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Nokia N900 Linux Smartphone Running OS X

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the mr-johnson's-dog dept.

Rovaani writes "There is a video floating around of a Nokia N900 smartphone running the full desktop Mac OS X 10.3. From the author, Tomi Nikkanen: 'I believe this makes the N900 the first smartphone ever to run a full version of Mac OS X (at any speed, slow or otherwise). As you can see from the heavily edited video, it took almost 2 hours to reach the "About my Mac..." window. Keep your eye on the time display as that will give you an impression of just how uselessly slow it is.'"

13 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. Phones more powerful than NeXTstations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I don't see why Mac OS X should run poorly on modern cell phones. After all, these phones now offer more resources than the high-end workstations that NeXTSTEP ran on in the late 1980s and early 1990s. NeXTSTEP was really snappy on that hardware.

    And not all that much has changed between NeXTSTEP and Mac OS X. Anyone who used NeXTSTEP back in the day knows how remarkably little has changed since Apple took it over.

    1. Re:Phones more powerful than NeXTstations! by mister_playboy · · Score: 2, Informative

      Your iPhone doesn't run OS X.

      --
      Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
    2. Re:Phones more powerful than NeXTstations! by jo_ham · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes it does.

      Essentially, the iPhone runs a scaled down version of MacOS X optimized for a handheld device -- although Steve Jobs is insistent that it runs "real OS X" (Specifically, crashlogs indicate that the original iPhone ran "OS X 1.0" build number 1A543a.) -- but no iPhone models can run MacOS X applications regardless. On March 17, 2009, upon unveiling a developer's preview of the third version of the operating system, Apple started referring to it as the "iPhone OS".

      http://www.everyipod.com/iphone-faq/iphone-runs-os-x-not-macos-x-cannot-run-macos-x-applications-skype-or-ipod-games.html

    3. Re:Phones more powerful than NeXTstations! by adolf · · Score: 2, Informative

      I can SSH into my cheap Linksys router. It's got all of the textmode goodies I could ever want installed. (It was modified in order to do this stuff, and by default was only a router.)

      I can SSH into my iPod Touch (I don't have an iPhone). It's also got all the textmode goodies I could ever want installed. (It was modified in order to do this stuff, and by default was only an iPod.)

      So, I guess: If you were trying to draw some sort of distinction between the two things somehow, then you have failed.

      --
      Kid-proof tablet..
    4. Re:Phones more powerful than NeXTstations! by rgviza · · Score: 3, Informative

      Whoa! I beg to differ. Open an ssh shell to it. The underlying system is Darwin. It's the same set of core components and kernel that OSX is built from. I've done it and compiled a web server on it, complete with PHP and SSL. It's a base OSX system (think what yellow dog linux is to linux) which you can add any unix software you want to (including GCC). It's just slimmed down. From command line the functionality is identical. The system running on my phone is fully POSIX and UNIX compliant out of the box.

      xxxxxxx-iPhone:~ root# uname -a
      Darwin xxxxxxx-iPhone 10.0.0d3 Darwin Kernel Version 10.0.0d3: Fri Sep 25 23:35:35 PDT 2009; root:xnu-1357.5.30~3/RELEASE_ARM_S5L8920X iPhone2,1 arm N88AP Darwin
      xxxxxxx-iPhone:/ root# ls -la
      total 42
      drwxrwxr-t 15 root admin 748 Jan 31 11:46 .
      drwxrwxr-t 15 root admin 748 Jan 31 11:46 ..
      drwx------ 2 _unknown _unknown 238 Sep 27 18:34 .fseventsd
      lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 30 Oct 19 12:04 Applications
      drwxrwxr-x 2 root admin 68 Sep 26 06:40 Developer
      drwxrwxr-x 14 root admin 680 Nov 2 15:03 Library
      drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Sep 26 04:50 System
      lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 11 Jan 31 11:46 User -> /var/mobile
      drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 1972 Nov 2 16:26 bin
      drwxr-xr-x 2 root admin 68 Oct 19 12:03 boot
      drwxrwxr-t 2 root admin 68 Sep 26 02:04 cores
      dr-xr-xr-x 3 root wheel 1310 Jan 31 11:46 dev
      lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 11 Sep 27 18:36 etc -> private/etc
      drwxr-xr-x 2 root admin 68 Oct 19 12:03 lib
      drwxr-xr-x 2 root admin 68 Oct 19 12:03 mnt
      drwxr-xr-x 4 root wheel 136 Oct 19 11:53 private
      drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 1530 Nov 2 16:26 sbin
      lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 15 Sep 27 18:36 tmp -> private/var/tmp
      drwxr-xr-x 6 root wheel 306 Oct 19 12:04 usr
      lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 11 Sep 27 18:36 var -> private/var

      xxxxxxx=myname

      ---about darwin---
      Darwin is an open source POSIX-compliant computer operating system released by Apple Inc. in 2000. It is composed of code developed by Apple, as well as code derived from NeXTSTEP, BSD, and other free software projects.

      Darwin forms the core set of components upon which Mac OS X, Apple TV, and iPhone OS are based. It is compatible with the Single UNIX Specification version 3 (SUSv3) and POSIX UNIX applications and utilities.[2][3]
      ---end about darwin---

      And before you ask, yes I changed the root password when I installed sshd so my phone won't get h4X0red. I did it the day I installed it, not when the "sploit" was released.

