[mactropolis]

Hi,
With the final release of Mac OS X 10.4.4 officially for Intel, I was curious what Apple would do with the open-source foundation of the operating system, named Darwin. On the official Darwin website, it does recognize release 10.4.4 and has the equivalent Darwin 8.4, but for PowerPC only! Where is the Darwin 8.4 for Intel? Is Mac OS X 10.4.4 for Intel somehow 'less' open-source than its PowerPC brethren? A possible theory is that Apple is withholding or delaying the release of Darwin 8.4 for Intel as this was use the get the previous DTK OS X to run on PC's (by bootstrapping the full OS X onto the freely available Darwin x86 installer). But Apple can no longer claim OS X has an open-source foundation yet refuses to make available Darwin 8.4 for Intel. Myself and other software developers need this low-level access to OS X's guts to create Intel native kernel extensions and software drivers to be ready for shipping Intel Macs.

Any idea if/when we'll see Darwin 8.4 for Intel released on ADC?

[CharlesS]

Darwin has been available for x86 for a long time. I'm sure it will continue to be available in the future. Especially since the whole OS is going to x86 now, they'll make the source available so that people can work on the kernel as they always have.

[mactropolis]

Good to hear that Darwin for Intel likely wont quietly dissappear in the midnight breeze.....

But any idea when Darwin 8.4 for Intel might see the light of day? The Intel Mac's are allready shipping....

[TETENAL]

Originally Posted by mactropolis

Myself and other software developers need this low-level access to OS X's guts to create Intel native kernel extensions and software drivers to be ready for shipping Intel Macs.

Any idea if/when we'll see Darwin 8.4 for Intel released on ADC?

Ask Apple. They know; we don't.

[Detrius]

Originally Posted by mactropolis

Hi,
With the final release of Mac OS X 10.4.4 officially for Intel, I was curious what Apple would do with the open-source foundation of the operating system, named Darwin. On the official Darwin website, it does recognize release 10.4.4 and has the equivalent Darwin 8.4, but for PowerPC only! Where is the Darwin 8.4 for Intel? Is Mac OS X 10.4.4 for Intel somehow 'less' open-source than its PowerPC brethren? A possible theory is that Apple is withholding or delaying the release of Darwin 8.4 for Intel as this was use the get the previous DTK OS X to run on PC's (by bootstrapping the full OS X onto the freely available Darwin x86 installer). But Apple can no longer claim OS X has an open-source foundation yet refuses to make available Darwin 8.4 for Intel. Myself and other software developers need this low-level access to OS X's guts to create Intel native kernel extensions and software drivers to be ready for shipping Intel Macs.

Any idea if/when we'll see Darwin 8.4 for Intel released on ADC?

You are missing the point of "Open Source." The open source stuff is posted on the website you linked to. Technically, they are under no obligation whatsoever to inform people how to boot their Intel-based Macs. Releasing the source code for their Intel bootloader would give people information on how to load other operating systems (*Windows* cough* cough*), and they very well may be pushing that back as long as possible.

On the other hand, I think it usually takes them a while to post new stuff on there. I wouldn't be surprised if they are hand-pruning the x86 version of Darwin to make sure they don't release any information that will help people get OS X running on other x86 based machines.

There's all kinds of reasons I can think of for why the code hasn't been posted yet, and some are more nefarious than others. Don't jump to conclusions just because something hasn't happened yet.