[TriLUG] Bought my first Laptop--a new Apple Powerbook with OSX--With Linux software in mind I have three questions:

[al johson]

Another great response to my three questions.
>I doubt you would buy a Mac to run something you could run on cheap
> PC hardware.  That said, I tend to run NetBSD on old Mac hardware.  Not
> really for the newbie, though

The main reason I decided to go with a mac laptop was that if I were to get
the features I wanted (esp. an S-video connector on the back of the
laptop---so I can easily surf the web on my 36" Sony Wega) , virtually all
of the laptops were about the same price ($2000+). Second, if you get a Mac
you can run virtually any OS you desire: Mac, Windows (there is an excellent
emulator), Linux, and finally BSD (which you already have), etc. Finally, I
enjoy doing a lot of sound and graphics work, and as you know the Mac excels
in these areas as well. I may curse it a year from now, but I haven't seen
anything yet that I disliked. But then I really haven't had it longer than a
few days.---Al Johnson
=====================
----- Original Message -----
From: John Franklin <franklin at elfie.org>
To: <trilug at trilug.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2002 11:55 AM
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Bought my first Laptop--a new Apple Powerbook with
OSX--With Linux software in mind I have three questions:


> On Mon, Jun 03, 2002 at 01:46:46AM -0400, al johson wrote:
> > I just bought myself a new Mac Titanium Powerbook 667MHZ G4. I'm curious
> > whether Linux software can be transferred from Linux to Apple's OSX
system
> > (which as you may recall is a version of BSD).
> >
> > 1. Specifically, are there any cross compilers which can take Linux
source
> > code and turn it into programs that will run on Apple's OSX system??
>
> As I'm sure you've noted the cc that ships on the development tools disk
is
> based on 2.95.2.  It has some additional flags, in particular
the -framework
> flag, to deal with the OS Xisms.  (Frameworks are like shared libraries
but
> with headers, localization strings, and versioning all wrapped up in a
neat
> package.)
>
> That said, some of the apps you're looking for may be recompiled already.
> Check out http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx and do a search for a
couple
> of them.  While you're there do a search for XDarwin and OroborOSX.  The
> former is XFree for OSX, the latter is a window manager that looks like
> Aqua.
>
> > Incidentally, I've discovered that O'Reilly's new OSX book (in the
missing
> > manual series) has a super intro to using the Terminal in OSX for
beginners.
>
> Yes, it is a fantastic book series.  When my father went up to OS X, I got
him
> a copy of the OSX Missing Manual book.
>
> > I'm told many people consider it better than other attempts to do this
for
> > LINUX, which raises a second question:
> >
> > 2. How portable are Terminal "programs" or "scripts"  between Linux and
> > OSX??? For example, how many similarities are there between the commands
in
> > OSX and Linux??
>
> The binaries are not, but most of the tools will build (sometimes with
some
> tweaks to the Makefiles or code.)
>
> > Finally, I have one last question:
> >
> > 3. If I wanted to put a version of LINUX on this laptop, which version
would
> > everyone recommend???
>
> Darwin.  I doubt you would buy a Mac to run something you could run on
cheap
> PC hardware.  That said, I tend to run NetBSD on old Mac hardware.  Not
> really for the newbie, though.
>
> jf
> --
> John Franklin
> franklin at elfie.org
> ICBM: 35°43'56"N 78°53'27"W
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