[CrackMonkey] OS/X Beta

[Paul Duncan]

* Deirdre Saoirse (deirdre at deirdre.net) wrote:
> 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.

See what I said below: why download something for free when you can
buy it in a pretty multi-colored box for oodles of money!

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

No, you missed _my_ point.  I was being sarcastic.

> 1) Mach microkernel;
> 2) BSD core system;
> 
> ...both of which are available at: http://publicsource.apple.com/

You can also download the BSD core at freebsd.org, openbsd.org,
netbsd.org or any of your local mirrors.

> 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.

Funny, I do too.

> 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

-- 
Paul Duncan <duncanpa at engr.orst.edu>    Network Support
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