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I personally use Fink (and love it, for all of its flaws), but it's sad to me to see a good alternative source for OSS on OS X bite the dust. The only reason I'm able to enjoy a proprietary OS like OS X is because of the availability of many of the best OSS packages (if not all), and the compatability this affords me with linux-based environments. Hopefully Gentoo on OS X will go somewhere - does anyone know how it stacks up against Fink right now?

Except that we're talking Windows Vista here and the site that you linked to states:

> It provides Windows NT4.0/2000/XP with full access to Linux Ext2 volumes

I think I remember reading somewhere that Vista will only load signed drivers.

I forgot that bit...and even if that weren't the case, I suppose there could still be other breakage in the way drivers communicate with a new version of Windows. It does work well with WinXP, at least. It more than likely works the same with Win2K, but I've not tested that. One can always hope that the troubling news that comes about WRT Vista seemingly every day will get people to at least consider alternatives.

(I'm moving more and more of my everyday computing to Linux and Mac OS X. Gentoo for Mac OS X brings a bunch of familiar apps to my mini. As for my AMD64 boxen, they're spending more of their time in Linux than in Windows. Most of the stuff I use under Windows either has a Linux version (Firefox, Thunderbird), has an equivalent/better replacement under Linux (mplayer, gEDA), or works under Wine (VirtualDub). The two or three apps that remain can either run in Win98 under QEMU or, if they need to run on the metal (probably my EPROM burner needs this, as it needs to twiddle the parallel port), maybe a BartPE boot CD will work.)

We produce an Open Firmware solution which includes an x86 emulator to bootstrap x86 hardware, specifically graphics cards and the like.

PowerPC boards, PC graphics chips with x86 BIOS, no driver edits required on the OS side.. it is there like it would be on a PC.

http://metadistribution.org/blog/Blog/78A3C88E-1CE 7-45B8-9C79-420134DD9B8E.html
http://www.genesippc.com/

What's this?
http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/trove_list.php? form_cat=309

or this? http://freshmeat.net/browse/839/ What about http://fink.sourceforge.net/ or http://darwinports.opendarwin.org/ or http://www.metadistribution.org/macos/?

Finally this http://www.apple.com/opensource/.

RMS is interested in his personal crusade, not freedom. Freedom must not have artificial limits.

If you really want package management, get Fink, or Gentoo, or DawrinPorts, or BSD's ports.

It's the best I have worked with thus far. Much more up to date software. http://www.metadistribution.org/macos/

Want free software? What's wrong with the following:
Gentoo for OS X: http://www.metadistribution.org/macos/
Darwin Ports: http://darwinports.opendarwin.org/
Fink: http://fink.sourceforge.net/
Freshmeat: http://osx.freshmeat.net/
Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/trove_list.php? form_cat=309

I need clarification. Are we discussing Open Source Software or Open Source GUIs?

Mac OS X has an open source kernel, a closed source GUI, OSX specific frameworks and some apple specific drivers. I don't see what the problem is. They have to have something extra to entice people to buy their OS. Fortunately, they support open standards and document their APIs very well. I consider "open standards to be far more important that open source software. as the former help to prevent vendor lock in while the latter does not necessarily do that. What good is it to have open source software if it does not support interoperability?

Running Linux or FreeBSD on a mini will gain you nothing for software availability and you will lose WiFi support so I really don't see what is the point to not run OSX.

Mind reader.

1. Installing Linux or BSD takes time and experience; Mac OS X comes preinstalled.
2. You can run most Linux/BSD software on Mac OS X. X11 comes preinstalled, too.
3. Mac OS X doesn't lack any package management systems: Fink, DarwinPorts and now even Gentoo MacOS.
4. No need to compile and install drivers for any devices you have. They are preinstalled.
5. If you don't like the Mac OS X GUI, run X11 with your favourite window manager in fullscreen. It works perfectly.
6. You can easily use X11 and the Mac OS X GUI at the same time. It works perfectly, too.

The list goes on.

