Re:GNU-Darwin Background - Pudge is right
on
The GNU-Darwin World
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· Score: 4, Interesting
I used to follow the GNU-Darwin project quite heavily. I had installed it along side OS X and was even on the mailing lists. I must say that they do (or at least did) have extremely talented developers that have done a lot of good work for the project.
However, I found through the mailing list that the project is political to the extreme. Their most extreme bit of politics came when they decided to "discontinue" PPC development (as pudge mentioned) because they had issues with Apple. They were arrogant enough to think that this move would force Apple to backtrack on the things they had issues with.
It was about that time that I decided to drop GNU-Darwin completely. What kind of project drops support for the hardware that > 90% of their user-base is using? Well, from the looks of it they, not Apple, have backtracked and are still supporting PPC.
My advice would be to not take a second look at GNU-Darwin. Use Fink or OpenDarwin instead.
Ah, you're probably right, though it probably wouldn't hurt to file with both. The following is from the SEC's complaint page:
We welcome hearing from you because your complaint may be the one that alerts us to a bad broker or firm, an unfair practice in the securities industry that needs to be changed, or the latest Internet fraud.
Certainly SCO's new licensing scheme would qualify as the latest Internet fraud. Also, the following complaint types appear on their complaint page:
Manipulation of security price or volume (a pump and dump scheme)
False or misleading statements about a company (including false or misleading SEC reports or financial statements) - Do we really need to list the false or misleading statements SCO has made?
I know I'll be filing complaints with both the FTC and SEC. And just because I'm doing it means that you should do it too.;-)
Not so fast. C&G SpellCatcher, formerly Thunder 7 is an excellent, unique app that Cocoa services fail to replace because so few applications use Cocoa services.
That's what HyperSpell is for. It lets you access OS X's spellchecker from any application, and it's free.
I should note that Ralph Yarrows, head of the Canopy group which owns 46% of SCO, was the one to organize the anti-protest and was the one who had the posters made.
I should note that Ralph Yarrows, head of the Canopy group which owns 46% of SCO, was the one to organize the anti-protest and was the one who had the posters made.
I have the Sanyo 4900 and I got the cable at Radio Shack for $20. It didn't come with the software, but they don't have any software for Mac OS X so I didn't care. Mac OS X does have built-in drivers for the phone so I was set.
$10 a month for unlimited data is great. For a while it was our primary Internet connection, now we've got a cable modem. No additional charges (we were on a lot) and >56k speeds. This is our only phone and it's been great.
Especially if someone could replicate the... tabbed editing interface on the Mac why is this so hard?
It's not that it's hard to do, it's that it's not the Mac way to do it, it's the Windows way. I, for one, prefer this "Mac way" since I am usually editing more than one file at a time when I develop and I like to have two or three windows open side-by-side, rather than having to click on a tab to see another file. I like to be able to see more than one file at a time.
This is how it's always been on the Mac an it's how I prefer it. This way is also in line with a spatial user interface (one window for every document, not one window for many documents) which may be one reason why many people prefer it.
The following was deleted from my original post. Here's how to fix the problems with/tmp:
You need to recreate the/tmp symbolic link (/tmp is just a link to/private/tmp).
Open the Terminal application.
Type "sudo ln -s/private/tmp/tmp" (without the quotes).
You'll be prompted for your password, so enter it.
Everything should now work like before (you may have to log out and then log back in again).
I agree with those that have said that you should use caution with beta software, but considering that over 300,000 people downloaded it on the first day there are going to be a lot of people that are going to be needing a fix. 5 of the 6 people I work with (including me) that used Safari had/tmp deleted. That's 83% which means there's probably more than 250,000 people (from just the first day) that are going to need a fix.
Other problems that might be experienced include:
Can't launch any Classic Application
Can't run Software Update. I get "an unexpected error has occured."
Can't log in as any other user except the Admin.
Can't print.
There are many more problems that may come up, so anything we can do to get the word out is a good thing.
Well, my original post was truncated somewhat, I guess to make it fit better on the main page. The problem with/tmp being deleted is a big one. I don't know how to reproduce it yet, but 5 out of the 6 people I work with who have Macs all had/tmp deleted (including me). No one here had their home folder nuked however, but a lot of people have been reporting it on the discussion boards so that's why I included it.
What happens is that Safari may delete the/tmp symbolic link. The result is that a lot of applications that need to write to/tmp will not run, these problems may include:
Can't launch any Classic Application
Can't run Software Update. I get "an unexpected error has occured."
Can't log in as any other user except the Admin.
Can't print.
Not being able to run Software Update is a big problem since that would have been Apple's best delivery method to fix the problem.
Here's how you fix the problems.
