Mac OS Forge, a new community site hosted by Apple, is being created to support WebKit and other open source projects focused on Mac OS X, especially those looking to transition from OpenDarwin.org. New buildable kernel sources for Intel-based Macs are posted there as well, finally answering the complaints from the community. Other than this, Xcode 3 now includes Sun’s Dtrace.
Maybe the site is very new, the navigation and design is so poor. But the logo is Mac-ish, which is good 🙂
And the news itself is good, of course!
Design is quite meager, comming from Apple, I’d say.
You are right, but it could also be percieved as minimalistic which to me and some others might be more useful than a flashy website.
I’d say the design is quite good. What I interpret from the site is that it is a place of work, development, code and progress, not lickable buttons or other such window dressing. You get what you are looking at. The logo with the metal grill and the minimalist look drives home the ‘realism’ of development, in that the design succeeds.
Although some of their pages are missing a .css meta-link.
http://macosforge.org/subversion.html
http://bonjour.macosforge.org/sources.html
http://bonjour.macosforge.org/contact.html
http://kernel.macosforge.org/sources.html
http://kernel.macosforge.org/contact.html
http://launchd.macosforge.org/sources.html
http://launchd.macosforge.org/contact.html
I’m still a little confused on how this site is “dedicated to supporting the developer community surrounding open source components specific to Mac OS X” when it appears to just be a WordPress blog with Trac installed along-side. What other features does MacOSForge offer, did they really need to add the “Forge”? We shall see how the site progresses.
Edited 2006-08-08 07:39
Apple does not support Open Source, forget about open source at Apple, where is the code for XNU/intel, Apple doesn’t give a shit to Open source, bla bla bla, ……………..here it is!!!
So many people writting so much bullshit out there, all based on rumors and non-verified facts. At the end they look like stupid……
So many people writting so much bullshit out there, all based on rumors and non-verified facts. At the end they look like stupid……
Or maybe the backlash and all the “bullshit” people wrote made the folks at Apple realize just how much the community really does care about their support of open source. I mean statementslike “the Intel kernel sources haven’t been released” and “OpenDarwin is shutting down”, aren’t really bullshit….those were facts just a short time ago.
I doubt it was the backlash. More likely it was time they needed to secure proprietary code and make the necessary modifications (for example, to XNU) to be able to share their code.
to think Apple was pulling the plug. It’s fun to watch.
to think Apple was pulling the plug. It’s fun to watch.
Hindsight is always 20/20, isn’t it?
Thom,
you shall add these links, or run as a separate story:
Mike Shapiro:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/mws#dtrace_on_macos_x_at
Adam Leventhal:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/ahl#dtrace_on_mac_os_x
Bryan Cantrill:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/bmc?entry=dtrace_on_mac_os_x
People are so quick to jump the gun, zealots have always given Apple a bad name, doesn’t matter whether they (zealots) were pro-apple or anti-apple.
People are also too quick to shower Apple in praise for projects just announced or started. Then again each OS has these types of people, eternal critics/fans.
So, will there be any retractions? I doubt it.
From the XNU-intel project: “Several changes were made in order to publish the kernel (xnu) sources. As a result, the kernel built from these sources differs from the one found in the 10.4.7 software update. In order to accommodate these changes, several kernel extensions were also modified and must be downloaded and installed in order to run a kernel built from these sources on Mac OS X 10.4.7 for Intel.”
what does that mean? were some parts reserved from public release?
I would say “yes”.
Like Solaris, Linux, etc. To release the kernel Apple has to make sure no proprietary licensed material is included. We don’t want SCO coming after Apple now do we?
Many closed source OSes which have users clamoring for Open Sourcing, such as OS/2, face similar problems with the parent company facing the monumental task of stripping anything licensed from third parties out.
OS X’s kernel is not GPL, so it may include as much closed source material as Apple deems necessary where Linux has to release kernels that are all GPL or possibly violate the GPL itself, which is why Novel made news recently when they decided to exclude non GPL modules in their releases.
I don’t want to start any conspiracy theories, but does anyone else find the timing of this odd?
Right after opendarwin dies, suddenly Apple releases the source.
from the article
“Several changes were made in order to publish the kernel (xnu) sources. As a result, the kernel built from these sources differs from the one found in the 10.4.7 software update. In order to accommodate these changes, several kernel extensions were also modified and must be downloaded and installed in order to run a kernel built from these sources on Mac OS X 10.4.7 for Intel.”
Is this just Rosetta ? Anything else?
Heh. Whatever it is/was, I am guessing it was somewhat well planned, given they seem to like to control their destiny with a heavy rudder.
Hmmm, did that analogy make sense?
I don’t want to start any conspiracy theories, but does anyone else find the timing of this odd?
Right after opendarwin dies, suddenly Apple releases the source.
I don’t think the timing is odd at all. Currently WWDC06 is going on. Apple didn’t announce anything really surprising during Jobs’ keynote, I believe there’s only the new MacPro, which was to be expected, and the Leopard preview, but no other new products. So, they probably have saved up those things for now.
>from the article
>”Several changes were made in order to publish the
>kernel (xnu) sources. As a result, the kernel built from
>these sources differs from the one found in the 10.4.7
>software update. In order to accommodate these changes,
>several kernel extensions were also modified and must be
>downloaded and installed in order to run a kernel built
>from these sources on Mac OS X 10.4.7 for Intel.”
>Is this just Rosetta ? Anything else?
From http://kernel.macosforge.org/intel-build-instructions.html
The open source kernel for Mac OS X for Intel is based on the kernel for 64-bit Mac Pro computers. On these machines, the kernel sources should work AS IS, however on Macintosh computers with 32-bit Intel processors, you must also install several updated kernel extensions.
… carefactor towards Open Source.
eg, Zero.
