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Who recently said: "We are the first major computer company to bet the farm on Open Source and will soon be shipping millions of systems…We will be the largest publisher of Apache and Perl." So what's your guess: IBM, Dell, VA Linux? Unless you answered Apple Computer, you got it wrong, Bunky.
Ernie Prabhakar, product line manager for development platforms at Apple, made this statement in an interview with me. Apple will shortly be putting its new FreeBSD-based OS X-if you're a Macophile, say OS "ten," like the Roman numeral-into the hands of millions of users. Coming from a company whose name has become almost synonymous with closed systems, Prabhakar's words are right up there with a burning-bush pronouncement. If that doesn't make you penguin huggers gasp for breath, it's time to kick the Prozac.
According to the Apple OS X press release, "Darwin integrates a number of the latest OS technologies, including a Linux-like [sic] microkernel called Mach 3.0, operating system services based on 4.4 BSD high-performance networking facilities, and support for multiple integrated file systems." Linux-like? Apple PR probably figures that most of the media is clueless about the deep religious convictions that run through the various OS camps.
Going to the "Applications/Utilities/Terminal" on Darwin's new GUI pops the default shell, tcsh. The Mach 3.0 kernel manages processor resources such as CPU use and memory, handles scheduling, and enforces memory protection. Darwin has not passed formal POSIX compliance tests, and Apple says that it does not plan to submit its new Unix OS for such certification. Nonetheless, Apple claims that 99 out of 100 POSIX-compliant applications should be able to run on Darwin.
Why does Darwin use the Mach kernel? That's easy: Mach tagged along with Steve Jobs when Apple bought his Next Company. The NextStep operating system used Mach, which was originally developed at Carnegie Mellon University. Beyond this Next legacy, Apple contends that Mach offers improved fine-grained locking over BSD or Linux and cites its proven track record for robust SMP systems such as OSF/1 from the late Digital Equipment Corp., promulgated by the Open Software Foundation.
The licensing model for Darwin and its entire driver architecture fall under the Apple Public Source License. Under this license, any modifications made to the released code ("Original Code") must be given back to the community, but any modifications beyond that belong to the OEM/developer. This is rather similar to the Mozilla source license and several others that are currently in popular use.
For a great resource on all things Darwin, go to www.darwinfo.org, a site better in most respects than Apple's own Darwin Web site. In addition, the darwinfo site has a very useful FAQ. Also, you will find a comprehensive collection of Darwin pages online at if you go to www.osxfaq.com/man. Finally, to get a BSD perspective on all of Apple's OS X endeavors, see www.daemonnews.org.
Sitting on the front porch of this new MacOS X house you will find Apple's Quartz 2-D graphics engine-based on Adobe's Portable Document Format-for graphics and broad font support, ColorSync for color matching, OpenGL for 3-D graphics and games, and QuickTime to play streaming movies, sound, pictures, and other media. The Apache Web server is here and Apple has made it so user-friendly you can even use it on the desktop for personal file-sharing.
The average user will never know it's Apache. Perl is also present and accounted for. Missing from MacOS X is X11; however, XFree86 has been ported to Darwin and is also available from third parties.
I got my first taste of MacOS X on one of Apple's new dual-CPU Power Mac G4 (500-MHz) machines. This silver machine's sleek appearance makes it look like it was designed in Stuttgart rather than Cupertino. For Alpha Geeks, having one of these
fabulous-looking G4 super cars is a must. But its twin-CPU power is available only with Darwin applications written to take full advantage of SMP.
The Quartz 2-D engine powers the new "Aqua" GUI, which slingshots the Mac interface firmly into the design lead. Aqua is what Eazel, Gnome, KDE, and all the rest of the we-make-it-easy Linux GUI crowd can only dream about. I find Aqua's design light-years ahead of any other GUI on the market, which goes for both Linux and MS Windows.
MacOS X lets you choose either a Unix- (UFS) or Mac-formatted file system. Aqua presents all the Unix folders and directories in a way that makes file searches simple and painless, even for an OS-xenophobic Mac head. Some Mac users may not
like the new GUI's look and feel, but that will be a matter of taste, not complexity.
Floating below Aqua's surface are three Mac APIs: "Classic" runs legacy MacOS 8/9 applications inside a slightly-slower-than-native software bubble. When you load a legacy application, the familiar MacOS 9 desktop/finder starts to chug slowly. Mercifully, you only need endure one OS 9 startup instance per login. "Carbon" is a quick way to port legacy MacOS apps onto MacOS X to gain crash-resistant preemptive multitasking and protected memory. "Cocoa"-another legacy from the Next purchase-is a next-generation object-oriented development framework like NextStep.
In previous Mac operating systems, the Finder referred to the entire Macintosh desktop. In Mac OS X, the Desktop and Finder are different entities. The Desktop is the user's work area, while the revamped Finder offers a single interface to access files, applications, and all resources connected to the computer, including external storage devices, digital cameras, and the Internet. Unlike previous MacOS systems, with OS X you can open multiple instances of the Finder.
The most notable new item in the MacOS X GUI is something called the "Dock." The Dock gives the user a quick and easy way to look at and control most everything that is going on. This active scalable bar runs along the bottom of the screen with icons representing files, programs, and even OS 9. The Mail icon tells you if you have any new messages waiting to be read. If you store an image, it appears in preview mode on the Dock.
Both active MacOS X and classic MacOS 9applications appear in the Dock and are denoted by a triangle below their icon. You can expand or shrink the Dock; you can also make it invisible until you mouse over it.
The only problem is that many MacOS 9 applications, like MS Word, have a fixed bottom control/information bar located precisely where the Dock is. After a while, this bottom-bar conflict becomes irritating, even when the Dock is as small as possible and invisible. Your mouse constantly runs over the hidden dock and annoyingly brings it back onscreen. When true MacOS X applications begin to appear, such intrusive, bottom-feeder control panels like that in MS Word hopefully will forever disappear.
If the Dock really bothers you when running a MacOS 9 application, you can easily dual-boot the system by going into the MacOS X control panel for startup discs and choosing MacOS 9. If you do reboot into MacOS 9, you can't use its startup disk-control panel to activate MacOS X on restart. You must use the MacOS X System Disk control panel in the MacOS 9 folder, which-if you mount MacOS 9 on a second slave drive system as I did (OS X must be on the master)-is empty, save for this panel.
On the whole, the MacOS X beta was surprisingly stable, along with the expected quirks and minor problems. Regardless, if you plan to spend a fair amount of time working out of MacOS X, then use a second drive to house OS 9 and all your data files to minimize the risk of accidental data loss.
I took it upon myself to substitute the machine's standard ATI Rage 128 Pro AGP 16-MB unit with the optional-$100 extra-ATI AGP Radeon 32-MB card. Hooh-hah! With the Radeon card, this sucker screamed through Quake faster than Al Gore chasing Florida voters. Mac users' PC-envy days are over.
I also tried out Harmon Kardon's new $199 SoundSticks for the Mac. This oh-so-funky little stack of speakers in a clear plastic stick, coupled with the even funkier blue-light bulbous subwoofer, sounded just awesome. I got equally terrific sound with these remarkable USB speakers on a PC. The SoundSticks are now my totally favorite multimedia system.
Meanwhile, those other loud sounds that you hear are probably some noisily squawking B&W birds floundering in a newly Aqua-tic market.
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