You need to recreate the/tmp symbolic link (/tmp is just a link to/private/tmp).
Open the Terminal application.
Type "sudo ln -s/private/tmp/tmp" (without the quotes).
You'll be prompted for your password, so enter it.
Everything should now work like before (you may have to log out and then log back in again).
I agree that you should use caution with beta software, but considering that over 300,000 people downloaded it on the first day there are going to be a lot of people that are going to be needing a fix.
So then the question now is what will be updated to include FireWire 2? Will it be the PowerMacs? (Probably, they're due for an update), the iMacs? (my guess is no), or the notebooks (my guess is no again, they were just updated)? Looks like someone goofed up and stole Steve's thunder. Who thinks Steve's going to come down in his rage and smite this SmartDisk company?
Well, a Firewire network would be a lot cheaper. For a gigabit ethernet network you'd have to get a gigabit switch which are pretty expensive (at least $800-$900). For a Firewire netword you wouldn't even need a hub as computers can be daisy-chained together (assuming they have at least two Firewire ports). But if you do need a Firewire hub, they're pretty cheap compared to a gigabit hub/switch.
Also, many Macs can't be upgraded to gigabit ethernet. iMacs, iBooks, older PowerBooks, and older PowerMac don't have gigabit ethernet, but many of them do have Firewire. So depending on what you have, building a Firewire network is much more attractive than trying to build a gigabit ethernet network.
I see that chapter 6 addresses the image problem which you state is "... a core concern in accessibility." My question is, what is your solution to data-intensive sites that display their information using graphs? For sites that have constantly changing data (stock charts for example), what solutions/tools are there to make their graphics accessible?
This site has instructions on what you need, where to get it, and how to put it all together. Pretty useful if you want to build your own Mac and don't want to pay Apple's prices.
It seems that Apple could easily correct this when they update OS X for a 64-bit chip (namely the PowerPC 970). Applications will need to be recompiled to be 64-bit anyway, so why not update the ABI in the process? It would certainly be incentive for developers to update their apps...
Imagine:
Apple:"Update your apps to 64-bit and see a 10% performance gain."
(Of course most apps really won't need to be 64-bit, but this would be incentive for developers to update them and users to buy new machines.)
As for Carbon, it states in the article that only Mach-o binaries use the CISC-style ABI, Carbon is not affected and uses a PowerPC-style ABI. This could be a way to "prove" his theory that you could get a 10-12% performance increase. Build two test apps, one in Cocoa and one in Carbon and then compare them to see if there really is a 10-12% speed difference.
I'm surprised that there isn't a chapter on accessibility and dynamic visual data (charts and graphs, etc.). This is probably one of the most difficult things to do in creating an accessible site. Example: how do you get a description of those ever changing stock charts, or sales information? There are lots of data that are displayed graphically that also needs a description to be accessible, but there aren't many tools out there for creating that description dynamically. Corda seems to be one of the only companies that I've found that has a solution for this. Their tools will create a text description whenever you create a graph. Sure the description may not be the best, but most of the time it will do the job.
The real interesting bit in IBM's press release is the 900 MHz bus. From IBM's press release:
Running at a speed of up to 900 megahertz, the bus can deliver information to the processor at up to 6.4 gigabytes per second.
With today's CPUs getting faster and faster we need a fast system bus to really see big performance gains and that's exactly what this chip gives us. Gimme a 1.8 GHz PPC 970 with a 900 MHz system bus and that will kill all competition. The bus is running at half the processor speed, that's lightning! This thing is gonna scream!
If you want to use a program that lives and breathes Mac, then you should use CodeWarrior by Metrowerks. It's quite a bit cheaper than JBuilder and also features C/C++ and ObjectiveC compilers along with Java. Most Mac applications have been written in CodeWarrior and it has been the defacto standart development environment on the Mac since forever. I've been using it for 6 years for everything I ever do. It have Java RAD tools (though I think JBuilders are better) that are OK and get the job done. It also has code completion that includes a JavaDoc explanation of each method/class that are available, something that I JBuilder doesn't have. CodeWarrior is also a native Mac application (as opposed to Java) so it's quite a bit faster than pure Java IDEs.
I use both JBuilder and CodeWarrior at work (JBuilder for laying out the GUI and CodeWarrior for everything else) and I spend 90% of my time in CodeWarrior. I think it's just much more polished than anything else.
So far I've confirmed that Opera (as stated in the article) for OS X is shut out as well as Mozilla. But other (less used) browsers like OmniWeb and iCab (for Mac OS X) will be let through even though these browsers don't support the features that Opera & Mozilla do. Maybe they just want to shut out all the most popular non-Micro$oft browsers. Sounds a little fishy to me.
