Intel Macs and FreeBSD?

[Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC]

On Apr 27, 2006, at 2:52 PM, Bill Moran wrote:

> On Thu, 27 Apr 2006 15:47:37 -0500
> James Riendeau <jtriende at wisc.edu> wrote:
>
>> Why?  Mac OS X has a complete unix freebsd-like core called darwin
>> ( http://www.darwin.org ).  There's no reason to install freebsd on
>> it.  Just install Mac Developer Tools (included in the Applications
>> folder), compile your favorite progs and go.
>
> Have you actually tried this?  Installing ports from FreeBSD is about
> 50x easier than getting software compiled/installed on a Mac.  I've
> been working with the Macs here at the office for a few weeks, and  
> I've
> come to realize just how wonderfully well-maintained FreeBSD's ports
> are!
>
> I'd take FreeBSD over MacOS any day.  Perhaps it will get better over
> time, but I'm not impressed with it right now.

Depends what you are trying to do but there are two "ports" systems  
for Mac OS X which make it about (they say) as easy as the FreeBSD  
ports system.   One is called "fink" and the other something like  
"darwin-ports".  Also, many popular packages now exist in precompiled  
app form or with installer packages.

I use FreeBSD on my servers, except for one Mac based server, and  
prefer it for my servers.  However, for a home based server, I would  
probably leave the Mac OS X on there.   There are all sorts of media  
advantages and you can easily get the home-server type stuff running  
and it is supported.  In fact, my home-based office also runs off a  
different Mac OS X server with Mac OS X (and a windows box or two)  
clients.

Chad

---
Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC
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chad at shire.net