Slashdot Mirror

Somewhat hard to tell, unless you look inside, because Sun controls Solaris and Solaris controls you.

I just checked, and yes, NetBSD/sparc64 is supported on a lot of the architectures that you're talking about. (I had to check because I don't run any of that new 'icky' Sun hardware with PCI and IDE drives- my newest stuff is Ultra 1 boxes I got at auction for $12.50 each- still not a bad price to get an entry into 64 bit Unix...)

So where's this deep-dark-hidden stuff that you're fretting about? Download the NetBSD kernal source and dig around some.

I can only assume yes, because the only operating system that runs on a toaster is NetBSD

How can people say BSD is dying when it has a mascot like this?! Linux needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks and gorgeous babes that BSD has to offer!

You just can't take Linux seriously when its fronted by losers like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux groupies need to find some sexy girls like her! I mean just look at this girl! Doesn't she excite you? I know this little hottie puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox. As you can see, no man can resist this sexy little minx. I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass?!

With sexy chicks like the lovely Ceren you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD if she told you to? Come on, you must admit she is better than an overweight penguin or a gay looking goat! Don't you wish you could get one of these? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close to such a divine beauty!

Join the campaign for more cute open source babes today!

How can people say BSD is dying when it has a mascot like this?! Linux needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks and gorgeous babes that BSD has to offer!

You just can't take Linux seriously when its fronted by losers like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux groupies need to find some sexy girls like her! I mean just look at this girl! Doesn't she excite you? I know this little hottie puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox. As you can see, no man can resist this sexy little minx. I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass?!

With sexy chicks like the lovely Ceren you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD if she told you to? Come on, you must admit she is better than an overweight penguin or a gay looking goat! Don't you wish you could get one of these? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close to such a divine beauty!

Join the campaign for more cute open source babes today!

How can people say BSD [freebsd.org] [freebsd.org] is dying when it has a mascot [freebsd.org] [freebsd.org] like this?! Linux [debian.org] [debian.org] needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks [hope-2000.org] [hope-2000.org] and gorgeous babes [hope-2000.org] [hope-2000.org] that BSD [openbsd.org] [openbsd.org] has to offer!

You just can't take Linux [redhat.com] [redhat.com] seriously when its fronted by losers [nylug.org] [nylug.org] like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux [suse.com] [suse.com] groupies need to find some sexy girls like her [hope-2000.org] [hope-2000.org]! I mean just look at this girl [madchat.org] [madchat.org]! Doesn't she [madchat.org] [madchat.org] excite you? I know this little hottie [madchat.org] [madchat.org] puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox [spilth.org] [spilth.org]. As you can see, no man can resist this sexy [spilth.org] [spilth.org] little minx [spilth.org] [spilth.org]. I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass [dis.org] [dis.org]?!

With sexy chicks [minions.com] [minions.com] like the lovely Ceren [dis.org] [dis.org] you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD [netbsd.org] [netbsd.org] if she [dis.org] [dis.org] told you to? Come on, you must admit she [cdslash.net] [cdslash.net] is better than an overweight penguin [tamu.edu] [tamu.edu] or a gay looking goat [gnu.org] [gnu.org]! Don't you wish you could get one of these [drexel.edu] [drexel.edu]? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close [dis.org] [dis.org] to such a divine beauty [czarina.org] [czarina.org]!

Join the campaign for more cute [madchat.org] [madchat.org] open source babes [madchat.org] [madchat.org] today!

How can people say BSD [freebsd.org] [freebsd.org] is dying when it has a mascot [freebsd.org] [freebsd.org] like this?! Linux [debian.org] [debian.org] needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks [hope-2000.org] [hope-2000.org] and gorgeous babes [hope-2000.org] [hope-2000.org] that BSD [openbsd.org] [openbsd.org] has to offer!

