Linux Gurus and OpenStep gurus collaborate

Anonymous Coward writes "www.DarwinLinux.com is a collaboration between the team at Infomagic (Linux gurus), and the team at TwinForces (WebObjects/OpenStep gurus). The goal is to create a complete distribution on a CD. Incidently, Apple will sync Darwin (Apple's BSD core under OS X) with FreeBSD later this year. "

Comments

DarwinLinux has nothing to do with Linux

[Andy Tai]

Looks like DarwinLinux is just a porting effort to get the missing Unix software onto Darwin. These are just generic Unix stuff and not Linux-specific. Also no Linux kernel resources are involved. So why use "Linux" in the name? Just to get attention?

That's NETBSD.

[perry]

The OS X userland and TCP stack come from NETBSD, not FREEBSD.

If you don't believe me, look at the Darwin source code yourself. We've been working with folks from Apple for a long time, and we've been importing most of the improvements and bug fixes they've made so the source bases stay in sync.

It's bad enough ...

[jerodd]

... that people tend to refer to a GNU system with a Linux kernel as ``Linux'', but it's even worse when people refer to a BSD system with a BSD/Mach kernel as ``DarwinLinux''. This is the best evidence of seen yet that Apple is willing to do anything to ride on the coattails of GNU, Linux, freed software, and ``Open Source''. Sadly, many have been all to eager to help them.

Apple, like Sun, IBM, Oracle, SGI, and Microsoft, are the enemy. They pollute the world with more non-freed software aimed at the horizontal market. If Apple is really committed to GNU/Linux, they will release their Mac OS GUI under a freed software licence such as the GPL. So far, they've only displayed a willingness to release code that was already freed (e.g. Mach) under a more-restrictive licence.

Just because Apple is anti-Microsoft does not mean they are our friends. Yes, they have produced nice hardware, but so has Microsoft--I like the Microsoft IntelliMouse. That doesn't mean I embrace Microsoft's vision of one operating system for the entire world.

Apple is more proprietary than Microsoft--Microsoft has usually shown a willingness towards open hardware designes. Apple won't even come that far. As far as Apple is concerned, they should be the only hardware vendor. Standards-based specifications such as SCSI or USB help this situation somewhat, but I recall in recent history a great difficulty on the part of the LinuxPPC team in getting decent specs on the iMac.

Hopefully, anal freed-software fanatics such as I will be able to steer the DarwinLinux group in the right direction. I certainly wouldn't mind any improvements in FreeBSD, as I've found it a wonderful kernel (I just want Debian GNU/FreeBSD ;þ). I am not writing this to show my hate for Apple; I'm simply pointing out that they are yet another huge corporation, such as my beloved IBM, that tends not to have any respect for the lowly hacker such as you and I.