Peter> But is it [Linux binary support] desirable?
Good question! If you happen to have Linux as your base OS, then MOL
is very desirable, so why wouldn't the reverse be true for
_occasional_ users of programs developed for Linux? Well...probably
for the reason that Peter gives: you already have pretty good tools
for running Linux programs on Mac hardware, and there's lots of other
stuff more important.
One could argue that either Fink or Darwinports is more than
sufficient for occasional use...and mostly-Linux users can simply
install Linux on another partition or disk, and use MOL (MacOnLinux)
to access OSX. That entails some (modest) performance loss (for
example I don't think Quartz Extreme is available, though full AltiVec
support is), and new machine support (and perhaps driver support)
would probably lag. But these problems can be worked around by simply
booting your OSX partition when necessary.
-----
Do you (anybody) know of an OSX utility (carbon port or not!) that
(running on OS X) will split an OS X partition, including a boot
partition (not necessarily the current one), into two smaller ones
WITHOUT having to save the data, reformat the drive, and move the data
back????
-----
I don't quite agree with Peter about what are pressing needs in Darwin
and OSX. Here, in my personal priority order, are some that I think
are SERIOUS holes:
1. A simple way of backing up and restoring all partitions, including
a boot partition. One that doesn't require purchasing expensive
additional software (because it's something that any decent Unix
should provide).
Mike Bombich's excellent cloner (and psync) may have mooted
this, but any modern Unix-based system should come out of the box
with a clean way for the average user to protect his installed
system from hardware crashes and software corruption (without
buying Apple's expensive software distribution tool or server
version of the OS). Apple screwed up the use of standard Unix
tools to do this, when they 'moisturized' their Unix for the
Finder. So they should fix it. And GUI it.
Basics like that should be provided BEFORE adding to the
bewildering and overlapping collections of bell-&-whistle features
like (local and distributed) system configuration mechanisms and
registries (basic BSD, NIS, Netinfo, Rendezvous, ...), scripting
languages (BSD- and SV-haeritage shells, Perl, PHP, Python, blather
blather blather), network daemon (inetd, xinetd, ...) and rpc
mechanisms, protocol stacks (IPv4, IPv6, Appletalk, SMB, ...), and
so on.
2. (Peter listed this.) A partition editor that will do ALL of the
following, and do it so reliably, and with such a clearly laid-out
user interface, that people feel (and are) perfectly safe using it....:
A. add new partitions in previously-unused disk space
B. reformat one partition (absolutely non-destructive to other
partitions on a disk, their boot information, etc.)
C. reduce (or enlarge) the size of a partition, while retaining
all data on it.
Thus if I get a system with a single 120G partition, and 4G
in use, I should be able to split it into---let's say--- a
20G OSX partition and a couple of other 60G partitions
...WITHOUT having to copy data to some other medium and then
copy it back. (Users seem to be encouraged to buy systems
with one big disk, and don't have a "spare" disk or other
medium to use for such maintenance!) Then, once the
partitions are sized as desired:
D. split live (including OSX boot!!!!) partitions. This should
include a simple selection mechanies to specify that one
wishes to move specific subdirectory trees (Users, Users/Joe,
/Applications, /private/usr/local, etc.) to the 'new'
partition...putting Finder-acceptable aliases and Unix-acceptable
symlinks in place.
3. Much, much better device support...especially for AV devices that
didn't come bundled with the system: drivers in place to use the
same internal/external/ATAPI/SCSI/1394/USB2.1 devices that Windows
PCs can. Especially DVD/CD +-R+-RW, sound cards, and so on. I
should be able to visit the PC hardware aisles of the local CompUSA
and select PCIx, USB, and Firewire hardware with a 99% chance that
it'll work fine on Mac OSX. No more friggin' works-with-Apple-
branded-drives-only or works-with-internal-drives-only applications
(iDVD, Final Cut, ...). The frustration of this is likely to drive
me to a i86 or ia64 machine soon.
3A. Same for storage peripherals. No more patching the @#$%^$ disk
utility. It's nice if warn the user that a drive isn't in Apple's
list of approved and reliable ones, but LET ME GO AHEAD anyways.
If the thing is SCSI or ATA, and identifies itself as...let's say...
160M ultra scsi-3 capable, then it'll most likely work fine without
Apple's imprimantur!
4. (Peter listed this.) Good tape support, for most common tape formats
and drives.
5. (Peter listed this.) Multiple swaps, across multiple drives.
Peter> Before doing this, I'd like to get a UFS-HFS+ compatibility
Peter> that exposed finder info as macbinary forks and transparently
Peter> stored them on non-HFS partitions.
6. I'd like a precise specific-filesystem-independent description of
the filesystem interfaces (and thus features) required by (the
current major version of) OSX, and a developers' description of how
to install a new filesystem type. That might open the way for a
good crop of third party high-performance logged/journaled/
disaster-tolerant/RAID0-to-5-capable filesystems. Those on Linux
and those that might be marketed by Veritas, IBM, HP, etc. etc.
UFS by itself isn't terribly interesting; it isn't topnotch
for data reliablity, although in exchange it performs rather better
than HFS+ in most cases.
Also: (Peter listed this.) System call performance is a good thing
to work on. The commercial Unices that I know (HP-UX, DEC/Compaq/HP
Tru64 Unix, etc.) go to great lengths to do this.
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