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The GNU-Darwin [5] project works on porting the GNU system to Darwin [6], the basis of the proprietary MacOS X. Darwin itself is based on FreeBSD and Mach 3.0 and currently runs on PowerPC-based architectures. Apple is working on a port for Intel-architectures, however. So after GNU/Linux and GNU/Hurd there will be a third GNU-based system available.
A very interesting feature of the GNU-Darwin system is to be able to run Macintosh-applications parallel to the well-known Unix-programs. This allows the direct comparison of Macintosh- & GNU-based programs, something that has been impossible before. So this feature makes GNU-Darwin very well suited for Mac/Unix hybrid-structures and with the port of SAMBA to GNU-Darwin heterogenous networks with Mac/Unix/Windows will be easy to implement.
But of course the main use of GNU-Darwin is not to be able to run proprietary software. It will rather create another bridge between the Macintosh platform and Free Software as the user will quickly realize that there is more Free Software for his computer than there is proprietary software. Software developed on GNU-Darwin is better-suited for interoperability with MacOS X, too, so Free Software can be brought into this world.
The big amount of available Unix-based Free Software and the unique capabilities for heterogenous structures and parallel development are strong arguments for GNU-Darwin instead of MacOS X.
In addition, GNU-Darwin offers several advantages over the LinuxPPC-Project which is the reason why a user-migration to GNU-Darwin can be seen. First of all GNU-Darwin is (like GNU/Hurd) microkernel-based which gives it capabilities that the Linux kernel cannot match. Also the hardware support for Darwin is done by Apple itself as it also is the basis for MacOS X. So a better hardware support is to be expected here.
But not everything is better. Although the contributions of the GNU-Darwin project are of course released under the GNU General Public License, Darwin itself has been released by Apple under the Apple Public Source License (APSL). In version 1.1 this license did not qualify as Free Software for three important reasons [7].
First of all it was forbidden to make changes for personal use without making those changes public. In the perception of the GNU Project, the right to change things for personal use only is closely related with the right for privacy; that is why the GPL was designed to allow this.
Furthermore the developer and non-scientific user of a modified version was forced to report to a specified institution (in this case Apple). This central control is in direct contradiction to the thought of Free Software.
And finally there was a disclaimer that allowed Apple to terminate the license and stop the further use of the software at any point if copyright or patent claims are being made against Apple. This made every user on this planet dependent on the very problematic U.S. patent-system.
Version 1.2 of the APSL was released in January 2001 and it solves a big part of the problems - the restriction on private modifications and the disrespect for privacy remains, however.
So in a way the APSL takes step after step into the direction of the NPL which is definitely a Free Software license although it does allow a proprietarization of the source-code. Even if the APSL finally gets to the point of the NPL, it would still be less than satisfactory as it would probably still be incompatible with the most often used Free Software license, the GPL.
So the situation is comparable to that of KDE a few years ago in a way, as it is about a clean Free Software project built on a weak fundament and hence in danger of being cut off at the knees by legal means. Because of this the GNU-Darwin project takes a stand to release Darwin under the GNU General Public License. Especially for this advocacy work, Michael L. Love, one of the participants of GNU-Darwin, asks for support from the community. In the eyes of the GNU-Darwin project, GNU-Darwin will only be truly free once Darwin is GPL'ed.
The current technical issues are porting more packages to GNU-Darwin and the creation of a CD-Distribution. In the long run it is planned to put the special abilities of GNU-Darwin to good use.
As the team currently consists of only six active developers, there is a wide field of possible activities for interested people to choose from. Especially developers with experiences regarding Mozilla, SDL, GNOME & Audio-Support (ALSA) will be received with open arms.
By the way: the origin of GNU-Darwin is the desire of Michael L. Love to use his Apple for protein-crystallography as this is his normal occupation.
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Packages available now from GNU-Darwin
| # of packages | |
| total unique packages | 6366 |
| total overall | 10200 |
LibreOffice
Firefox
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