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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 ...
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.
Yes, even with the binary installer one of the install steps is to add "source /sw/bin/init.csh" to your .cshrc (or .tcshrc, etc). That script adds any env vars that packages set as well as the fink paths to your path.
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.
> I'll be selfupdating tonight ...
If you do that too much you'll go blind ya know.
-- There is no sig line, only Zuul.
Jaw-breaking? I'm glad you posted. I think I'll just back slowly away from my keyboard now.
-Peter
. Penguins Surely Ca
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!