This means that you can now choose yet another *NIX to run on your PC. No the GUI is not compiled into the microkernel, thats why its micro. If you want a GUI you have to compile x-windows for it (xFree86 works on it I've heard). You would want to use it because of the advantages of running a microkernel rather than a monolithic one.

You're going to have a lot of fun trying to run MacOS programs (compiled for PowerPC/G3/G4) on Darwin (compiled for Xfree86). Don't waste your time. XFree86 ought to run fine (fairly kernel/OS independant), but that Mach/BSD microkernel is supposed to be quite messy inside.

Originally Posted by crashx99
Yeah, i\'m gonna get an old 133mhz p1 and see what i can do with this darwin thing. I\'m not too hardcore with **nix systems, although i love linux, so i guess this will give me the opportunity to see a little better on how the system works in general, and it can\'t be too big on and install the .iso is only 128 megs in size. Does anyone think it\'ll be possible to run xfree86 and then attempt to run macos progs. through that. I\'m pretty sure some drivers from the other **nix systems can be modified to get it to work.

Rolling your own linux system core from newest sources is easier, far more rewarding, and much more useful. Anybody that's interested, write me at wyrmfoe *at* icdc.com. I'll forward you the infos.

Originally Posted by ronald
The Cliffs Notes version has MacOS X being a complicated piece of work. Darwin is simply the Open Source Mach 3.0 microkernel / POSIX / BSD 4.4 hybrid. On top of that, QuickTime does the multimedia while OpenGL does the graphics. Quartz is the PDF-based layer that is in charge of drawing the screen and the engine behind Aqua, the GUI (graphical user interface). MacOS X supports three APIs (application programming interfaces): Classic, Carbon, and Cocoa. Classic runs the legacy MacOS pre-X stuff. Carbon facilitates the porting of legacy MacOS apps to UNIX. Cocoa is the next NextStep, an OO (object oriented) development model. You should find that any POSIX / BSD application will recompile nicely under Darwin. And Emily Dickinson is the bomb.

Originally Posted by ronald
News posts aren\'t meant to be cryptic but after reading some of these comments, it is important for you to know what this is not. This will most definitely NOT allow your x86 machine to run OS X. Individually, Darwin, the underlying base of OS X, and Aqua, the GUI (graphical user interface) of OS X, are distinct entities which collectively form OS X. As TwoFer (poster #8) has written, Darwin is Open Source but Aqua is not (it belongs to Apple). Instead, Darwin is another flavor of UNIX as Mr. Connor (poster #9) points out. Yes, you can either download it or order the CD but expect driver support to be scarce. Experiment with it as you wish but installation is not for the faint-hearted.

Originally Posted by AdamLongWalker
A friend of mine who is in Sys Admin. in a large company told me that OSX is garbage. Incredibly slow. Period. For now stay with OS9.1until they iron out all of thier bugs.

As for Darwin.... I was kind of hoping for more that what I saw...

This is not significant. Apparently Mach has existed in a i386 form for years.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/mach/public/www/mach.html
http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/mach4/html/Mach4-proj.html
http://www.opengroup.org/RI/
news:comp.os.mach

Its just another *nix flavor (*nix the Baskin Robbins of the computing). Which will subsequently have less support hardware wise than Linux. Chances are this release of Darwin will have more bugs in it than if you just simply compiled or obtained a binary of the current x86 Mach Kernel.

hexenhaus and others: AFAIK Darwin is just the microkernel (based on Mach and BSD) which OS X is built on; this is is no way a "port of OS X to the X86".

Darwin is Open Source; the GUI (Aqua) that's the real meat of OS X is not open in any way...

...that said, I'm not really the one to answer all your questions; but you're right, this is a tech site and nobody's answering.

Originally Posted by Cobra Libre
my understanding is that Darwin is essentially the kernel. this doesn\'t include Aqua, which is the GUI. by itself, that\'s not very useful, though it does open up the tantalizing possibility of a future port of OS X to x86. not very likely, since drivers would have to be written, but who knows?

incidentally, i had the chance to play around with OS X at a CompUSA demo the other day. the demo machines were iMacs with 64MB RAM, so it was a bit slow, but i have to say that i think the GUI is beautiful. i also really got a kick out of opening up a terminal and using vi to edit and compile a Java \"hello world\" program. if Macs weren\'t so damned expensive, this would be a fun OS to play around with.

-jacob

What is Darwin? what does it do? why would it go on an x86 (what would be the reason for putting it there?) need mojo more info on this.....

it doesn't have the GUI

I cannot believe that only two people have posted here. This is a freakin' tech site and people are over on the "Vote fo your fave graphics part" topic discussing Emily Dickinson. What dorks! (I kid, I kid! Emily really turns me on in reality!)

Who can enlighten us? Who?

On that note does this have a GUI like OSX or is it just a command line system? There are no screen shots on the website that show that.

By the above, I mean, "Could someone please let me know what Darwin would be like on x86 and why would you install it there?"

Also, isn't this big news here? I mean, isn't this a port of a piece of OSX to x86, or am I totally misinterpeting this?

What does it all mean?!

yeah! ummm.......What?