Intel Macs, FreeBSD, and drivers

[Andrew Pantyukhin]

On 4/28/06, Gayn Winters <gayn.winters at bristolsystems.com> wrote:
> The consensus of the group is that FreeBSD should run fine on an Intel
> Mac.  I'm interested in the time lag between the availability of drivers
> on an Intel Mac and on FreeBSD.
>
> Question1:  If there is a driver for a device that works on an Intel Mac
> (under OS X), will that driver work under FreeBSD?  For example, suppose
> a very new Intel Mac has a new disk controller, is there some process by
> which we can get its driver into FreeBSD?  E.g. via a download from
> either Apple or the chip set vendor?

Nope, the kernels are not that similar. Porting might be
a short way in many cases, but we don't live in a world
where all drivers/specs are open.

> Question2:  Can we expect the volume of Intel Macs to improve (shorten)
> the time delay between the existence of new hardware and the
> availability of supporting drivers on FreeBSD?

FreeBSD usually target popular hardware. So, basically,
yes - the more Macs, the better support.