You just can't take Linux [redhat.com] [redhat.com] seriously when its fronted by losers [nylug.org] [nylug.org] like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux [suse.com] [suse.com] groupies need to find some sexy girls like her [hope-2000.org] [hope-2000.org]! I mean just look at this girl [madchat.org] [madchat.org]! Doesn't she [madchat.org] [madchat.org] excite you? I know this little hottie [madchat.org] [madchat.org] puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox [spilth.org] [spilth.org]. As you can see, no man can resist this sexy [spilth.org] [spilth.org] little minx [spilth.org] [spilth.org]. I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass [dis.org] [dis.org]?!

With sexy chicks [minions.com] [minions.com] like the lovely Ceren [dis.org] [dis.org] you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD [netbsd.org] [netbsd.org] if she [dis.org] [dis.org] told you to? Come on, you must admit she [cdslash.net] [cdslash.net] is better than an overweight penguin [tamu.edu] [tamu.edu] or a gay looking goat [gnu.org] [gnu.org]! Don't you wish you could get one of these [drexel.edu] [drexel.edu]? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close [dis.org] [dis.org] to such a divine beauty [czarina.org] [czarina.org]!

Join the campaign for more cute [madchat.org] [madchat.org] open source babes [madchat.org] [madchat.org] today!

How can people say BSD [freebsd.org] is dying when it has a mascot [freebsd.org] like this?! Linux [debian.org] needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks [hope-2000.org] and gorgeous babes [hope-2000.org] that BSD [openbsd.org] has to offer!

You just can't take Linux [redhat.com] seriously when its fronted by losers [nylug.org] like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux [suse.com] groupies need to find some sexy girls like her [hope-2000.org]! I mean just look at this girl [madchat.org]! Doesn't she [madchat.org] excite you? I know this little hottie [madchat.org] puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox [spilth.org]. As you can see, no man can resist this sexy [spilth.org] little minx [spilth.org]. I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass [dis.org]?!

With sexy chicks [minions.com] like the lovely Ceren [dis.org] you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD [netbsd.org] if she [dis.org] told you to? Come on, you must admit she [cdslash.net] is better than an overweight penguin [tamu.edu] or a gay looking goat [gnu.org]! Don't you wish you could get one of these [drexel.edu]? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close [dis.org] to such a divine beauty [czarina.org]!

Join the campaign for more cute [madchat.org] open source babes [madchat.org] today!

But technology's most amusing when it all blows up. I wish I could find the link, but I distinctly remember reading about some lady who tried to plot an intracity voyage, and got routed through about 12 states -- even venturing into Canada for a while. (Does anyone else remember this?)

How can people say BSD is dying when it has a mascot like this?! Linux needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks and gorgeous babes that BSD has to offer!

You just can't take Linux seriously when its fronted by losers like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux groupies need to find some sexy girls like her! I mean just look at this girl! Doesn't she excite you? I know this little hottie puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox. As you can see, no man can resist this sexy little minx. I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass?!

With sexy chicks like the lovely Ceren you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD if she told you to? Come on, you must admit she is better than an overweight penguin or a gay looking goat! Don't you wish you could get one of these? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close to such a divine beauty!

Join the campaign for more cute open source babes today!

How can people say BSD is dying when it has a mascot like this?! Linux needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks and gorgeous babes that BSD has to offer!

You just can't take Linux seriously when its fronted by losers like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux groupies need to find some sexy girls like her! I mean just look at this girl! Doesn't she excite you? I know this little hottie puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox. As you can see, no man can resist this sexy little minx. I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass?!

With sexy chicks like the lovely Ceren you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD if she told you to? Come on, you must admit she is better than an overweight penguin or a gay looking goat! Don't you wish you could get one of these? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close to such a divine beauty!

Join the campaign for more cute open source babes today!

It does have an effect -- people who are opposed to whatever whacko statement they're making at the moment simply decide not to use their software.

On my s-list at the moment:
- GNUPG people for their antiwar stuff
- GNU/Darwin for several of their stances
- OpenBSD (well, Theo, mostly) for being upset when the hand that feeds them stops when they bit it.

