Mac OS X 10.2 Technote Released
Etcetera writes "Apple has released their Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) Technote chock-full of useful information about the API and technical changes in Jaguar. Interested parties will find lots of neat stuff in here... including the idea of storing kernel panic info in NVRAM and writing it to a logfile on reboot."
Linux users should appreciate some of the nice changes in the BSD section. Some are just the sort of window dressing we've come to expect like making bash the default shell, but others such as PAM, and replacing inetd with xinetd, show that Apple is trying to focus just as much on offering a solid, competitive Unix as they are trying to give it a friendly face. (Note: By 'competitive', I mean competing with the current 'best of breed' Linux distributions)
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If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. -- Carl Sagan
Large cursor support
64x64 cursors will also be a boon to those trying to implement a game interface using as much of the basic APIs as you can (always a good idea if you can manange it).
This makes it a lot easier to use Windows fonts in OS X. It isn't a big deal, they're just checking off that last box on the list.
Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
My favorite change: the printing system was been replaced with CUPS, allowing Mac OS X users with printers from companies who enjoy screwing Mac users (*cough* Epson *cough*) to use Gimp-Print drivers. Hoorah, open source support!
How to install the Gimp-Print drivers is detailed here. It's trivial.
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
You don't have to. You simply download the XFree86 package for MacOS X and click on it to install. If you like your X to have all that Aqua gooeyness, download the excellent OrborOSX package & perform a single-click install.
To upgrade to Jaguar, download the new XTerm package update (1MB - whoopee). One click and you're done again!
No rpm -u, no make install, no gcc, no fink, no X11 source, no dev env. Now, how difficult is this??
Alison
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." - Albert Einstein