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Fink 0.5.0a Released for Jaguar
benh57 writes "The binary release of Fink for Mac OS X 10.2 has finally been released! This release includes over 700 binary packages for Mac OS X 10.2 as well as over 1800 source packages of all kinds. Fink ports Unix software to Mac OS X and makes it available using debian tools like apt-get, as well as a build from source package manager." I'll be selfupdating tonight ...
Fink really is something great, it's a huge effort and almost all installed packages are patched by Fink in order to compile. Installing a package using Fink does take a while, but the simple fact that it works is already simply amazing. It's great to be able to compare GIMP to Photoshop for instance, or to play with various other X11 or unix tools. Another great thing is that when you're done playing a simple "rm -rf /sw" will get rid of Fink completely (and a minor edit to your .rc). But it's staying on my Mac. Another great thing is that when you find an error in a package, and report it, the patch is quite often there the next day. Combine this with OroborOSX, XonX and FinkCommander and you'll have a dream machine.
I am your stereotypical Mac user who could still negotiate System 6 with his eyes closed yet before OS X knew little to nothing about *nix. Aside from my computer bible (Mac OS X: Unleashed), Fink has been the single most valuable tool for introducing me to the open source community. I tried compiling a few programs by myself before I used Fink, and I must say that it was a daunting task. However, with Fink I have been exposed to a ton of OSS that I never would have tried in the first place because it wouldn't be worth going through the pain of installing something I just wanted to check out.
As great as the software is, I am equally impressed by the community of fink users. I installed Linux on my TiBook just to check it out, yet when I went on IRC for help I was ignored at best and treated with hostility at worst. I went into #fink today asking some questions which I realized were rather newbish later, yet I was still treated kindly and my questions were answered to my full satisfaction and then some.
Congratulations on a job well done to everyone who has helped with Fink. Keep up the good work!
I installed fink a while back. I love it. It basically allows users to install/keep uptodate opensourece software.
The install was a little confusing but well worth it. It really shows off the power of unix and Free software. I love having all the tools I use at work at home.
Prior to fink I updated my perl install by hand. With fink one app-get command and its there.
I also installed X too (for xemacs). The X is cludgy, but works well enough.
It makes the mac so much more powerful..
Oh, the GIMP's interface drives me insane, and I have 8 years of experience with Unix and X11 applications.
Its feature set is something I can't find a match for without considering Photoshop, which I can't justify paying full price for.
Now maybe Corel Draw or some other such package might meet my needs.
My point was just that there are free software packages out there that are hard to beat without spending serious cash, and you mentioned one.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a registered user of Graphic Converer, which is fantastic at what it does, but like most shareware it doesn't try to too much. This is a positive thing, but I need other tools to go with it.
Actually there are many great free software server apps (Apache, mysql etc etc) but as you were talking about desktop apps not server apps, I responded to that specifically.
Lord Pixel - The cat who walks through walls
A little bigger on the inside than out