What a pathetic looking website. Why do they even bother?
So you’d rather have a flashy site without source code than a barebones with source code? The site is clearly made by developers for developers – no graphics artists involved.
I think it’s great that Apple is relasing kernel code again.
If the corporate Apple goons would have put half the effort into OpenDarwin.org it would still be around.
Not to mention most coporate goons being Apple or Microsoft love the BSD license so they dont have to post source at all.
you wanted the source code, apple has given you the source code.
Now however a lot of people seem to be moaning about the web site design!!?? Concentrate on the source code, ive seen plenty of excellent projects with crappy web sites.
Noone is moaning about the design, it is just quite surprisingly different from anything Apple would usually do.
I know what i would think if it was released on an 1st April.
It is ok for the site and its name to suck as long as it would contain usufull code, which has to be proven yet, as i find the descriptions of the kernel-code alarming.
Another point is that it just might be too late since they already annoyed many people who tryed contributing to the kernel on opendarwin.
Don’t take this as trolling please, just a tiny bitter taste of reality that taints this interesting developement of events.
See it this way : Simple, fast, effective. Typically Apple.
That looks like a commercial…
Just for the hell of it some whois
Domain ID:D124426398-LROR
Domain Name:MACOSFORGE.ORG
Created On:13-Jun-2006 18:20:49 UTC
Last Updated On:07-Aug-2006 00:10:27 UTC
Expiration Date:13-Jun-2007 18:20:49 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Go Daddy Software, Inc. (R91-LROR)
Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:GODA-020970848
Registrant Name:Ernest Prabhakar
Registrant Organization:RadicalCentrism.org
Registrant Street1:4812 Percheron Drive
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Elk Grove
Registrant State/Province:California
Registrant Postal Code:95757
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.4089743075
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:[email protected]
Admin ID:GODA-220970848
Admin Name:Ernest Prabhakar
Admin Organization:RadicalCentrism.org
Admin Street1:4812 Percheron Drive
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:Elk Grove
Admin State/Province:California
Admin Postal Code:95757
Admin Country:US
Admin Phone:+1.4089743075
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:[email protected]
Tech ID:GODA-120970848
Tech Name:Ernest Prabhakar
Tech Organization:RadicalCentrism.org
Tech Street1:4812 Percheron Drive
Tech Street2:
Tech Street3:
Tech City:Elk Grove
Tech State/Province:California
Tech Postal Code:95757
Tech Country:US
Tech Phone:+1.4089743075
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:[email protected]
Name Server:NS1.MACOSFORGE.ORG
Name Server:NS2.MACOSFORGE.ORG
It does seem odd that the website looks so rushed, as though they were camped out at OSNews listening to discussions about Apple’s Open Source plans, i would expect Apple to make things look a little more polished before letting the public know about them.
However: they’ve owned the domain for almost 2 months now.
Has Apple officially announced this? Some people are calling the site “minimalistic” but while it’s true it has that whole “empty white page” Google look, to me it looks more like “not ready yet”
For instance, the CSS in the subversion page is broken at the moment.
edit: spelling
Edited 2006-08-08 13:05
For those of you knocking the Mac OS Forge web site…
Relax, I don’t think it’s an offical Apple web site.
From Network Solutions’ WHOIS:
Registrant Organization:RadicalCentrism.org
Registrant City:Elk Grove
Registrant State/Province:California
So it’s more likely a real community web site started by a Mac user, not Apple the company.
Rats, someone beat me to it.
Could be, but remember this post from Apple’s discussion list?
http://lists.apple.com/archives/Fed-talk/2006/May/msg00105.html
“Ernest N. Prabhakar, Ph.D.
Product Manager, Open Source & Open Standards; Mac OS X Product Marketing”
Also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Drernie
Wrong. It is hosted/run by Apple.
> host http://www.macosforge.org
http://www.macosforge.org has address 17.254.17.105
> whois 17.254.17.105
OrgName: Apple Computer, Inc.
OrgID: APPLEC-3
Address: 20740 Valley Green Drive, MS32E
City: Cupertino
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 95014
Country: US
NetRange: 17.0.0.0 – 17.255.255.255
CIDR: 17.0.0.0/8
NetName: APPLE-WWNET
NetHandle: NET-17-0-0-0-1
Parent:
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: NSERVER.APPLE.COM
NameServer: NSERVER2.APPLE.COM
NameServer: NSERVER.EURO.APPLE.COM
NameServer: NSERVER.ASIA.APPLE.COM
Comment:
RegDate: 1990-04-16
Updated: 2000-05-23
RTechHandle: ZA42-ARIN
RTechName: Apple Computer, Inc.
RTechPhone: +1-408-974-7777
RTechEmail: [email protected]
# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2006-08-07 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN’s WHOIS database.
>
Ok well this is great. At least they have a nice feedback center at their BLOG. I think they should release more info often or I wouldnt rage at them so much. I still don’t use ITunes since it’s not on Linux.
I do share your disappointment regarding absence of iTunes and QuickTime on Linux and FreeBSD. I would love to release binaries of both QuickTime and iTunes Linux and FreeBSD, well in a perfect world that might happen.
So, it’s official:
http://lists.apple.com/archives/Darwin-dev/2006/Aug/msg00067.html
🙂
The only really big news is:
– Randrzvu – Apache license
– iCal server – Apache license.
Finally, that “free as in free drugs” imbacilism of Apple’s “open source” license will end.
As for “watch the amazing vanishing kernel appear again to woo the pub this time of season” – that’s BSD license for ya. Better get used to it.
Yes sure thing. Come over to my place and house your software here so I can steal it easier, call it something different, put a nice front end on it and call it INNOVATION! YEEEAAAAH!!!! SHOW ME THE MONEY!