The Darwin team is pleased to announce the availability of the Darwin 7.0.1 Installer CD. This is a single Installer CD that will boot and install Darwin on Macintosh computers supported by Mac OS X 10.3, as well as certain x86-based personal computers.
Apple Darwin 7.0.1 ISO Images Available
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I was really looking forward to trying this out until I read the following:
” x86-based personal computers:
* IDE drives may not work on x86. Try it, if it doesn’t work,
it’s a known problem. ”
gee … I wonder how many PC users like myself have access to SCSI hardware.
Any one that knows of any screenshots from opendarwin, or does it look like OSX?
Not all IDE drive and controller combinations work.
SCSI is just beter.
“SCSI is just beter.”
Very few people would argue against that. However, my point was that most PCs dont ship with SCSI hard drives in them, thus making it quite useless for *most people*, including hobbyists such as myself.
No it’s just the core of Mac OS you could use for ‘free’ (bsd)
Apple has build a gui for this core (which is damm good)
Yeah, if you want to know what it’ll look like just reboot your computer and see that black text with white wording over it
This is the core of OS X, not the Aqua GUI. The core is open source, Aqua is not. So if you want to run this, grab it, install it and install Gnome as your GUI.
I had too many problems getting things to work on a B&W G3. For now
I am sticking with OpenDarwin 6.6.2 until they have an update.
Sean
My piont is that some IDE combinations work and they don’t have complete lists of what doesn’t. Where as there is no problem with any SCSI
Can someone point me to a page where I can find instructions on how to install Gnome on this.
Thanks
“Can someone point me to a page where I can find instructions on how to install Gnome on this.
Thanks”
I think you need to install the full Gnu/Darwin distribution then upgrade to the latest kernel:
http://gnu-darwin.sourceforge.net/
Gnome is the default desktop on the Gnu/Darwin distribution.
Ok… I understand what Darwin is, and I realize that it’s just the console (no GUI), but what I haven’t seen spelled out yet (anywhere!) is what this holds for me that either a FreeBSD or a Linux install would not. Other than the bragging rights of running it, of course.
Is it significantly faster than say the Linux kernel? Perhaps more secure than one of the aforementioned OS’s? Does it offer any benefits at all which would warrant spending the time it would take to get this up and running?
For that matter, I saw the above reference to Gnome… I have to wonder why no one’s taken it upon themselves to create a distribution running the latest Gnome over Darwin, if it is in fact a viable alternative. Is it “just not there yet” development-wise, or is it that no one’s saw a benefit to running this over one of the other *nix OS’s?
How about other GUI’s also? KDE on Darwin or XFCE on Darwin anyone?
Sorry for the questions, but other than being able to perhaps hack some of Apples open-sourced code over to another *nix distribution (Linux or whatever), I fail to see why anyone would spend the time working on this when
they could be putting that effort into getting a more usable system put together (Since we all know OSX is never going to be made open source).
Can anyone address any of my questions?
I don’t think there are advantages other than getting the netinfo system available without having to run Aqua. In my opinion, if you’re going to p ay that much for an apple system (and yes, I know they can be quite competitive because of all the software), you might as well use what you are paying for and that is the full iLife suite, OS X and others.
I guess I feel that if you are buying a Mac and you immediately wipe it and throw this on it, you would be better off with a pc…
1) IDE works: the thing to note her is that Apple only wrote drivers for the Intel chips. Thus if you have an Intel processor (no AMD) on an Intel mother board (no VIA) then it’ll work. Anything else might not; the keything here is that some support was added for AMD processors but I’m not sure what mother board chip sets are supported.
2) Darwin is a micro kernel with an Object based driver system.
a) All drivers in the same family have the same interface.
b) Drivers are part of the kernel, they can be loaded/unload at any time.
c) Drivers are stacked on top of each other. (eg: IDE – FileSystem – FileVault)
3) The reset of the kernel shares a lot of code with FreeBSD and the two systems are openly sharing code back and forth.
4) They us the GNU userland tools + some of the FreeBSD userland tools.
5) XFree86 will work with Darwin. Thus, you can use Gnome for your DE.
I would say the biggest advantage is that it is the best Unix to run under Mac hardware. As a server OS, it is better than OSX since it won’t have bloat and will look and act like a true Unix. As to why people would run it on x86, I would imagine for the same reason as people run Solaris x86.
“I would say the biggest advantage is that it is the best Unix to run under Mac hardware. As a server OS, it is better than OSX since it won’t have bloat and will look and act like a true Unix. As to why people would run it on x86, I would imagine for the same reason as people run Solaris x86.”
Nonsense. Log into OS X using >console as a login, gone is the GUI. BTW the GUI doesn’t use the CPU at all when you just run your Mac as a server, so that “bloat” argument just doesn’t count. Also OS X is in so far better than Darwin, that there are some proprietary drivers which cannot be included in Darwin, so OS X will always have better hardware support.
If you want OS X to prefer the files in /etc rather than using Netinfo it is just one mouseclick away, in the Directory Access Utility.
does anyone know how I can put an old pentium box (which runs 6.6.2 okay) to good use as my music server? I want this box to share the music files so that I can use iTunes on the iMac in the lounge and iBook in the kitchen (via wlan).
