Apple Releases Darwin 6.7 and 6.8
The Darwin team announced the availability of the source code for Darwin 6.7 and Darwin 6.8. These sources correspond to Mac OS X 10.2.7 (for G5s) and Mac OS X 10.2.8 (for G3/G4s), respectively.
BSD & Darwin Archive
Installing a Secure BSD System
The LittleWhiteDog web site posted an article showing how to configure and secure a BSD system.
Wind River Terminating BSD/OS
The end of an era for BSD/OS: Yesterday, on the bsdi-users mailing list, it was reported that Wind River Japan had announced that they will be discontinuing BSD/OS Internet Server Edition (ISE) on Dec. 13, 2003. The final version of BSD/OS, BSD/OS 5.1 ISE, will be available as an upgrade for 5.0 ISE customers in October with sales ending on December 31, 2003. This will be available in binary and binary with source code, as with previous releases.
Is It Time for BSD?
"And if you were just shopping around, just considering Linux and hadn't looked at a BSD, you may want to reconsider and do some comparing between the systems. You might find that a BSD will be a better fit." Read the editorial at eWEEK.
Darwin 7 Preview Code Posted
The Darwin team is pleased to announce the availability of the Darwin 7 Preview source code corresponding to select portions of the 2003 WWDC Panther seed. Darwin and a number of other projects are available via Web DAV (as well as regular HTTP).
Introduction and History of Darwin
In December of 1996, Apple acquired NeXT Software. The reason for the acquisition was so that Apple could finally make a modern operating system for their users. They searched high and low for a OS to be the foundation for their new OS. Among the candidates, Windows NT which never even made it past the first stage. Then came Solaris, but Apple and Sun could not agree on the licensing terms and the idea was crushed.
New version of OpenDarwin, v6.6.1
OpenDarwin 6.6.1 is announced, available immediately for both ppc and x86 architectures. OpenDarwin 6.6.1 is based on the Darwin 6.6 (which corresponds to Mac OS X 10.2.6) source release and licensed under the APSL. It includes additions and modifications from the OpenDarwin CVS Repository.
Darwin 6.6 Source Code Released
Apple announced the availability of the Darwin 6.6 source code, corresponding to Mac OS X 10.2.6.
x86 Opendarwin Box Available Online for Developers
For software developers who wish to test/port applications to Darwin, a new box running x86 Darwin has been made available by the Opendarwin project.
Darwin 6.5 Source Now Available
MacNN reports that the Darwin team today posted the Darwin 6.5 source code, corresponding to Mac OS X 10.2.5. "Darwin 6.5 is what we call an 'on-cycle' source-code release, where the corresponding Darwin source is made available soon after a new release of Mac OS X to customers." Several projects (e.g., gcc, gdb, CUPS, Rendezvous) will continue to do 'off-cycle' releases, according to the developer, whereby the source code is updated more frequently than our commercial releases.
MicroBSD Project Removed Because of Copyright Violations
Because of
violations of the BSD license the MicroBSD project has been completely removed from the internet, and all MicroBSD users are asked to remove it from their computers.
The GNU-Darwin Distribution 1.0: A Perspective from the Founder
Although GNU-Darwin can be viewed as a standalone OS for x86 and PowerPC architectures, it is also a source of free software to Apple users.
GNU-Darwin 1.0 Released
The GNU-Darwin project is now considered stable and it has reached 1.0 status (it seems that the latest beta will be marked as 1.0). Download from here, packages, ports.
GNU-Darwin Drops PPC Support
GNU-Darwin will no longer 'support or distribute any software which links to proprietary libraries, and that includes Cocoa, Carbon, CoreAudio, etc.' They will also be putting PPC collections into 'maintenance mode' and moving all operations to x86. Read the story at MacSlash.
The Neglected BSD Stepchildren
Developments in the *BSD area, such as the OpenSSH project, have greatly benefited Linux. By the same token, Linux companies have funded a lot of work on software like GCC and Wine that is also used on *BSD systems. Read the editorial at OSOpinion.
An Update on Yamit
As stated in the previous OSNews article our project, Yamit, is trying to address some shortcomings of Mach that are usually results of insufficient tuning (sometimes caused by the fact that code comes from the 80's).
Darwin 6.0 Released and DarwinPorts Initial Release
A few days ago Apple announced the release of Darwin 6.0.1. This release of Darwin is in sync with Mac OS X 10.2 aka Jaguar and includes "enhancements from FreeBSD 4.4" and is built with GCC3.1. Seperately, the OpenDarwin project today announced an initial beta of the new DarwinPorts system, designed by Jordan Hubbard formerly of the FreeBSD project.
The BSDs: Sophisticated, Powerful, and (Mostly) Free
What is BSD? If you ask a typical computer "expert," he or she is likely to reply (incorrectly!) that it is "an operating system." The correct answer, however, is more complex than that. BSD is -- among other things -- a culture, a philosophy, and a growing collection of software, most (though not all) of which is available for free and with source code.
Darwin Has Been Updated to 10.2
The OpenDarwin cvs has been updated with the latest xnu sources. The Tag for the branch corresponding to OpenDarwin is OD_APPLE_10_2. Information on getting the sources is available here while you can report bugs here.
Taking MicroBSD for a Test Run
"Well, I've been reading a little about MicroBSD. So I decided to quickly give it a try. This article talks about installing MicroBSD, what features make it special, troubles and successes I encountered, and the beauty of the BSD license. So I retrieved the MicroBSD 0.5 mini ISO image and burned a CD." Read it at BSDNewsLetter.