[CrackMonkey] OS/X Beta

[Deirdre Saoirse]

On Thu, 14 Sep 2000, Paul Duncan wrote:

> > Umm, most of MacOS/X Beta *isn't* proprietary. The important stuff
> > certainly isn't.

> More people are using free software than ever before.

Yes, but most of them are buying Red Hat (or Mandrake or SuSE) -- at
significantly more $ than $29.95.

Besides: you missed my point. MacOS X consists of a good chunk of free
software, including:

1) Mach microkernel;
2) BSD core system;

...both of which are available at: http://publicsource.apple.com/

There are proprietary components (which the GNUstep project is trying to
emulate) in the graphics library and in the Carbon layer (that allows old 
MacOS stuff, even 68k code, to run transparently).

But you can build a commandline Darwin that runs with no GUI. To me,
that's actually the important part.

I don't believe MacOS/X will ship with a compiler, but MOSXS does (gcc).
It also ships with its gcc extensions to allow building GUIs via Interface
Builder, which is a *very very* cool piece of software and worth
implementing for GNUstep.

> But why would people download software for free when they can buy an
> exact digital replica from a proprietary vendor for $29.95?  MacOS X
> represents a significant threat to the free software business model.

I disagree.

Let's not forget, btw, that it was Apple who first distributed, for free,
a Linux for the PowerPC platform.

-- 
_Deirdre   *   http://www.sfknit.org   *   http://www.deirdre.net
"More damage has been caused by innocent program crashes than by 
malicious viruses, but they don't make great stories."
                   --  Jean-Louis Gassee, Be Newsletter, Issue 69