I don't necessarily like linking to another page unless I have input of my own about whatever it is discussing, but I thought I would help with *BSD evangelism by pointing people to a NetBSD-on-an-iBook HOWTO written by a gentleman named Anselm R. Garbe. Link: port-macppc: Howto install NetBSD 1.6.1 stable on an iBook
(via: OSNews)
I agree with Anselm about a few quirky directory layout and naming conventions that OS X uses that makes it very BSD unlike. While I find it irritating at times, it is just as frustrating as the differences between Linux and other *nix-type OS's. I'll never forget reading Dr. Dan Bernstein's rant on his Cross-platform Compatibility page:
The frivolous variability in each row [relating to a table on the linked page] makes life unnecessarily difficult for people who deal with many systems: typical system administrators, consultants, script authors, book authors, etc. Even if you don't think you'll ever deal with more than one system, you're still suffering indirectly from the dilution of support resources.
I came across the quote while doing my initial research into qmail a few years ago and it has stuck with me since. While I was extremely happy when I found Apple base OS X on FreeBSD, I was disappointed to find so many differences. I understand why they are there, but from a philosophical perspective, I never would have allowed most of the differences to pollute the elegance of FreeBSD. (My opinion...) So, for those of you wishing to use one of the true BSD variants on your Apple hardware, I thought this HOWTO might be helpful.
Comments (1)
but does netbsd support cpu freq, powermanagement, dimming of screen, and all the little things that go a long way on laptops? Last I read the machine does not support xfree, although it should, and thus changing dpi? and res has to be done thru OF because the install instructions support "Xmacppc Server".
I hate to say it but gnu-linux has better ppc laptop support.
Posted by chascon | April 16, 2005 4:45 PM
Posted on April 16, 2005 16:45