[Fink-users] Letter to Apple

[Charles C. Kankelborg]

The thread on OpenDarwin started a few digests ago when someone suggested writing Apple in support of the Fink project. I decided to take the bull by the horns. Following is the text of my letter, which I post as a tribute to the excellent developers of Fink. Of course, Fink is the only reason I even have time to a write letter like this (in LaTeX, of course)...

November 4, 2002

Apple
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
Dear Apple,

I am writing to commend to your attention the efforts of Fink (http://fink.sourceforge.net) in bringing open-source software to the Mac. I am an experienced Unix user and long time Mac addict. Fink and Mac OS X
are giving me the best computing experience of my life.

I work in a multi-platform environment, the norm in scientific research today. In this multi-platform context, Fink has become absolutely essential to my daily productivity. Though I use Word and Excel almost daily, I rely even more on tools like LaTeX, gnuplot, octave, ghostscript and nedit. I love Quartz applications, but need xfree86 to use my Mac when I'm sitting in front of another machine running Linux, IRIX, SunOS, or Windows. Only Fink allows me to install and update all of my essential open source tools in a trouble-free
manner.

I don't have time to mix and match tools from the distributions offered by XonX, OpenDarwin and a dozen other purveyors of open source software for the Mac; fortunately, Fink brings together practically
everything open source has to offer under one tent. Though I run Fink with the command line, there is a powerful Quartz GUI called Fink Commander that provides an alternative to the Fink command line
interface.

I tried my own hand at compiling a few open source packages (with modest success) before I learned about Fink. This was fun, but time consuming; at least I learned a few things about makefiles. Later, I discovered
that the Fink ports of the same packages are more full-featured, and sometimes have added features for the Mac (like support for AquaTerm in gnuplot). In fact, the fink versions tend to be more fully functional
than the same packages installed by competent sysadmins on other Unix platforms in my workplace. Fink's package management is rock-solid, and the developers are very accessible to users when problems arise. Their
documentation is good, their website well-organized. I can't say enough good about Fink.

I hope that Apple will join me in applauding Fink. I ask Apple to support the work of the Fink project.

Sincerely yours,
________________________________________________________________________
Charles Kankelborg AC7NY |
260C EPS Building | "...ignorance of providence is the ultimate
Physics Department | of all miseries; the highest blessedness
Montana State University | lies in the knowledge of it."
Bozeman, MT 59717 |
Phone: 406-994-7853 | --John Calvin, Institutes, I.xvii.11
FAX: 406-994-4452 |
http://icarus.physics.montana.edu/personal/



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