Re: Linux on the Mac

>From: cjs@netcom.com (cjs)
>To: olbon@dynetics.com (Clay Olbon II)
>Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
>Subject: Re: Linux on the Mac
>Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 07:26:42 -0800 (PST)
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>> In the latest PowerPC news it is reported that OSF is porting Linux
>> to the Mac with the support of Apple.  Apple has a web site -
>> www.mklinux.apple.com that discusses this and has a link to the OSF
>> site.  In my book, this is a GoodThing(tm).  Of course, being a huge
>> fan of both the Mac and unix might put me in the minority ;-)
>
>They aren't *really* porting Linux to powermac. They're throwing a
>little bit of paint on OSF/1 and hiding some stuff in libc.
>
>Looks to me like they are basicly trying to ca$h in on the Linux name
>and reputation without contributing anything to the cause.
>
>I personally think that Linux International (they still around?)
>should put out a counter press-release informing the public that the
>Apple/OSF Linux shares only the name.
>
>Christopher

*Sigh*

OSF ported Linux to our microkernel which is derived from Mach 3.0
from CMU. And we have ported our kernel and the Linux server to
PPC. Of course some of the functionality that is in Linux was replaced
with micro-kernel functionality. That was the point. The Linux server
implements the higher level OS functionality like the file system,
process management, networking, signals, etc. The paper presented at
the Conference on Freely Distributable Software describes some of the
technical details.

We have also ported OSF/1 to our microkernel. Both servers are layered
on top of the same microkernel. Perhaps you are confusing the
microkernel with the OSF/1 server?  Anyway, you don't have to worry
about getting any OSF/1 code. OSF/1 is licensed software. It is
illegal to distribute it freely.

Franklin Reynolds
Open Software Foundation    |   phone # 617-621-7321 
11 Cambridge Center	    |   fax # 617-621-8696
Cambridge, MA 02142         |   fdr@osf.org

> >> In the latest PowerPC news it is reported that OSF is porting Linux
> >> to the Mac with the support of Apple.  Apple has a web site -
> >> www.mklinux.apple.com that discusses this and has a link to the OSF
> >> site.  In my book, this is a GoodThing(tm).  Of course, being a huge
> >> fan of both the Mac and unix might put me in the minority ;-)
> >
> >They aren't *really* porting Linux to powermac. They're throwing a
> >little bit of paint on OSF/1 and hiding some stuff in libc.
> >
> >Looks to me like they are basicly trying to ca$h in on the Linux name
> >and reputation without contributing anything to the cause.
> *Sigh*
> 
> OSF ported Linux to our microkernel which is derived from Mach 3.0
> from CMU. And we have ported our kernel and the Linux server to

Mach != Linux. When people use use this thing, they will *not* be
using Linux in any way shape of form. The drivers and such that you
develop will be completely worthless to Linux proper without someone
spending months to port them, and advances in Linux such as the new
page cache or the upcoming revision of ext2fs may not show themselves
on your "linux" for an equal period of time.

This comes back to my belief that you folks are just trying to cash in
on Linux's name and reputation without contributing something directly
to the cause. Why didn;t you just call it it "OSF/1 for PowerMac" and
include an ext2fs server? Hindsight? Why don't you just port Linux
proper to PowerMac? 

(and how did this get on cypherpunks?)

Christopher