The political crap doesn't further your cause, it only turns off users. For me, with GNU/Darwin, it's easy. I don't use it, because there are better unix-like platforms available for PPC. And there's no contest on x86.

Well, timothy seems to be suggesting that OpenBSD is a 'truly politically oriented' version of BSD

You must be with SCO to make a comment like this, so anti-BSD'ish. I mean, how dare you talk about Theo, no one said he was arrogant cocky pr*ck in this article, so you should really stop trolling. As for political correctness on the BSD's, look to the less spoken of NetBSD, where no one plays the zealotry games.

mY oS iS bEtT3r tH4n j0ors sissies I swear...

imagine a package system [...] working equally well on OSX and NetBSD

* NetBSD (of course!)
* Darwin (Mac OS X)
* FreeBSD
* IRIX
* Linux
* OpenBSD
* Solaris

The NetBSD pkgsrc collection works on Darwin.

I agree that you'd be a little nuts to bother, but please don't cloud the issue. Software availability for both NetBSD and Darwin is really pretty good; the reason to pick one over the other should be based on the kernels, if you want to be technical, or licenses, if you want to be political. (Technically: NetBSD is NetBSD, monolithic but proven; Darwin is xnu, a curious hack on Mach. Some people dig it, some people don't trust it.)

If you're a UNIX neophyte, you might want to stick with OS X or something 'friendly' like Yellow Dog, at least until you get accustomed to basic concepts. (Personally, I liked a text-only 486 with OpenBSD as a learning tool, but I'm a masochist.)

I posted this in a thread above, but only one person's noticed. I hate to whore, but really, many of the comments lack perspective on the situation overall.

So if you appreciate this, please do whatever Slashmojo it takes to make it visible, or do the same for the original?

---

IOKit points to drivers. So if someone crafts a driver for the Macintosh (popular consumer hardware platform, that), it should work:

-On PowerPC machines running NetBSD, be they Macs or the few open PowerPC boards (AmigaOne, Pegasos) cropping up. ... Remember, the existing Mac ports don't let you use Mac drivers any more than you can use Windows drivers on Linux/i386.

-Hopefully with a simple recompile on NetBSD i386/etc. So for companies that have the sense to open-source their drivers, this is a shortcut to using them on NetBSD without rewriting the code itself for a new API.

Niche, but a nice hack, and with XDarwin working, also a convenience for PPC users if they come across a plain X11 app only available as a Darwin binary. (Rare now, but we don't know how it'll play out; look how annoying the Macromedia Flash plugin makes life on FreeBSD/i386; it's only distributed as a Linux binary, so you need the 'Linuxulator' to take advantage.)

---

Yep. As others have pointed out, it's also a shortcut to letting the Quartz server binaries from OS X run on NetBSD/PPC (just like X11 needs to be built to talk to the hardware through standard UNIX APIs or direct rendering modules, Quartz needs to be able to talk to the hardware through IOKit), but Apple's EULA probably bars that, so I don't see that as bragging rights. Drivers are third-party code, so they're not governed by Apple's licensing. :)

However, there may be a loophole - as I understand Apple's EULA, they don't care what you do with the software, as long as you only run it on their hardware. So Mac-on-Linux, which is more of a VMWare type deal, is perfectly legal under Yellow Dog or whatever -- *if* you're running it on Apple hardware, and have a license for your seat of OS X -- and Quartz atop NetBSD should equally be fine. (It could even be useful, depending on your opinion of NetBSD versus xnu [apple.com]. I gather a few people actually use Linux+MoL for improved stability; NetBSD+COMPAT_DARWIN+Quartz would offer the same, but with even fewer virtualization overheads.)

However, since Apple doesn't sell any version of OS X permitting use on non-Apple hardware, users of the new 'alternative' PowerPC boards are left out in the legal cold. (In the USA; if you live in a jurisdiction where EULAs don't hold and software is sold on copyright alone, go wild... but don't expect Apple to tolerate it any more than Microsoft tolerated DR-DOS or post-partnership OS/2.)