So far I've confirmed that Opera (as stated in the article) for OS X is shut out as well as Mozilla. But other (less used) browsers like OmniWeb and iCab (for Mac OS X) will be let through even though these browsers don't support the features that Opera & Mozilla do. Maybe they just want to shut out all the most popular non-Micro$oft browsers. Sounds a little fishy to me.
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I used to follow the GNU-Darwin project quite heavily. I had installed it along side OS X and was even on the mailing lists. I must say that they do (or at least did) have extremely talented developers that have done a lot of good work for the project.
However, I found through the mailing list that the project is political to the extreme. Their most extreme bit of politics came when they decided to "discontinue" PPC development (as pudge mentioned) because they had issues with Apple. They were arrogant enough to think that this move would force Apple to backtrack on the things they had issues with.
It was about that time that I decided to drop GNU-Darwin completely. What kind of project drops support for the hardware that > 90% of their user-base is using? Well, from the looks of it they, not Apple, have backtracked and are still supporting PPC.
My advice would be to not take a second look at GNU-Darwin. Use Fink or OpenDarwin instead.
We welcome hearing from you because your complaint may be the one that alerts us to a bad broker or firm, an unfair practice in the securities industry that needs to be changed, or the latest Internet fraud.
Certainly SCO's new licensing scheme would qualify as the latest Internet fraud. Also, the following complaint types appear on their complaint page:
I know I'll be filing complaints with both the FTC and SEC. And just because I'm doing it means that you should do it too.
I suggest that those of us that live in the US do the same and file a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
You can file online here.
50% of SVR4 was BSD! That's great news for SCO.
Not so fast. C&G SpellCatcher, formerly Thunder 7 is an excellent, unique app that Cocoa services fail to replace because so few applications use Cocoa services.
That's what HyperSpell is for. It lets you access OS X's spellchecker from any application, and it's free.
--
This post checked with HyperSpell
My co-workers and I were the ones that took some of the pictures. You can find more of them here (with mirrors):
l
http://www.kuwan.net/scotesters/index.html
http://www.karlrees.com/sco/scotesters/index.html
http://www.normanfam.org/sco/scotesters/index.htm
I should note that Ralph Yarrows, head of the Canopy group which owns 46% of SCO, was the one to organize the anti-protest and was the one who had the posters made.
My co-workers and I were the ones that took some of the pictures. You can find more of them here (with mirrors):
l
http://www.kuwan.net/scotesters/index.html
http://www.karlrees.com/sco/scotesters/index.html
http://www.normanfam.org/sco/scotesters/index.htm
I should note that Ralph Yarrows, head of the Canopy group which owns 46% of SCO, was the one to organize the anti-protest and was the one who had the posters made.
I have the Sanyo 4900 and I got the cable at Radio Shack for $20. It didn't come with the software, but they don't have any software for Mac OS X so I didn't care. Mac OS X does have built-in drivers for the phone so I was set.
$10 a month for unlimited data is great. For a while it was our primary Internet connection, now we've got a cable modem. No additional charges (we were on a lot) and >56k speeds. This is our only phone and it's been great.
Especially if someone could replicate the... tabbed editing interface on the Mac why is this so hard?
It's not that it's hard to do, it's that it's not the Mac way to do it, it's the Windows way. I, for one, prefer this "Mac way" since I am usually editing more than one file at a time when I develop and I like to have two or three windows open side-by-side, rather than having to click on a tab to see another file. I like to be able to see more than one file at a time.
This is how it's always been on the Mac an it's how I prefer it. This way is also in line with a spatial user interface (one window for every document, not one window for many documents) which may be one reason why many people prefer it.
I work across the street from them, what would you like me to do?
The following was deleted from my original post. Here's how to fix the problems with /tmp:
You need to recreate the /tmp symbolic link (/tmp is just a link to /private/tmp).
I agree with those that have said that you should use caution with beta software, but considering that over 300,000 people downloaded it on the first day there are going to be a lot of people that are going to be needing a fix. 5 of the 6 people I work with (including me) that used Safari had /tmp deleted. That's 83% which means there's probably more than 250,000 people (from just the first day) that are going to need a fix.
Other problems that might be experienced include:
There are many more problems that may come up, so anything we can do to get the word out is a good thing.
Well, my original post was truncated somewhat, I guess to make it fit better on the main page. The problem with /tmp being deleted is a big one. I don't know how to reproduce it yet, but 5 out of the 6 people I work with who have Macs all had /tmp deleted (including me). No one here had their home folder nuked however, but a lot of people have been reporting it on the discussion boards so that's why I included it.
