Probably. I participated in FIRST my senior year in high school, and it was a hoot and all--but the reason I was interested was because of Robot Wars.
While I think FIRST is probably more difficult to get started with--I mean, you're doing alot more with the robot than running somebody over, bashing them, etc--there's just something alot more appealing about being able to mindlessly punish your opponents.
I agree OS X could be compiled under x86 completely if Apple wanted to, but I don't think it's plausible.. the problem being the main problem the x86 version of Darwin has right now: drivers.
No matter how cool the OS is, if it supports nothing more than a select few pieces of hardware at the moment, and it has little to no processor optimizations, it's not viable. I wouldn't count Apple out on making this move if they feel the need--They could stand to gain a good deal of the software marketshare if they did this, but they'd lose in the hardware share--kind of like a last resort.
This could be the very reason they're allowing the porting to go on without their normal strongarm tactics.
They don't have an x86 version of OS X. If they did have this, why the hell would they have Darwin trying to develop the core of OS X for x86.. as in, it isn't all ready done. Yeesh.
Not true. Darwin may be powerful, but the x86 port is more of a toy than a competitor.
I think they released the source because they aren't threatened by it.
I take a different view on this...
As a dedicated FBSD fanatic myself, I've come to love OS X. I've spent waaay too much money to add a couple of Macs to my LAN, and I wouldn't be without it. The idea of running XFree86 rootless so the apps run alongside MacOS native apps is amazing.
FreeBSD's future is looking grim though, I must admit. I don't think the userbase will be willing to let it go down the tubes... I have nothing against Linux, but I will eat my socks before I put it on my dual P3/750.
Honestly though, I think things will return with him and the FBSD project once Darwin settles... there is still *much* work to be accomplished, and timeframes when you're working on a project you've all ready published and sold have to be extremely short. With some luck, he'll bring along the x86 Darwin development.
Considering Motorolla makes their processors, I doubt you could ever call it a monopoly. More importantly, you need a userbase the size of MS's to gain a title like that... not a mere 25 million dedicated Mac users.
If you're refering to the x86 version of Apple's Darwin project, you should check out the Darwin section of their website. It's still going on, and runs great (or so I've heard).
The only problem with the x86 version right now is *very* limited driver support, but that's been working on in the background while they continue on with more major things--such as finding a decent replacement for the pieces of MacOS X that aren't opensource.. such as Aqua (the GUI).
next thing you know progammers are going to be shackled to chairs and whipped into coding bloated software without being given the opportunity to go back and look for bugs..
we can only hope this works as well for other companies as it has for microsoft.
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Probably. I participated in FIRST my senior year in high school, and it was a hoot and all--but the reason I was interested was because of Robot Wars. While I think FIRST is probably more difficult to get started with--I mean, you're doing alot more with the robot than running somebody over, bashing them, etc--there's just something alot more appealing about being able to mindlessly punish your opponents.
The scientists. That wasn't cut. You just missed the plot there. He was probably hoping they were dead.
It's much more likely to syncronize with Microsoft Entourage.. that's essentially with Mac aimed Outlook-like program..
Fuck if I know why they'd not just port Outlook.
I agree OS X could be compiled under x86 completely if Apple wanted to, but I don't think it's plausible.. the problem being the main problem the x86 version of Darwin has right now: drivers. No matter how cool the OS is, if it supports nothing more than a select few pieces of hardware at the moment, and it has little to no processor optimizations, it's not viable. I wouldn't count Apple out on making this move if they feel the need--They could stand to gain a good deal of the software marketshare if they did this, but they'd lose in the hardware share--kind of like a last resort. This could be the very reason they're allowing the porting to go on without their normal strongarm tactics.
They don't have an x86 version of OS X. If they did have this, why the hell would they have Darwin trying to develop the core of OS X for x86.. as in, it isn't all ready done. Yeesh.
Not true. Darwin may be powerful, but the x86 port is more of a toy than a competitor. I think they released the source because they aren't threatened by it.
I take a different view on this... As a dedicated FBSD fanatic myself, I've come to love OS X. I've spent waaay too much money to add a couple of Macs to my LAN, and I wouldn't be without it. The idea of running XFree86 rootless so the apps run alongside MacOS native apps is amazing. FreeBSD's future is looking grim though, I must admit. I don't think the userbase will be willing to let it go down the tubes... I have nothing against Linux, but I will eat my socks before I put it on my dual P3/750. Honestly though, I think things will return with him and the FBSD project once Darwin settles... there is still *much* work to be accomplished, and timeframes when you're working on a project you've all ready published and sold have to be extremely short. With some luck, he'll bring along the x86 Darwin development.
Considering Motorolla makes their processors, I doubt you could ever call it a monopoly. More importantly, you need a userbase the size of MS's to gain a title like that... not a mere 25 million dedicated Mac users.
If you're refering to the x86 version of Apple's Darwin project, you should check out the Darwin section of their website. It's still going on, and runs great (or so I've heard). The only problem with the x86 version right now is *very* limited driver support, but that's been working on in the background while they continue on with more major things--such as finding a decent replacement for the pieces of MacOS X that aren't opensource.. such as Aqua (the GUI).
isn't it frightening that the things gibson wrote about that you stuck in these things were called microsofts?
dear god=>
i think all the information on getting back etc is covered at www.xdarwin.com ... something like ctrl+fnc a i think.
next thing you know progammers are going to be shackled to chairs and whipped into coding bloated software without being given the opportunity to go back and look for bugs.. we can only hope this works as well for other companies as it has for microsoft.
just what we need.. half of the army running around screaming 'w00t'
Perhaps instead of sending troops to Afghanistan, we just should have /.'d them.