteerMouse.

I might also make a suggestion that you may simply be using your mouse incorrectly or using a bad mouse. Apple's mice are designed very lightweight and are extremely easy to pick up when doing long drags. If you're just trying to flick across the screen quickly I don't have any trouble doing that by moving the mouse a mere inch or so to get it from one side of a 1920x1200 screen to the other although admittedly you have to do it extremely rapidly for it to work.

3. I want to be able to launch my apps with one or two-key keyboard shortcuts. I can't figure this one out either.

Most people who want this use QuickSilver .

4. My scrollbar in firefox doesn't work right. Is this normal?

I have no idea. I am not very enthralled with Firefox on Mac. If you just want the Mozilla rendering engine you could try the sister project Camino. If you just want a browser then of course Safari is already there. Granted not all websites work with Safari but if it's something like a banking site I'll go use Camino or Firefox and then simply complain to the site that it should work in Safari. Did that to Verizon Wireless and what do you know, they fixed it.

5. Many open source apps that I love don't have standard maintained OS X distributions (gvim, pidgin, etc). I could try compiling myself, or I've found older versions that other people have built for them, but that's rather a step backwards instead of forwards.

There are basically two ways to get this. One way is to get Fink which is okay but I'm less than thrilled with the way they manage their port tree. Generally, Fink won't work with new OS X releases until a few weeks to a month after official release. The upside of Fink is that they have precompiled packages and use dpkg/apt plus some custom code (Python or PERL, can't remember which) to manage all of it.

The other way is to get MacPorts (formerly DarwinPorts). If on Tiger then download the Tiger binary dmg. If on Leopard, grab the source tarball then do the usual configure/make/make install. Either way will stick everything in a new /opt/local hierarchy. From there run sudo port -v selfupdate to make sure you are up to date and then if you want gvim the port is vim and you want either the athena variant or the gtk2 or gtk1 variant. The athena variant is obviously the most lightweight gvim you can build and if you can live with ugly menus and dialogs then I recommend it. Otherwise I'd suggest the gtk2 ve

Hey here's some of my thoughts:

2. I want to adjust mouse acceleration. I can't figure out how without buying an expensive 3rd party app.
Just poke around the settings in the system prefs. Mouse accel is different in OS X. Not better or worse; just different.

3. I want to be able to launch my apps with one or two-key keyboard shortcuts. I can't figure this one out either.
Yeah again just poke around in the system preferences, you can specify this in there somewhere.

4. My scrollbar in firefox doesn't work right. Is this normal?
Firefox sucks on the Mac IMO. Try Camino, Safari, or FF3 should be out soon which is supposed to be much better for OS X.

5. Many open source apps that I love don't have standard maintained OS X distributions (gvim, pidgin, etc). I could try compiling myself, or I've found older versions that other people have built for them, but that's rather a step backwards instead of forwards.
Try Adium for an OS X-like Pidgin client. It's nice!


And check out Fink and MacPorts to bring and Linux apps to OS X. I find it nice to have wget, scons, and other random but useful *nix tools right there in the terminal.

Again, I'm not trying to troll...I just thought I'd finally give the thing an honest try, but I'm not yet seeing what the big deal is. Can I get one of you fanboys to point me towards what I'm missing?

Viruses, spyware, WGA, reinstalling your OS every 6 months, a machine that constantly communicates to Microsoft, etc. OS X is simplicity, but with powerful Unix tools underneath. That's my take on things. I didn't realize what a pain maintaining a Windows box was until I ran another OS.

1. I have some cheap usb hardware (wireless network dongle, bluetooth, etc). No drivers for mac.

You most likely will not have any luck here. There are many chipsets out there without (or only partial) Mac/Unix/Linux support. I'm guessing that you have an older G4 or G5 based Mac, because, if you were to purchase a new Mac, it would have wireless and bluetooth built-in ($79 option on the Mac Pro, standard on everything else), so in your case, this is a problem, but for most switchers, and for those buying a new Apple laptop (since that's what the story was about) this wouldn't be an issue.

2. I want to adjust mouse acceleration. I can't figure out how without buying an expensive 3rd party app.

I'm interpreting "mouse acceleration" to be "adjust the tracking speed". It's located in System Preferences. In the Keyboard and Mouse preference pane, click on the mouse tab, and, you'll see slider controls for tracking speed. In addition, you can adjust the scroll speed and the double click speed. If you mean something else, I apologize. I never touch the mouse settings on the Mac or in Windows.

3. I want to be able to launch my apps with one or two-key keyboard shortcuts.

You are correct here. There isn't a native way of doing this in Mac OS X. Ironically, I think you could do this in the older Mac Classic system. Anyway, I use a product called QuicKeys to do what you described. Comes in very handy. Some of this support must be lacking on the Windows side too, because they make a Windows version as well.

4. My scrollbar in firefox doesn't work right. Is this normal?

Yes, the scroll bar sometimes breaks in Firefox on the Mac. I've found quality control lacking on the Mac version of Firefox, in comparison to the Windows version. Usually quitting and re-launching Firefox restores it to normalcy. I haven't found a trigger yet for this misbehavior. It never happens in Safari.

5. Many open source apps that I love don't have standard maintained OS X distributions (gvim, pidgin, etc).

I believe the folks at Mac Ports and Fink can help you with most of your open source software needs. Follow their documentation and you'll be up and running with open source software in no time.

I hope my answers have helped you out.

I'm a developer who works with a team of around 50, I've noticed a growing trend within the group that more and more of us are switching to Mac's for our personal computers . I made the switch about two years ago and the only thing that I have missed is the PC gaming (though I assume with the new Intel's that issue could be resolved). OS X has allowed me to customize my system to the extent that I choose and having the UNIX backbone allows me to continue to check out OS projects out there, I usually go through http://www.macports.org/ I still continue to have a separate box for Ubuntu, though I am planning on buying a new Mac Pro desktop in October with the release of Leopard at that point the Ubuntu box will go to the Wife so I can trash her P.O.S (HP Box, she bought it before we were married 'Because it had a pretty blue light'...which I hate). As far as those who "hate" Macs, I just think they haven't given it its fair shot because they might become Mac fans and then have to fork out the $2500...I know its expensive but its worth every penny.

If not, why not?

Not sure he's heard of MacPorts:

http://macports.org/

nor Fink:

http://finkproject.org/

nor version tracker:

http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/

Macports.http://www.macports.org/
Then: sudo port install subversion +tools

I'm assuming he means darwinports (now renamed to be macports

The thing where you do:

      sudo port install gimp ... and it does the bsd "ports" thing, downloads the source, patches it, compiles it, and installs it. Very useful.

Simon