---

Okay, new content for this post: Can we stop arguing subjective things like package managers? It's a great distraction from the real issues in this thread. To lay that one to rest... well, let's put it this way - you can use the NetBSD pkgsrc collection on Darwin if you really want to. Choose your poison based on the kernels, not subjective nonissues with userland.

How can people say BSD is dying when it has a mascot like this?! Linux needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks and gorgeous babes that BSD has to offer!

You just can't take Linux seriously when its fronted by losers like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux groupies need to find some sexy girls like her ! I mean just look at this girl ! Doesn't she excite you? I know this little hottie puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox . As you can see, no man can resist this sexy little minx . I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass ?!

With sexy chicks like the lovely Ceren you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD if she told you to? Come on, you must admit she is better than an overweight penguin or a gay looking goat ! Don't you wish you could get one of these ? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close to such a divine
Join the campaign for more cute open source babes today!

Ummm...just so you know...there really is a PowerPC port of Debian GNU/Linux. It's not as up-to-date as the bleeding edge Yellow Dog, but DebianPPC and Debian68K support more Macs than Yellow Dog does.

However, it is probably true that Debian hasn't made it to the Apple ][ yet. Not even NetBSD has taken that challenge on. So you are prolly right about 1337 Apple Zealot being a troll.

Microsoft Windows(TM) might be able to run on intel emulation, that will allow Microsoft Windows to run on it, but frankly, who cares except Microsoft, Intel, AMD and maybe a few others?

If windows doesn't port to this processor, I am sure some other OS will take over, and everything will be rewritten for that OS. Alternately, you might go with an existing OS easier to port, like Mac OS, NetBSD or GNU/Linux. (URLs in the of this post)

A silly OS and its platform dependence isn't gonna stop development that much.

Kind regards,

/Spam .

URL's for possible alternatives goes here, I am sure I miss a lot of them:

Mac OS:

Mac OSX

GNU/Darwin

NetBSD:

NetBSD

GNU/Linux:

Red Hat GNU/Linux

Debian supports several platforms.

SuSE GNU/Linux

Mandrake GNU/Linux is a distribution from France.

Slackware GNU/Linux is a classic.

Some will charge you for GNU/Linux, and give you support or written manuals, silver-CDs or something in return. I probably missed a lot of links, but to mention some of the commercial distributions I missed, here is a comparison on price.

How can people say BSD is dying when it has a mascot like this?! Linux needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks and gorgeous babes that BSD has to offer!

You just can't take Linux seriously when its fronted by losers like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux groupies need to find some sexy girls like her! I mean just look at this girl! Doesn't she excite you? I know this little hottie puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox. As you can see, no man can resist this sexy little minx. I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass?!

With sexy chicks like the lovely Ceren you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD if she told you to? Come on, you must admit she is better than an overweight penguin or a gay looking goat! Don't you wish you could get one of these? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close to such a divine beauty!

Join the campaign for more cute open source babes today!

How can people say BSD is dying when it has a mascot like this?! Linux needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks and gorgeous babes that BSD has to offer!

You just can't take Linux seriously when its fronted by losers like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux groupies need to find some sexy girls like her! I mean just look at this girl! Doesn't she excite you? I know this little hottie puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox. As you can see, no man can resist this sexy little minx. I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass?!

With sexy chicks like the lovely Ceren you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD if she told you to? Come on, you must admit she is better than an overweight penguin or a gay looking goat! Don't you wish you could get one of these? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close to such a divine beauty!

Join the campaign for more cute open source babes today!

How can people say BSD is dying when it has a mascot like this?! Linux needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks and gorgeous babes that BSD has to offer!

You just can't take Linux seriously when its fronted by losers like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux groupies need to find some sexy girls like her! I mean just look at this girl! Doesn't she excite you? I know this little hottie puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox. As you can see, no man can resist this sexy little minx. I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass?!

With sexy chicks like the lovely Ceren you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD if she told you to? Come on, you must admit she is better than an overweight penguin or a gay looking goat! Don't you wish you could get one of these? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close to such a divine beauty!

