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Gentoo for Mac OS X Released

Posted by Hemos on from the continuing-the-growth dept.

joeljkp writes "According to today's Gentoo Weekly News, Gentoo has released a new project: Gentoo MacOS (sic). This new distribution adds Portage, Gentoo's package manager, to Mac OS X, among other things."

6 of 291 comments (clear)

  1. Yea, and? by soybean · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What does this do that fink doesn't already (for the last few years) do?

    1. Re:Yea, and? by justforaday · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What does this do that fink doesn't already (for the last few years) do?

      Well, this one can compile the packages from source. Oh wait, Fink already does that...Yeah, how does this really differ from the Fink project, other than being based on Gentoo's portage system?

      --
      I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
  2. I don't think you get it by Shinzaburo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't think the parent poster "forgot" that the Mac OS X UI source isn't available for custom compiles. That's not what Gentoo MacOS is about -- it's about being able to easily install and update popular *nix software on Mac OS X.

    Who would want a Mac without Quartz, Spotlight, etc? I certainly wouldn't give up these features. But some people might want to use alternate desktop managers on Apple hardware. Just because you're not interested in doing so doesn't mean there is no reason for others to want to.

    Besides, you don't necessarily have to forgo the Finder and Exposé to use Gentoo MacOS. It's a package manager, and as such can install a bunch of *nix tools that work alongside Mac OS X without replacing it.

  3. Re:Let's get it straight... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ..." I DON'T want linux software..."

    Is someone twisting your arm to install OSS stuff?

  4. Re:In case you don't get it. by goMac2500 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm not sure you understand what this is... It is basically a Gentoo package manager, allowing you to downwload and compile Linux programs on OS X. Yes, it does sound like it could build the Darwin kernel. No, this will not magically make your computer faster. Apple has worked hard to ensure Darwin is already extremely fast. Not only that, their kernal extension system already disables kernal extensions you don't need. If anything the bottleneck is in Aqua, most likely in Windowserver. You cannot simply use a different Windowserver (like X11) and expect all your OS X apps to run. Windowserver contains a lot of custom code to create memory space foundations unique for Cocoa and Carbon (gotta load those Carbon resource files into memory). Windowserver is not open source and not able to be recompiled. There is no magical way to make X run faster. And I hate to break it to you... but Linux is starting to get just as slow with X11.

  5. Re:OK, so... by Geoffreyerffoeg · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nice try, but no. The point of Gentoo MacOS is to use Apple's well-designed, proprietary OS with popular, open-source applications. If you want, go get Gentoo for Macintosh hardware / PPC, but you'll lose the benefits of Mac OS X. Not everything has to be open-sourced; frankly, there would be no was OS X could have reached the state it is in now had it been developed open source. There wouldn't have been enough incentive for Apple's talented developers, and management wouldn't have been motivated to include it with Apple computers.