Apple Releases OS X 10.11 El Capitan Open Source Darwin Code

ctstover · on Dec 9, 2015

What does this mean? I would hope that best case would be:

a) something like http://www.puredarwin.org/ could be updated

b) something like https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross could drop the step of grabbing files from xcode

orionblastar · on Dec 9, 2015

Apple stopped releasing Darwin binaries quite some time ago.

They only release the source code now.

I'm not sure if the source code released can be made to make a binary ISO file yet. Apple could have a competitor to GNU/Linux if it released Darwin binary files as ISOs and had some program like apt to download free and open source software for it. It would be a step towards making an OS for PC Clones that can compete with Windows and GNU/Linux.

stephenr · on Dec 9, 2015

> It would be a step towards making an OS for PC Clones that can compete with Windows and GNU/Linux.

If they wanted to do that, they'd just release OS X for generic X86-64 hardware.

Apple tried the whole "lets officially support 3rd party hardware makers" thing in the 90s. It did not go well for them.

orionblastar · on Dec 10, 2015

They can't release OS X for generic X86 hardware because it would kill their Macintosh sales.

If they made Darwin for X86 systems it wouldn't be the same as OS X but it would be something that competes with GNU/Linux and Windows. Somethings they could sell apps for with an app store.

But yeah in the 1990s they tried MKLinux and Mac Clones and it didn't work out too well because they didn't have the proper tech support for them. The Mac Clones cost less than the real Macs and cut into their sales.

stephenr · on Dec 10, 2015

> If they made Darwin for X86 systems it wouldn't be the same as OS X but it would be something that competes with GNU/Linux and Windows.

Why would they ever do that? What is the benefit to Apple? They make less than $0 on OS X - it costs them money to develop, and is given away for free. It's subsidised by the sale of hardware.

> Somethings they could sell apps for with an app store.

The stuff that's included in Darwin wouldn't be nearly enough to support the App Store - all the high level frameworks that make OS X what it is, are not included in Darwin because they're not open source.

spitfire · on Dec 9, 2015

They still ship UUCP? Are they serious?

Maybe it's time to clean out the attic...