Join the campaign for more cute open source babes today!

How can people say BSD is dying when it has a mascot like this?! Linux needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks and gorgeous babes that BSD has to offer!

You just can't take Linux seriously when its fronted by losers like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux groupies need to find some sexy girls like her! I mean just look at this girl! Doesn't she excite you? I know this little hottie puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox. As you can see, no man can resist this sexy little minx. I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass?!

With sexy chicks like the lovely Ceren you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD if she told you to? Come on, you must admit she is better than an overweight penguin or a gay looking goat! Don't you wish you could get one of these? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close to such a divine beauty!

Join the campaign for more cute open source babes today!

Some data about stability:

raqim% uname -rsm
NetBSD 1.5.1 cobalt
raqim% uptime
11:40PM up 25 days, 21:35, 11 users, load averages: 0.46, 0.30, 0.23

- Hubert

Some data about stability:

raqim% uname -rsm
NetBSD 1.5.1 cobalt
raqim% uptime
11:40PM up 25 days, 21:35, 11 users, load averages: 0.46, 0.30, 0.23

- Hubert

how viable it would be to run a cluster of various platforms, for example a couple of macPPC, x-86, and UltraSPARC computers running as a netBSD cluster. Would NetBSD be able to overcome these big platform differences?

Actually, yes. While I am not a specialist of NetBSD, it runs very well on all these machines -- I had a doubt about the UltraSPARC, then I read this.

The only thing that would be slightly different between these platforms would be the installation procedure, and even that procedure is fairly standardized.

Once the NetBSD system is installed ,everything should work exactly in the same way over all these platforms -- the only difference would be the device names and the name assigned to the network interfaces.

Please note that this type of cluster has been attempted before and it seems to work very well, albeit much more slowly than a high-performance (all Opteron, for instance) cluster.

How can people say BSD is dying when it has a mascot like this?! Linux needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks and gorgeous babes that BSD has to offer!

You just can't take Linux seriously when its fronted by losers like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux groupies need to find some sexy girls like her! I mean just look at this girl! Doesn't she excite you? I know this little hottie puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox. As you can see, no man can resist this sexy little minx. I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass?!

With sexy chicks like the lovely Ceren you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD if she told you to? Come on, you must admit she is better than an overweight penguin or a gay looking goat! Don't you wish you could get one of these? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close to such a divine beauty!

Join the campaign for more cute open source babes today!

I still use a NeXTcube regularly, as well as a circa-'94 Toshiba Portege 3600-T for wardriving. I mustn't also forget my Mac SE/30, which is happily powered by NetBSD.

But I suppose my Apple IIe is really the oldest. It makes a quaint serial terminal, and plays a bitchin' game of Donkey Kong.

NetBSD, and over 3500 packaged applications, is qualified for OVER 53 architectures!

Debian Linux is qualified for at least 10 architectures, including its library of over 12,000 applications.

OS X, like the above examples, is based on GCC, the most portable C compiler yet built. Portability has always been a design goal of OS X and its predecessor, NEXTSTEP, which ran identically on at least M68K, Intel, PA-RISC and SPARC, transparent to the developer (like BSD and Linux).

http://ftp.lug.udel.edu/pub/NetBSD/misc/agc/pkgvie ws.pdf

Personally I have a pkgchk.conf shared between all my boxes so I knw what should be (re)installed at any point :)

If you can read nroff: cvsweb entry for pkg_chk.8

You can find some more details at http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/pkgsrc/binary. html. The nice thing is, they are quite configurable, so that you can run a bulk-build with xpkgwedge (to ensure that even X11 programs do not end up outside of /usr/pkg (or whatever your PREFIX is)) or with gcc-3 (if your OS or Port has not yet been switched to use gcc3 as the default system compiler) etc.

The bulk builds are run regularly on different ports, and the resulting binary packages are then uploaded to the ftp sites.

