The GNU-Darwin World

proclus writes "The GNU-Darwin Distribution was founded to leverage the open source development dynamic and build the infrastructure for scientific computing on a new platform. Now GNU-Darwin is a major free software project, and the infrastructure, such as parallel computing and molecular graphics software is available to everyone via the web and on digital media discs. Check it out. Also, Apple has written up a story about it."

Comments

Re:Not Free.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the GPL imposes restrictions on further distribution. Therefore, it can't possibly be considered free compared to a license like BSD.

GNU-Darwin Background

[pudge]

This is the distribution that swore off PPC development because of political reasons, basically saying that Apple is so bad that they can't continue to use any part of the platform they are based on, but yet they are still producing that which they said they wouldn't (new stuff for PPC). They say silly things like "the most free" distribution, as if such a phrase has any meaning. They claim to be the premiere free software distribution for Mac OS X, which is plainly false, unless you are deluded into believing that only copylefted software is free software.

This is a project driven almost solely by politics, not technology, and they can't even be consistent there. Beware.

Re:Confusing...

[Halo1]

I think it's simplest to say that the GPL is about the freedom of the code (i.e., once the code is Free, it has to stay Free) and as such the freedom of the community at large (since this means that over time, they will almost by definition get a larger choice), while the BSD license is more about the personal freedom of users/companies (to do whatever they want with the code). Imho, it's not about which one is more Free than the other, they simply focus on different (contradicting) freedoms: the freedom of the individual vs. the freedom of the community.

Re:Why does SRC ports have to be DISTRO Specific?

[burns210]

the problem with this, as i had a similar idea in an earlier post, and this was pointed out was: what about when 1 project is very much in need of highly portable code, while another project isn't... as in, netbsd couldn't necesarily join this universal ports, because they need to have all their ports compile across everything with a microprocessor(this is not a bad thing, btw) but a linux or darwin project only cares about x86/ppc architectures.

Re:GNU-Darwin Background: Pudge is Right!

[pudge]

Maintanence mode means that we will continue to provide updates and support.

So ... this is different from how it was before, how, exactly? And how does the addition of brand-new PPC packages square with this?

Parent is pure flamebait.

[BitGeek]

Macs have been a better deal pricewise than PCs since 1995.

Its time to stop modding up "insightful" every troll who comes along and whines about Macs being "expensive". IT just isn't true, and its a sure sign the person has never used a Mac.

And the point to Darwin, since you're ignorant of what it is, is that it has Apples new IO system, IOKit, and quite a variety of other stuff that is Apple written, and does not exist in BSD or Linux OSes (unless its migrated there.)

There's more to OSX than "eye candy".... if you were a Mac developer as you claim, you'd know that.