I know there is no aqua gui, I am not afraid of the cli. what i want is a iTunes daemon.
yes I could put winblows and itunes on the pentium but i don’t wanna.
if i bought a new G5 i would leave OSX Panther on it…
since i have a i686 i use Linux, because it is stable, secure, modular, and FREE!!!
RoadKill: You can use Linux for this, and it literally took me 5 minutes to get it to work, no problems.
I used this guide as my guide:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.phpstory=20030711140157143
It works wonderfully, and it automagically shows up in iTunes.
Oops, sorry! I deleted a ‘?’
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030711140157143
I have no idea if that will show up on one line…
Have fun!
whoa thanks Tristan, this is just what I was looking for.
I will try this out when I get home, first on the box when it’s runing darwin and if that works I’ll backup then put 7 on 🙂
if neither work then I’ll have to try redhat 🙁 not a big problem but not as nice as being darwin/OSX only household.
“2) Darwin is a micro kernel with an Object based driver system.”
Darwin is *not* in fact a microkernel. It does have the plumbing, but it is a monolithic kernel.
“Darwin uses a monolithic kernel based on FreeBSD”
http://www.apple.com/lae/macosx/technologies/darwin.html
“Mach 3.0 was originally conceived as a simple, extensible, communications microkernel. It is capable of running as a stand–alone kernel, with other traditional operating-system services such as I/O, file systems, and networking stacks running as user-mode servers.
However, in Mac OS X, Mach is linked with other kernel components into a single kernel address space. This is primarily for performance; it is much faster to make a direct call between linked components than it is to send messages or do remote procedure calls (RPC) between separate tasks. This modular structure results in a more robust and extensible system than a monolithic kernel would allow, without the performance penalty of a pure microkernel.”
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Conceptual/KernelPr…
Has anyone found success with Virual PC. I would like to try the X86 version without “Breaking” anything?
Anyone know where I can get instructions on setting up a dual-boot system with OS X and Darwin?
“Nonsense. Log into OS X using >console as a login, gone is the GUI. BTW the GUI doesn’t use the CPU at all when you just run your Mac as a server, so that “bloat” argument just doesn’t count. Also OS X is in so far better than Darwin, that there are some proprietary drivers which cannot be included in Darwin, so OS X will always have better hardware support.
If you want OS X to prefer the files in /etc rather than using Netinfo it is just one mouseclick away, in the Directory Access Utility.”
I disagree. You are thinking like a Windows user. If I am not going to use something, why should I install it? Why should I waste disk resources and time managing stuff that shouldn’t be on a server?
Guess what people: not every product needs to be consumed by YOU. Not everything provides YOU benefits.
What is Darwin useful for?
Using and hacking the code that Apple has developed and OSed.
Running a QTSS on a stripped down Nix box rather than a more resource intensive OS X machine.
Maybe a few other uses.
But people expecting it to run on all hardware, be better than Linux distros they already run, etc…
Just let go! Please. You don’t have to download every piece of software. You don’t have to run every piece of software.
And not every piece of software cares about you either.
“Nonsense. Log into OS X using >console as a login, gone is the GUI. BTW the GUI doesn’t use the CPU at all when you just run your Mac as a server, so that “bloat” argument just doesn’t count. Also OS X is in so far better than Darwin, that there are some proprietary drivers which cannot be included in Darwin, so OS X will always have better hardware support.
If you want OS X to prefer the files in /etc rather than using Netinfo it is just one mouseclick away, in the Directory Access Utility.”
I disagree. You are thinking like a Windows user. If I am not going to use something, why should I install it? Why should I waste disk resources and time managing stuff that shouldn’t be on a server?
Really now, Slash.. Hard drive space costs virtually nothing, and I imagine after an initial investment of about 5 minutes time, you could get that OSX box to boot up anyway you’d want it without that N0Ob UI thingy that makes all you “comicbook-store guy” CLI-only tech dudes cringe.
If you’re looking for a command line only OS, then there are plenty available without bitching about OSX or Windows. Just you go stomp back to your cave and keep lighting your fires with sticks. Me, I’ll stick with my Zippo (OSX) and its hard-drive sucking ~700mb of GUI.
I installed it on my P4 2800, worked fine. So now how do I install Gnome?
sorry, it doesn’t look like to work
(I try with IMac G3 macosx 10.1.5 + virtualPC 6 and all I got is a black screen)
🙁
“If you’re looking for a command line only OS, then there are plenty available without bitching about OSX or Windows. Just you go stomp back to your cave and keep lighting your fires with sticks. Me, I’ll stick with my Zippo (OSX) and its hard-drive sucking ~700mb of GUI.”
Say what you like but Darwin is coded to run on Mac hardware and probably is the best true Unix to run on Mac hardware. Linux is pretty good but it’s main focus is running on x86 architecture. Seeing how beautiful the G5 hardware is and how relatively cheap it is, it has become a pretty good investment to purchase G5’s and put these servers running Darwin in the server room with all the other Unix machines. That way they are all consistent and management is similar to all the other boxes in the server room (for senior admins through command line SSH.)
If you’re running OS X, you’re already running Darwin, so there is no point. If you want to use the UNIX features, open the Terminal.
You could also get it to run on Darwin as well as Linux by simpling compiling the sources on Darwin. AFAIK, all the technologies used are open source or at least have a Dawin port.
I’m not sure that apple users know what is “Terminal”