You can find some more details at http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/pkgsrc/binary. html. The nice thing is, they are quite configurable, so that you can run a bulk-build with xpkgwedge (to ensure that even X11 programs do not end up outside of /usr/pkg (or whatever your PREFIX is)) or with gcc-3 (if your OS or Port has not yet been switched to use gcc3 as the default system compiler) etc.

The bulk builds are run regularly on different ports, and the resulting binary packages are then uploaded to the ftp sites.

You can find some more details at http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/pkgsrc/binary. html. The nice thing is, they are quite configurable, so that you can run a bulk-build with xpkgwedge (to ensure that even X11 programs do not end up outside of /usr/pkg (or whatever your PREFIX is)) or with gcc-3 (if your OS or Port has not yet been switched to use gcc3 as the default system compiler) etc.

The bulk builds are run regularly on different ports, and the resulting binary packages are then uploaded to the ftp sites.

Apple hardware is closed to third party vendors?

I guess that means there are no Mac CPU upgrades from third party vendors... no disk controller cards from third party vendors... no thriving market in third-party optical and hard drives... and I'm sure Apple keeps a lock on the hardware so you can't install Linux or BSD. Yeah, Microsoft would just be doing what Apple do.

Or maybe you're full of it.

Hmm,
Linux or BSD for PPC?

Why, that's crazy enough to work.

As someone else noted (in an article with a link done as text, not as an , and with an extra blank in it), Mac OS X has a possibly-interesting scheme for starting and stopping system services. Here's the section on System Initialization in the Mac OS X online documentation; in particular, look at the Startup Items stuff.

It's a dependency-based scheme, like at least some of the other proposed system services mechanisms; see the section on adding your own startup items.

Note also that Boring Old Init isn't itself changed; /etc/rc runs SystemStarter as its last act, and that starts up the system services. SystemStarter can also be used as a command to start, stop, or restart services, so this isn't just a system startup mechanism.

NetBSD 1.5 and later have a new rc-based system for controlling services; it's also dependency-based. FreeBSD 5.x has rcNG, which is derived from the NetBSD scheme.

(Note that all of those systems have a BSD-style init, and thus don't have run levels.)

Those schemes don't address one of Seth's complaints, however - according to his description in his blog, he doesn't like having shell script wrappers doing the configuration, he wants it done in the service's process itself:

In other news, reshaped SystemServices around the futile, idealistic goal of having daemons contribute the servicesinstead of silly little shell script wrappers in the future. Ever poked through RH's /etc/init.d/ scripts? Its absurd... they do so much stuff in there that should be included in the bloomin' C code. If you need a check for something, just have the program itself do it.... But of course, these programs were designed to be run with lots of magic brittle flags rather than running and situating themselves intelligently.

(I express no opinion on this one way or the other; if you like or don't like the idea, send bouquets or brickbats to him, not me.)

Note also that it appears that he is not designing something just for desktops - in particular, he says:

The boot process: So first the kernel loads itself, and calls ServiceManager (instead of "init"). The ServiceManager starts the DBus service manually,

and checks to see if it should be doing a graphical bootup. If it should be, it starts the GraphicalLogin service (which of course may have dependencies to start first).

Now, whether the kernel should start ServiceManager directly, or whether it should continue to run init and have ServiceManager started from an rc file, is another issue; I'm not sure that there's a compelling argument to eliminate init other than to discourage people from continuing to use the current rc script scheme (which might be Seth's motivation for running ServiceManager as process 1 - he might want to discourage rc script tweaking).

Perhaps one of the reasons why people thought of ServiceManager as being purely for desktop systems is that they thought that, as D-BUS is somewhat associated with freedesktop.

DarwinPorts is TCL-based, just as Gentoo Portage is Python-based, so neither of these are really BSD Ports. For a real BSD Ports, the system must be based on Makefiles, not Portfiles or ebuilds.

The NetBSD Packages Collection "pkgsrc" claims it can run on Darwin because it is cross-platform. It is based on Makefiles. However, I don't know how well it works on Darwin.