      As well the kernel version is still stamped 2.1 even though I'm on version 3.1.2. Get on the stick Apple!

      To use your own analogy, it's still a chevy drive train, but with a 4 cylinder engine and a different body. It's just a different processor with less memory so you can't fit the entirety of OSX on it, and it's got a different UI.

      It has chevy pistons, chevy crank, chevy piston rings, water pump, crank, bearings, and even has AC Delco spark plugs. You also drive it from point A to point B, it has a gas pedal, brake, transmission control and steering wheel, so the most important functionality is there.

      The interface is different but it's still a Darwin unix system under the hood, same as OSX. Can it go as fast as a Mac? No. Duh? It fits in the palm of your hand.

      You could, given enough hardware resources, compile the mac interface on this OSX but I don't think the mac interface supports the screen resolution comfortably and the hardware requirements are a bit steep. They designed a smartphone interface purpose built to do what the iPhone does and run fast on ARM hardware.

      However, the GUI does not equal the operating system ;-)

      It's just a GUI. You are right that the _GUI_ functionality is not close to the same. Peel the GUI off and they are nearly i

      --
      Don't kid yourself. It's the size of the regexp AND how you use it that counts.
    5. Re:Phones more powerful than NeXTstations! by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes it does. The kernel is the same. The libc is the same. The window server is the same. The Foundation framework is the same. The majority of the other frameworks are the same, although libobjc does not link against autozone. AppKit is replaced by UIKit, but that's the only nontrivial difference. There are more differences between a Linux desktop running KDE and one running GNOME than there are between desktop and iPhone OS X.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  2. Re:Useless commentary by uhoreg · · Score: 4, Informative

    The "uselessly slow" commentary is straight from the blog of the guy who did it. http://www.tuug.fi/~toni/serendipity/index.php?/archives/13-Mac-OS-X-10.3-running-on-the-N900!.html

    --

    To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three persons, two of them absent.

  3. Re:Love It by IgnoramusMaximus · · Score: 1, Informative

    Nokia pissed me off to no end with the N900. I was waiting for the thing, postponing any phone related purchases .... and when it comes out it turns out that it does not support the 3G system offered in Canada by Rogers (and apparently also by AT&T in the US). EDGE only. Which at the price tag the thing comes with renders the entire excercise rather pointless (and no WiFi is not an acceptable fall-back for many of us).

    All I can say is: Fucketey Fuck!

  4. Re:Love It by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nokia pissed me off to no end with the N900. I was waiting for the thing, postponing any phone related purchases .... and when it comes out it turns out that it does not support the 3G system offered in Canada by Rogers (and apparently also by AT&T in the US). EDGE only.

    Nokia is a European company, so they use European UMTS frequency bands (which, by the way, also happen to be used in most of the world). Blame North America for trying to be different there, not Nokia for going for the largest worldwide coverage.

    In USA, you still have the option of T-Mobile, anyway.

  5. Re:Somewhat ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Perhaps because the two have an entirely different userland, which tends to affect the arguement.

  6. Somewhat unrelated, but by nightfire-unique · · Score: 5, Informative

    Though this isn't directly related to running OSX on the n900, I just wanted to add that.. I'm not surprised.

    A while back I posted a story that was rejected, asking if any fellow /.'ers had any experience with the n900 from a Unix admin's perspective. To me it seemed like a dream-come-true device: high-res screen, fast CPU, lots of ram... and most importantly, running Debian.

    I had to find out, so I bought one about 3 weeks ago. It really, truly is a dream-come-true device.

    I swear I'm not affiliated with Nokia in any way; I'm a Unix admin for a largish web firm. But if anyone else is wondering, yes it runs a Debian-derived OS. Yes, you can SSH into it as root, over 3G/GPRS, even if the phone is "off." Yes, crond works. Yes it runs native X11 and you can run your X11 apps (ie. directory manager, xterms, vncviewer, pidgin, openoffice/koffice, etc). Yes it's stable. The keyboard is usable, the UI is quick, and task switching is a breeze. The filesystem layout is mostly sensible, and you can apt-get dist-upgrade to get updates directly from Nokia (and other repositories)!

    That blew me away when I first saw it so let me say it again: Nokia is using apt to send updates OTA to the phone! Proper version tagging and dependency management, on a phone!

    It doesn't suspend like the crappy Zaurus did... when you hit the power switch, it shuts off the screen and (I believe) encourages the processor to drop to a very slow cycle rate (unless something heavy is running). So your apps continue to run. Battery life is ~16-24h with a constant GSM data/wifi connection, so you must charge every night. But it's so worth it.

    Everything about it is done the way this 15-year Linux/Solaris admin thinks it should be done.

    So, back (slightly) on-topic.. it doesn't surprise me in the least that they got OSX to boot under an emulator. The n900 is quite literally a pocket Debian workstation that happens to have a GSM radio onboard.

    --
    A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
  7. Try jailbreaking an iPhone -- it really is by Jonathan · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you jailbreak an iPhone, you can open a terminal window running bash. If you type "uname -a" you'll see that iPhones run Darwin (the actual OS behind OS X), just like Macintoshes.

  8. Re:Useless commentary by pushing-robot · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.kottke.org/98/11/my-mac-sucks

    Old meme is old.

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?