"Free Software on a Cheap Computer" doesn't mean getting rid of Mac OS X, dammit.

Open Source Projects:
BSD Ports http://darwinports.opendarwin.org/
APTGET http://fink.sourceforge.net/
X11 http://www.xdarwin.org/
A lot of OS X and cross-platform projects http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/trove_list.php? form_cat=309
Gentoo anyone? http://www.metadistribution.org/macos/
Freshmeat has a lot of OS X and cross-platform projects http://freshmeat.net/browse/839/
http://www.opendarwin.org/
http://developer.apple.com/darwin/

As you can see, contributing the OS X platform does not mean abandoning OSS or cross-platform software development.

You can contribute to Open Darwin or to the many cross-platform software projects on freshment or sourceforge.

There is the fink http://fink.sourceforge.net/ project, Gentoo for Mac OS X http://www.metadistribution.org/macos/, Darwin ports http://darwinports.opendarwin.org/ or you could just install linux.

Also check out versiontracker.com for a lot of Open source software with pretty GUIs.

Don't forget Gentoo/OSX

Unfortunately a few PR whores, who don't even represent or consult other Gentoo developers, are quite happy to dignify Sun's dirty tricks in exchange for a bit of free press for themselves (which always looks good on a PhD submission, eh?), and since no-one takes RMS seriously any more he gets ignored on those odd occasions when his rants are actually sane...

I wrote a response to this article in my blog

No, just feel sad about the terrible waste of a perfectly good Mac. Don't get me wrong, Gentoo is great -- I use it on all my x86s. But I think (and hope) you'll find that OS X is for you -- I know I certainly haven't thought about putting Gentoo/Linux on my iBook. Now, Gentoo/MacOS, on the other hand...

Definitely give Fink a try for handling most of the packages that OS X is missing. I haven't tried Gentoo for Mac OS X yet - it writes directly into your / instead of /sw so I might wait until it stabilizes a bit before giving that a try.

ServerLogistics' Complete * packages are also great.

Because if the group doing the integrating decides you dont need it, you dont get it.

Unless the group doing the integrating decides, on a lark, to join, embrace, and even contribute to the open standard/software movement. 'Cause then you might be able to still decide what you want or need.

But that couldn't possibly come from some over priced, consumer-electronic excuse for a computer, now could it? No way.

Just keep doing yer thing, man...

They indeed have a PPC iso (works even for G5s) and they even ported portage to OS X. Really cool as soon as more packages will be unmasked.

...with a few linux and *bsd PCs and such...and windows occasionally...
[opinion]
the one button mouse is okay most of the time. Some programs (ie Shake) will require a mouse with more than one button. Those are rare though, and I think you'll quickly learn how to use control+click as a substitute.
The one upside about the one button mouse is that its great for both people who mouse with their right and left hands. Microsoft mice and such rarely are comfortable for the minority of people who are left handed mousers.
[/opinion]
The one huge bizarre difference between OS X and Windows would be the interface. Application windows won't have menu bars for the most part in each window, the three buttons (close/minimize/shrink) are on opposite sides, the dock is a bigger version of those little icons next to the start menu you can click (forgot what those were called), the menu bar could be considered the less customizable Mac equivalent.
Icons are on the opposite side of the screen (along the right, not the left) generally unless you move the icons, and windows-only wallpaper will be useless.
On the flip side, I find that the Mac community (sans the n00bs) is absolutely wonderful to go to help for, but just make sure to google first. Mac developers and programs for the Mac are absolutely gorgeous. Once in a while you'll come across something that won't quite be the same, like FCP or Blender, but thats rare.
There's also the BSD foundation, which is quite handy. If you're used to working with *BSD or Linux, you'll feel right at home. for development theres the free xcode tools, gcc, et cetera. if you want, there's also gentoo for mac os x (basically just portage), darwinports, and fink to make your life easier
It'll probably take around a week or so to get used to it. But after you switch, you'll wish you could use it all the time (: Good luck, and nice machine.

Windows/OS X cannot adopt such a system because of the commercial context.