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Apple Releases Darwin 6.7, 6.8

Posted by pudge on from the makin-copies dept.

PowerMacDaddy writes "In an ongoing effort to keep the FreeBSD core of OS X open source, Apple has updated Darwin to 6.7 and 6.8, which corresponds to the OS X 10.2.7 and 10.2.8 updates, respectively. Source code is available."

2 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Question by Elwood+P+Dowd · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is Darwin better than *BSD?

    No. It's just a little different. It uses a different kernel. It has a different architecture for device drivers. It uses a NetInfo to store various configuration information.

    It doesn't have FreeBSD Ports (a simple way for users and administrators to install applications). It's got it's own thing instead, which isn't as good (yet).

    The reason I'd use BSD is for FreeBSD Ports, so I think the folks using Darwin are mostly just doing it since no one else is, and it's geeky.

    It also makes sense if you're primarily interested in administering a MacOS X network, but I don't see why you wouldn't spend the cash on Mac OS X Server.

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  2. Re:Does not compute. by FredFnord · · Score: 3, Interesting

    > So, when they don't update it, it would become closed somehow? I don't get it.

    When they don't update darwin to match the updates in MacOS X, the FreeBSD core of (the current release of) MacOS X isn't open source.

    Even for an annoying nitpicker like me, that was a perfectly reasonable sentence.

    -fred

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