Filed under: OS, Open Source, UNIX / BSD, Apple
OpenDarwin shutting down
OpenDarwin, a project that I would imagine most TUAW readers didn't know about, is shutting down. The original idea behind OpenDarwin was to create features and bug fixes for Darwin, the UNIX foundation of OS X, which Apple would roll into the code that they distribute. Sadly, it would seem, that relationship didn't pan out as people thought it might over the last 4 years. The project admins of other projects hosted on the OpenDarwin servers have been contacted and I am sure people are clamoring to set up redirects and new hosting.
A chapter has closed in the Apple open source effort.
[via Niall Kennedy]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SW said 9:12PM on 7-25-2006
This is a shame and speaks volumes about Apple's commitment to OSS. A cynic might suggest that Apple used Open Source to provide them with a ready made base so they could spend all the development time on eye-candy. Oh wait, that's exactly what happened.
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Tim Dorr said 9:17PM on 7-25-2006
One thing that should be noted is that this doesn't signal the end of OSS on the Mac or any major drop of support for it. I think number of people actually hacking away at their OS X kernel is small. Frankly, I could give a crap about people wanting to contribute source to the OS X kernel. It's a pain to do because no one else depends on on the kernel besides Apple and it's a waste of Apple's effort to have to manage incoming patches along with the stuff they want to do that needs to be kept secret. WebKit would be the opposite case because it's the rendering engine for KDE's browser and it's something they can throw secret things into (like RSS support) without exposing it via open source.
There's also the theory that they're switching kernels, although that would probably be a pain unless they've developed a good driver compatibility layer for older drivers they can't get updates for. In that case, they're closing Open Darwin simply because they're not going to use the same kernel anymore.
The other, more important projects, like WebKit, DarwinPorts, and Darwine, are all still very much alive. I'm actually posting this in WebKit (which is one kick ass upgrade, by the way), and get a few build updates daily. I've got no reason to use a modified kernel, but every reason to upgrade my browser to the latest source. So, I'm not glad to see OpenDarwin go, but I'm also not distraught.
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Scott McNulty said 9:34PM on 7-25-2006
Tim, you're right. This doesn't mean the end of open source on the Mac, but taken with other developments it is a little worrying. Here's hope Steve explains it all away at WWDC.
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Carlos said 11:09PM on 7-25-2006
That means that webkit and darwine are shuting down too?
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Chris Martin said 11:31PM on 7-25-2006
How about DarwinPorts? That's the project who's fate I am the most interested in.
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John C. Randolph said 11:56PM on 7-25-2006
The OpenDarwin project rather missed the point. Darwin isn't Linux: it's not meant to be a stand-alone OS like Linux or the BSDs. It's open-sourced to make life a bit easier for OS X developers.
-jcr
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Bjorn Nitmo said 1:00AM on 7-26-2006
Chris Martin,
It appears that DarwinPorts will continue (thank goodness). See here:
http://opendarwin.org/pipermail/darwinports/2006-July/034946.html
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Dan Callahan said 4:16AM on 7-26-2006
OpenDarwin was a community effort to enhance Apple's Darwin OS. OpenDarwin failed to pick up steam. Apple will still be releasing Darwin, along with source, for the forseeable future.
This has no bearing on Apple's commitment to open source.
http://www.opendarwin.org is not part of http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/
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Tom von S. said 9:41AM on 7-26-2006
Before everyone goes and throws stones at Apple, please note that the announcement also cites "a lack of interest from the community" as a contributing factor. It's not as if the project was thriving until Apple squashed it by being uncooperative.
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Jeff said 9:08AM on 7-27-2006
Isn't this really about Intel? Apple doesn't want to see OS X on PC's. And they can't release Darwin as open source because people could use it to run OS X on those PC's.
I still think Apple should make OS X available to the PC world. I don't see it hurting existing sales. Sure, it might hurt potential sales but you never would know if those people would have bought an Apple computer anyway. But most current Apple users love their hardware and wouldn't drop it for a Dell anyway.
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