[Partisan01]

Hi,

I received a iBook as a Christmas present, so my previous mac (B&W 350 768 ram 88gb hd) will no longer be my main machine. Currently I run 10.2 and OpenBSD on there, but I've been considering formatting and installing Darwin. I have a few questions hopefully someone out there can answer.

FYI - I don't plan on using any gui at all, if vanilla x is installed that's fine with me. I am very comfortable with unix (bsd, solaris, linux). I plan on using the machine as a file server, database/app server (postgresql-python/php)

1. What is the advantage of Darwin over an OpenBSD or Linux on the machine besides hardware support? I am very satisfied with the performance of 10.2 so I would imagine that Darwin would run much the same or faster.

2. How is the documentation? Outside of man pages will I be able to find anything online?

3. Software compilation..Do most basic things compile on darwin without extensive modification. I don't want to spend weeks of my time to get a functional machine.

4. Learning curve. Will I have trouble setting up the machine from the command line? I use the terminal some in OS X, but nothing extensive. I'm very familiar with Solaris and the BSDs, what type of jump will I be taking?

5. Security. How hard is it to lock down a darwin machine? Does it come like Solaris 9 out of the box with millions of services running that need to be handled one at a time?

Thanks, hopefully someone will have some answers.

Nate

[MacGorilla]

If you are going to use it as a file/database app server, Linux or The BSD would serve you far, far better mostly because they are easier to configure than a plain Darwin. http://www.yellowdoglinux.com has excellent mac hardware support.

That said, here are some answers to your Darwin questions:

1. See above. Darwin runs faster than Mac OS X simply because there is less for it to do (No aqua, etc)

2. Documentation is sparse. http://www.opendarwin.org is your best online resource, as is #opendarwin on the Freenode IRC; a lot of darwin developers hang out there.

3. Compilation is the same as in Mac OS X. Darwinports on Opendarwin.org has a good package management system for Darwin.

4. Darwin is in some ways, a non standard Unix. Its not like Solaris or Linux in the way it does things and most tasks are poorly documented and non trivial. If you have a lot of experience with Unix you might have better luck than me. The first time I used Solaris, I jumped right in. Darwin left me scratching my head.

5. Darwin comes fairly well locked down but your needs may vary.

Hope this helps.

[Angus_D]

I direct you to The OpenDarwin FAQ.

[Partisan01]

Originally posted by Angus_D:
I direct you to The OpenDarwin FAQ.

Thanks, I guess I'll stick with OpenBSD on the machine. There's a bug in OpenBSD 3.6 that gives me a kernel dump on my adaptec 2930uw scsi card, and I was hoping Darwin would be mature enough that I could use it with full support of all my hardware.

I might still toss it on a drive just to see what it's like, but don't plan on using it for anything at this point. Thanks for the advice.

ndt

[Partisan01]

Originally posted by MacGorilla:
If you are going to use it as a file/database app server, Linux or The BSD would serve you far, far better mostly because they are easier to configure than a plain Darwin. http://www.yellowdoglinux.com has excellent mac hardware support.

That said, here are some answers to your Darwin questions:

1. See above. Darwin runs faster than Mac OS X simply because there is less for it to do (No aqua, etc)

2. Documentation is sparse. http://www.opendarwin.org is your best online resource, as is #opendarwin on the Freenode IRC; a lot of darwin developers hang out there.

3. Compilation is the same as in Mac OS X. Darwinports on Opendarwin.org has a good package management system for Darwin.

4. Darwin is in some ways, a non standard Unix. Its not like Solaris or Linux in the way it does things and most tasks are poorly documented and non trivial. If you have a lot of experience with Unix you might have better luck than me. The first time I used Solaris, I jumped right in. Darwin left me scratching my head.

5. Darwin comes fairly well locked down but your needs may vary.

Hope this helps.

Well I took the dive and installed OpenDarwin on my B&W 350 machine. So far I've found it pretty easy to use, I had a webserver up and running within 10min of the install finishing. I guess the next step is to see if I can jam a DB and php or python on there, if so I'll have had success.