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Interview with Jordan Hubbard About DarwinPorts

Posted by pudge on from the here-a-port-there-a-port-everywhere-a-port-port dept.

Gentu writes "OSNews hosts an interview with Jordan Hubbard (of Apple, OpenDarwin, and FreeBSD fame) where they discuss DarwinPorts and how they compare to Fink. There is also a hint from Jordan that there might be some of the FreeBSD 5.x advancements to be found in Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) that is coming out, reportedly, this autumn."

11 of 252 comments (clear)

  1. Bummer. by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    The interviewer didn't ask for Hubbard's reasoning for leaving a dying free OS to join a dying company.

    yes I'm joking

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Bummer. by Dub+Kat · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Hubbard has said he joined Apple because they achieved the "holy grail", a easy-to-use UNIX-based desktop where he could hack and also play RtCW. He wanted to help so he went to Apple, while FreeBSD and Linux still aren't there yet.

      This has been my own experience. After trying hard to use FreeBSD and Linux for a few years as my primary desktop, I just got frustrated. It wasn't worth my time, so I switched to OS X. And coincidentally enough, I also happen to work for Apple now.

    2. Re:Bummer. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I also happen to work for Apple now.

      Finally, an unbiased opinion.

  2. I wonder... by levik · · Score: 5, Funny
    ... if they asked him when that pesky and confusing second mouse button code will be discarded? The pile of bloatware that it is...

    --
    Ñ'
  3. Works for me by siskbc · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ...and presumably it will cost another $130 for the upgrade.

    I agree, that is a bit steep for a 1-year upgrade, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt on pricing before we start vilifying them. As for cost, I thought Mac-heads were supposed to be used to paying 2-3 times typical cost for stuff. (NO, that's NOT flamebait!)

    The question is also, can you keep using 10.2 when 10.3 comes out? I suspect so. In fact, I kind of like the way this works - they release a new upgrade every year, but probably the last 3-4 years of upgrades work perfectly. This way, though, there is a *new* version of Mac OS out whenever you upgrade. That's pretty cool. So the only people who really get gouged are people who feel like they have to have an updated OS every year, which you couldn't even get from M$ if you wanted it. (Yeah, service packs don't count ;))

    I've been using Macs since 1984, but I've given up now. The only reason I'm keeping my Mac is to run legacy apps.

    Interesting, I wouldn't even touch the damned things until 10.2 came out...

    --

    -Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat

  4. Benefits of Upgrading by Spencerian · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What siskbc said.

    Mac OS upgrades are typically more interesting than Linux or even Windows upgrades as Apple tends to make it a point to add a significant change in performance and luxury to the operating system. Since Mac OS X is still relatively young, the changes you may see in 10.3 will be striking--or, to some people, a "Duh!" move.

    For one, the Finder is the butt of jokes, and needs multithreading and greater power.

    Second, I think Samba needs more work.

    This summer, Apple fans should expect to see some serious shit. Strong rumors of the PowerPC 970 chip will probably come true (amidst NDAs) from WWDC as super-Mac hardware may finally arrive with all the system bus, cache, and 64-bit power that's needed to return Macs to compare reasonably to Pentium systems. Next, Mac OS X matures, and goes 64-bit compatible (if it's not already there).

    --
    Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
  5. Re:no thanks by mfago · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Or, better yet, get down and dirty and start reverse engineering products and coding your own open source drivers.

    Unless you live in the USA in which case reverse engineering could get you thrown in jail -- because congress is sure that by reverse engineering you must either be a terrorist or a thief.

    Whew! I feel better.

    --

    Slashdot: Group session for Nerds.

  6. Love FreeBSD by rice_burners_suck · · Score: 5, Interesting
    If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times... The smartest decision ever made at Apple was to embrace FreeBSD as an important component of their operating system. I like their new OS very much as it performs reliably and efficiently. It is everything that a desktop UNIX operating system should be, especially now that X programs can run on the Mac OS desktop. Obviously, I am a lot happier about this because FreeBSD and the larger free software community benefits greatly from having a much larger user base and the support of a (relatively) successful company. (Even considering that Apple is doing all of this for their bottom line; but I'm glad that they're doing it in such a way that the side effects benefit the larger community.

    If you think I'm kidding, you can rest assured that your Linux distro includes something, somewhere, that came into existance as a result of Apple's work, whether directly or indirectly. Yeah... you know fully well that things get ported from one free software project to another. That's the whole point. (Ever seen the BSD license on something in your Linux distro? Yeah. That's right!) And if it wasn't "copied" as code, it was "copied" in theory.)

    I was an advocate of various Linux distros for a long time, until I finally tried FreeBSD. This was relatively recent: 3.3-RELEASE had just shown up in stores and I bought a boxed set that included the FreeBSD handbook. Not ten minutes passed after installation completed on one of my machines and I was hooked. Since that moment, I can't stand the SysV style that most Linux distros have adopted. SysV is just too complicated... all kinds of directory structures stretching on for infinity, and WHY?! FreeBSD puts everything at your fingertips. (No offense to Linux advocates and developers, as I continue to use Linux on many machines at home and at work. But I really do wish that BSD-style admin stuff would show up in more Linux distros... If I had the time to do it myself, I would have done it a long time ago. But as you know: 1, setting up a truly intuitive environment is difficult; and 2, I'm wasting all my time posting junk all over /. and don't have any time left to do useful stuff.)

    Back to OSX... No, I have not switched to "the dark side" yet. I am waiting for Apple to natively support x86, which shouldn't be too complicated considering that the software they used to build the operating system is relatively portable. I would be all over an x86 Apple iBook. It is the hardware that currently prevents me from switching.

    Oh yeah... and keep up the good work, Jordan.

    1. Re:Love FreeBSD by Textbook+Error · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It is the hardware that currently prevents me from switching.

      Guess what, it's that same hardware that currently keeps Apple in business... An x86 Mac is never going to happen.

      Although they no doubt keep Mac OS X running on multiple platforms internally (it makes good sense from an engineering point of view), an x86 Mac is not in Apple's interests - 2 minutes after Apple released an x86 Mac + Mac OS X for x86, someone would have the OS running on some generic non-Apple hardware. Once that happens, nobody is ever going to buy an Apple machine when they could get their own box for less money.

      And there just isn't a market in selling OS software on the x86 platform - the vast majority of people either get Windows free with their hardware, or rip a copy off from a friend. The number of people who pay for their copy of Linux/Be/etc is nothing like enough to keep a company the size of Apple in business, even assuming that every non-Windows person decided to buy Mac OS X instead.

      A common suggestion is that Apple could build in some kind of dongle into the system to prevent the OS being modified to run on a generic box. The point this misses is that the only system like this which would ever work is the one they already use - their dongle is the Mac.

      --

      Nae bother
    2. Re:Love FreeBSD by bmetzler · · Score: 5, Informative
      Powerpc processors are crippled compared to athlons or pIV's and yet apple charges a premium for them.

      I guess I haven't noticed the premiums that Apple charges for notebooks. I'm looking to purchase a notebook, and am trying to decide if I shuld go iBook or not. Everyone tells me that Apple is more expensive, but for their notebooks I don't see that. Similarily configured notebooks from Apple, as far as I can tell are ~$300 LESS then notebooks from Dell or Compaq.

      -Brent
  7. Re:i386 Ports of OS X by bsharitt · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think NASA used these x86 macs to do the video editing when they faked the moon landings.