BSDToday lists BSD packages ported to Darwin...

i can't hardly contain myself with the thought of the freebsd ports collection coming to os x. <drool!>
 
Not being a BSD guy I have potentially a silly question :)

Is this a BSD port to run, or simply a collection of BSD utils? (I couldn't find a list of what was contained in this package).

Thanks,
Mike
 
Originally posted by Zim
Not being a BSD guy I have potentially a silly question :)

Is this a BSD port to run, or simply a collection of BSD utils? (I couldn't find a list of what was contained in this package).

Thanks,
Mike
Click to expand...

Oversimplifying things quite a bit, the BSD ports system provides a directory-tree
of already-ported software. Once you've set up the ports system, you just cd
to the named package in the ports tree , type bsdmake and (hopefully) your machine
goes out, FTPs the source code for the package, examines it for any library
dependencies (and installs those libs if possible), and builds the package for you.
It makes something like RPM look like the hack it really is.

As more packages get tweaked for Darwin, this will mean that thousands of
timetested BSD apps will be only keystrokes away.
 
Thanks! Sorta like cpan for perl then?

Ok, can someone give a quick list of these BSD apps? (ie. what I am missing by not doing this, what will I gain by it?)

Are these BSD specific apps, or just an efficient way of installing apps that have already been ported to BSD?

ie. I haven't checked (it may already be there), but I plan to install procmail and elm. I'm having trouble with elm not finding C libs (then again, maybe I need to make a link to Libraries from /lib). If I install this BSD ports pkg, could I then more easily just grab a BSD port of elm and it would install, vs. grabbing it myself, running Configure, and then make?

Again, maybe this is like trying to describe the smell of an orange to someone that has never smelled one :) (ie. can't be done). Just trying to get a feel for what this is. Sounds potentially useful.

Cheers,
Mike
 
So does anyone know if GIMP has been ported yet? I can hear Adobe's screams from here...
 
Gimp was ported but it requires you to have an xwindow server like xfree86 or tenon's product.
 
So.... how does one go about running xserver from within OSX? And what is tenon?

These questions are hypothetical as I haven't bought my cube yet......

But I want to start learning and know about my options
 
Actually I hear Adobe laughing out loud.

GIMP has got to have the worst interface of any app I have ever used. I have four mouse buttons, but I prefer to set how to use them myself.
 
Speaking as someone who has used both the Gimp and Photoshop (since version 2.0) the gimp is NOT a replacment for Photoshop, it's a "Get by until the OS-X version of Photoshop is released" program.

For those of you who are Gimp Evangelistas I apologize, but the interface sucks and it doesn't have 1/2 of the features or maturity Photoshop offers.
 
Consider the major difference...

GIMP.... free

Photoshop>>>> $600

hmmmm ..... Unless you do graphics for a living I think it makes sense
 
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