Slashdot Mirror
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 ...
Now if only I could use mac apps on a thin-client. Digging through config files leads me to belive that it might be possible.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
I bought my G4 in March, and finally installed Fink about a month ago.
I cannot believe I did not do it sooner. Tools like dselect and apt-get are truly great. I was setting up some local Spam filtering, using Fetchmail, PostFix, Procmail, and Spambouncer. I also installed Pine and Lynx so I could easily SSH into the machine and use it.
Fink made the process so seamless and easy that I was amazed.
I had researched installing the different programs by hand, and the instructions for each were several pages long. Fink reduced this down to a handful of terminal commands.
I went ahead and installed X11 with Sawfish and Gnome. The screenshot was simply amazing.
The fact that Apple's OS, combined with these tools, makes running these applications this easy is simply jaw-breaking.
The good people behind Fink deserve a large pat on the break, as well as Apple, who made something like this possible in the first place.
- (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
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.
Well, two things
First off, they finished this yesterday, actually got it yesterday in the irc chan on irc://irc.openprojects.net in #fink. It's really a cool installer, even detects if you have an old install and what not.
Second, there is a gui for this, http://finkcommander.sourceforge.net/
It has buttons to e-mail a developer if a package is working for you, and also shows columns for if this package is out of date, or up to date, etc. It's searchable, and really cool. It doesn't require X11, it's a native apple app!
Other than that, I would like to congratulate all the people involved, for the hard work they have put into this. It's a very awesome thing.
i.e. "make" to compile, "make install" to install. Or did I just answer my own question?
So I have to disagree with the utility bit. Yeah chances are people will never run an X11 app. Even when you ask people for good X11 apps to demo, they end up coming up with Open Office, AbiWord or Gimp. Yet there are far superior programs available for native OSX. When I tried to come up with progams I'd use, they typically already had versions with Aqua front ends. (i.e. GNUplot) I thought I'd use X11 a lot. However I tend to do the "gee whiz" try things out and then promptly forget about them.
For other Fink utilities though I've been pleasantly surprised. I really have used the shell for a lot of things. Some utilities are now standard on OSX. (i.e. Python) However they really do install a lot of useful utilities - especially if you are doing a lot of web work.
Whoops. Sorry about that. Should have previewed. The link was http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20021 125060127218
They actually do. Hubbard and Fuller from Apple Computer are part of the Darwin Ports project . I'm not sure what Apple's issue with Fink is in principle (I can think of things that could be improved if they had more resources); as it seems to me to be just about perfect for installation of Unix/X11 apps.
I'd might guess that they want to sink up fully to the FreeBSD ports collection, but that would be a guess. So yes Apple does have an official project and for some reason they went this direction rather than supporting / improving / changing fink to fit their needs.
Before I go through a full install, can anyone confirm if TeX works?
--
I've had this sig for three days.
> I'll be selfupdating tonight ...
If you do that too much you'll go blind ya know.
-- There is no sig line, only Zuul.
Because it's a lot of work for apps that most Mac users don't want.
TeXShop, a native Mac OS X TeX previewer:
m l
http://www.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop/texshop.ht
Also, check out the Mac OS X TeX/LaTeX site:
http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
Jaw-breaking? I'm glad you posted. I think I'll just back slowly away from my keyboard now.
-Peter
. Penguins Surely Ca
Its jaguar only.. might not work on 10.1.
I have been using fink and love it, but I've been wary of installing X11, and most of the packages want it there, even when it is not necessary (e.g. ghostscript-nox). I like aqua and I really don't want to mess with window managers again (it's one thing I don't miss about linux.... choice and flexibility are great in theory but in practice I don't have time or energy to fiddle with textfiles I barely understand just to get my terminals to fit on my screen), so I've just laid off installing it at all. Am I just being silly? Does everyone install it, whether you use it or not?
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!
Fink is great for working at home (snow days, sick kid, etc...). Using SSH provided by Apple, I can export my X display from my sun boxes at work and then use Fink's X server for the local display. I have also used Dia from Fink as well.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach him to eat and he will fish forever.
You know a native OS X program with more capabilities than The GIMP (in particular, a full layers model) that doesn't cost any money?
Please share!
I know you're making a point about X11 apps, but the primary reason I have fink installed is for the GIMP. Its enough in and of itself.
Lord Pixel - The cat who walks through walls
A little bigger on the inside than out
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..
In the cruelest irony, Fink, my E-Z package updater, is proving itself a real pain to update.
Here's the deal. I recently upgraded OS X 10.1 to 10.2. I have done all the Developer tool and XDarwin updates without incident. I have an old fink binary distribution (0.3.2a). All I want to do is update to 0.5.0a. How??
The website has a link to its "Upgrade Matrix". It says to run sudo apt-get update.
This fails at various points with FATAL -> Could not set non-block flag Operation not supported by device. Yes, very helpful, thanks. Maybe sourceforge's servers are slashdotted?? I ran this multiple times. Fails at different points with the same error...one time it ran through with no errors. Ran fink --version. Still 0.3.2a.
But I don't know if I even trust the Upgrade Matrix as it hasn't been--er--upgraded for a LONG time. It makes no reference to 10.2 or Fink 0.5.0a. On the other hand, the Fink site at one point had this page describing how to upgrade to the beta 10.2-compatible version of Fink. It basically looks like involved downloading the Fink software archive and recompliling it. I think. Do I still have to do it this way?
And of course the simplest option--that is, downloading the official Fink 0.5.0a binary installer--comes with a stern warning about NOT upgrading with the installer! "Please see the Upgrade Matrix" (?!).
And what's with all the version numbers? The latest Fink binary is 0.5.0a. But the package installer is like 0.9.12 or so. And the software archive is like 0.11.1. What gives? Is this common in the Linux/Debian world?
Argh. Any insight would be appreciated.