What happens is that Safari may delete the /tmp symbolic link. The result is that a lot of applications that need to write to /tmp will not run, these problems may include:
Not being able to run Software Update is a big problem since that would have been Apple's best delivery method to fix the problem.
Here's how you fix the problems.
You need to recreate the /tmp symbolic link (/tmp is just a link to /private/tmp).
I agree that you should use caution with beta software, but considering that over 300,000 people downloaded it on the first day there are going to be a lot of people that are going to be needing a fix.
So then the question now is what will be updated to include FireWire 2? Will it be the PowerMacs? (Probably, they're due for an update), the iMacs? (my guess is no), or the notebooks (my guess is no again, they were just updated)? Looks like someone goofed up and stole Steve's thunder. Who thinks Steve's going to come down in his rage and smite this SmartDisk company?
Also, many Macs can't be upgraded to gigabit ethernet. iMacs, iBooks, older PowerBooks, and older PowerMac don't have gigabit ethernet, but many of them do have Firewire. So depending on what you have, building a Firewire network is much more attractive than trying to build a gigabit ethernet network.
I see that chapter 6 addresses the image problem which you state is "... a core concern in accessibility." My question is, what is your solution to data-intensive sites that display their information using graphs? For sites that have constantly changing data (stock charts for example), what solutions/tools are there to make their graphics accessible?
This site has instructions on what you need, where to get it, and how to put it all together. Pretty useful if you want to build your own Mac and don't want to pay Apple's prices.
It seems that Apple could easily correct this when they update OS X for a 64-bit chip (namely the PowerPC 970). Applications will need to be recompiled to be 64-bit anyway, so why not update the ABI in the process? It would certainly be incentive for developers to update their apps...
Imagine:
Apple:"Update your apps to 64-bit and see a 10% performance gain."
(Of course most apps really won't need to be 64-bit, but this would be incentive for developers to update them and users to buy new machines.)As for Carbon, it states in the article that only Mach-o binaries use the CISC-style ABI, Carbon is not affected and uses a PowerPC-style ABI. This could be a way to "prove" his theory that you could get a 10-12% performance increase. Build two test apps, one in Cocoa and one in Carbon and then compare them to see if there really is a 10-12% speed difference.
I'm surprised that there isn't a chapter on accessibility and dynamic visual data (charts and graphs, etc.). This is probably one of the most difficult things to do in creating an accessible site. Example: how do you get a description of those ever changing stock charts, or sales information? There are lots of data that are displayed graphically that also needs a description to be accessible, but there aren't many tools out there for creating that description dynamically. Corda seems to be one of the only companies that I've found that has a solution for this. Their tools will create a text description whenever you create a graph. Sure the description may not be the best, but most of the time it will do the job.
Running at a speed of up to 900 megahertz, the bus can deliver information to the processor at up to 6.4 gigabytes per second.
With today's CPUs getting faster and faster we need a fast system bus to really see big performance gains and that's exactly what this chip gives us. Gimme a 1.8 GHz PPC 970 with a 900 MHz system bus and that will kill all competition. The bus is running at half the processor speed, that's lightning! This thing is gonna scream!If you want to use a program that lives and breathes Mac, then you should use CodeWarrior by Metrowerks. It's quite a bit cheaper than JBuilder and also features C/C++ and ObjectiveC compilers along with Java. Most Mac applications have been written in CodeWarrior and it has been the defacto standart development environment on the Mac since forever. I've been using it for 6 years for everything I ever do. It have Java RAD tools (though I think JBuilders are better) that are OK and get the job done. It also has code completion that includes a JavaDoc explanation of each method/class that are available, something that I JBuilder doesn't have. CodeWarrior is also a native Mac application (as opposed to Java) so it's quite a bit faster than pure Java IDEs.
I use both JBuilder and CodeWarrior at work (JBuilder for laying out the GUI and CodeWarrior for everything else) and I spend 90% of my time in CodeWarrior. I think it's just much more polished than anything else.
As far as a JClass alternative, try out PopChart by CORDA Technologies.
So far I've confirmed that Opera (as stated in the article) for OS X is shut out as well as Mozilla. But other (less used) browsers like OmniWeb and iCab (for Mac OS X) will be let through even though these browsers don't support the features that Opera & Mozilla do. Maybe they just want to shut out all the most popular non-Micro$oft browsers. Sounds a little fishy to me.
--
www.kuwan.net
So far I've confirmed that Opera (as stated in the article) for OS X is shut out as well as Mozilla. But other (less used) browsers like OmniWeb and iCab (for Mac OS X) will be let through even though these browsers don't support the features that Opera & Mozilla do. Maybe they just want to shut out all the most popular non-Micro$oft browsers. Sounds a little fishy to me.