How do you get rid of nasty infections? Autoclave! Heat things up enough to smoke out all those nasty hoomins and things can get back to normal around here.

As for volcanos, it looks like the production of CO/CO2 in eruptions can have an effect on global warming. It turns out, however, that the ash/SO2 released into the atmosphere has a cooling effect. It also helps scatter sunlight, allowing for more robust tree growth which leads to more carbon being taken out of the atmosphere.

So, all we need to happen is for the Yellowstone (NetBSD) volcano to erupt (supposed to be violent enough to wipe out hoomanity) and fill the skys with enough ash and SO2 to bring on Fimbulwinter to slow down global warming. Or have a big rock smack into the Indian Ocean.

It doesn't :)

Apple just doesn't want to confuse the masses with to many choices.

If you want to pick and choose your apps and versions use Fink or the NetBSD Ports Collection. Why wait for Apple to update your software when you can do it your self?

FWIW, NetBSD's pkgsrc was updated on Wed Sep 17 22:58:45 2003 UTC to include KDE 3.4.1, too. Binary packages will surely soon be available for download, but if you have a decent build-host for your packages, building from source will work without a hitch, too.

FWIW, NetBSD's pkgsrc was updated on Wed Sep 17 22:58:45 2003 UTC to include KDE 3.4.1, too. Binary packages will surely soon be available for download, but if you have a decent build-host for your packages, building from source will work without a hitch, too.

"Professor Floating Point" argues (trolls?) that Java sucks for floating point, but you need to wade through his entertaining read to see what he says about precision and processors and flags and traps. This dude (you have to scroll down to the section on IEEE 754) takes the opposite view: the two dudes are Dole and Clinton on that stupid "60 Minutes" thing, but between the two of them you kind of get the picture.

The picture is that a lot of why Intel is slow is they are doing an arguably higher-quality floating point, and dude number 2 reinforces the view that Alphas and SPARCs and other RISCs do what dude number 1 says is cheap floating point because they don't want to be slowed down.

Check the two references out and you decide whether everything Intel does is really needed, but it is important to know that an Alpha is not just a better, cheaper, faster chip -- it does its floating point differently, and some people (or perhaps just Kahan, dude number 1) care a great deal about this.

Think of the 8087 as a vehicle with "off-road" capability -- yes, it is slower and guzzles more gas, but if you gotta go off road, you gotta have it.

Absolutely brilliant. Here is the original post for other readers, if they cannot grasp the genius.

Not sure about SCO, but it would be nice to have a NetBSD distribution bootable on different architectures. I know that NetBSD install CD boots on 4 architectures, so it's possible. Of course there will be less space for eye candy, although some data files could be shared between architectures.

But Sony beat everyone to the punch. Their version of linux (Kondara, based on Red Hat, acc. to this article) has been out for awhile, over a year. The code is out there to be tweaked however you want. And since the hard work has been done, it shouldn't be difficult to port any distribution, as long as you have the endurance to add the proper flags to all relevant files. But you don't have to take my word for it. Straight from the linked article:

As for the portability of code from Linux on a PC system to the PS2, most applications written on a PC will compile on the PlayStation 2 with little or no modification. The significant difference is having to pass the --host option to the configure script. The kit supports languages typical to a Linux distribution, like C, C++, Perl, Python, Ruby, and Tcl. The only one missing is Java, although Kaffe has been ported by others in the Linux PS2 community.

Mod parent down as "Obvious." I don't need anyone to tell me it was inevitable that linux be ported to PS2, because it happened over a year ago. What is news is that a new distribution is available in addition to Sony's.

NetBSD runs on the PS2 and has for some time. Too bad it's dying. ;)

"No commercial support"?

You mean like this:
Commercial Vendors - Consulting
Consultants for hire
?

NetBSD was ported to that thing a looonnngggg time ago. Why don't you surf over there and give it a look-see!

Combined they make a very good package system to. Don't know if make update handles dependencies in both directions thought.

The OS is going to also be DRM enabled and will detect the BIOS type.

Oh, really? I don't think so