Mneme writes "Looks like Apple finally has the open source core of MacOS X up and running on Intel boxen. We'll have to wait until the WWDC is over before we'll get our hands on it, but it's still a very pleasing development. Check out a story about the demonstration, or click below to read the message from the Darwin Developer's list.

Otter asks: "I've been dabbling in C++ programming with Linux and Qt. I'm interested in trying Darwin or MacOS X development but am not sure where to start. Mac programming books only deal with traditional MacOS. I could use CodeWarrior and Carbon, but if I'm going to start out, I might as well use the NeXT/Cocoa methods that are the way of the future and, I've heard, a lot better. So, how do I get started? Apple's Web site is still oriented towards the traditional API's and the move to Carbon. Are there any books that would give me a good introduction? Any tutorials? Can I continue with C++ or do I need to learn Objective C or Java? Does Code Warrior support Cocoa development (in the IDE and/or in the documentation)? "

Mad Browser writes:"MacNN is reporting that Apple has delayed MacOS X again until January 2001. They are also reporting that a public beta of OS X will be available this summer. Jobs also said that WebObjects deployment licenses would go from $50,000 to $700. " QuickTime 5 is also tentatively going to be out this summer, as well.

Maktoo writes: "Well, this has been a favorite rumour in the Mac world for quite some time, but with the approach of WWDC (next Monday) things are starting to heat up. MacOSRumors, AppleInsider, and Go2Mac are all predicting MP G4s soon ... with Go2Mac actually claiming that CompUSA has SKUs for the systems. The keynote on Monday should be interesting. I don't see why Apple would release MP machines before MacOS X ... but we might get a demo at least. I'm excited enough that I'll be getting a copy of MacOS X Beta when I walk in the door ... but an MP G4 would be nice too."

Graymalkin writes: "Apple has finally released iMovie (the really easy video editor) for the non-iMac DV customers; the best part is that it's free. You can get it over at iMovie's Web site. I've used demos of this package and compared to professional packages like Premiere it really packs a punch. You need OS 9 and at least 64 megs of RAM (unless you want to do Web quality video, then 64 is fine). It's nice to see Apple responding to their customers (like myself) who wanted iMovie but didn't want to go out and buy an iMac to get it. fnord. "

Mr. Groove writes: "Hey foo, think your PIII is killer? Imagine running Photoshop on one of these!" Frugal or insane -- only you can decide.

Cybersonic writes: "Cnet has an interesting story where they are thinking about going after yet another company making a translucent PC. " It's a company from Australia that makes something called "FishPC". It's not a standalone machine like the iMac is, which the company pointed out when interviewed.Update: 04/24 03:54 by H :I've been told that the case is actually AMD's EasyNow! design - thanks to Chris Tom for the head's-up. Wonder why they aren't suing AMD?

Several folks, all anonymous, have been asking about Darwin and Linux drivers, so I figure I should send this out before I'm drowned by more requests: "A discussion has been going on recently on the Darwin Developers mailing list about porting Linux drivers to use the DriverKit on Darwin, due to the wide number of Linux hardware drivers currently available. The problem is that many Linux drivers are under the GPL. My reading of the GPL, especially section 2, is that since the Darwin kernel and the drivers are under separate, incompatible licenses, that they may not be distributed together unless the complete work (the kernel) is licensed under the GPL. Could someone clarify if this is correct, what the options are, and if this applies to distributing a GPL'd dynamically loadable kernel module for the APSL'd kernel (which I read the GPL to say is OK)? "

PirateBek asks: "As Apple OS X is based on the Mach3 BSD kernel, does anyone know if it can natively (or be compiled to include) support Samba services? Nothing seems to be listed on the Apple site." If not, does anyone know if the Samba Team is planning any support?

Quite a number of folks have written in with announcement from Apple saying that Darwin 1.0 is released. It's got the BSD core that's been discussed before, along with Mach 3.0 - and here's to hoping that Apple will open up all OSX, at least in some fashion or another.

newt asks a question that I'm sure a lot of you have been wondering about: "We've just seen news that Apple has Open-Sourced Darwin, which no doubt fills enthusiasts with a warm fuzzy feeling about the future of Open Source and the way that Apple has embraced it. However, there's a piece missing from the picture: QuickTime. How often have you visited a Web page only to find that all the streaming media on it is QuickTime, and you can't view it without the Sorenson CODEC?" There was once a time when Quicktime as well as MPEG were cross platform, now we only have MPEG without the advantages of the advances made in the newer CODECs. Now that Apple has embraced Open Source, could Quicktime be on its way?

The AC crowd were the first to write in with the news. From Wilfredo Sanchez's diary at Advogato, "Today another big milestone has come up. I imported the sources to the kernel into the Darwin CVS repository today, which means that at this point all of the sources needed to build Darwin are available externally for the first time." For those not in the know, Darwin is the foundation on which MacOS X is based. It's a BSD Unix, including significant contributions from the NetBSD and FreeBSD kernel and userland code.

BluesHarp writes, "Apple's lead Darwin engineer Wilfredo Sanchez announced that he successfully built and has made available all of Darwin 1.0 for both PowerPC and Intel. Does this mean that OS X for Intel would be just a recompile away?"

Andrew van der Stock writes "Check out this link and see a rack-mounted iMac. Very Cool." Shades of the 21" Frankenstein iMac covered a few months ago here on Slashdot. This is a cool hardware hack of the "gotta get it done" variety. Talk about faith in a platform! But what is he doing with all the old iMonitors? Perhaps ESR and friends could use some interesting targets ...

Zippy writes, "According to a message posted to the Darwin-Development mailing list, Apple plans to assign the copyright for its changes to gcc to the Free Software Foundation. Sounds like there are a growing number of folks at the company that get it. Now if they'd just open the hardware ... "

dublin passed along this CNET article reporting that Apple Computer has settled its cases against both Daewoo and Emachines, filed in response to those companies' release of iMac look-alike PCs. Read below for more.

The Liquid Plumber asks: "I was wondering if anyone had any luck porting (or any information on porting) Apple's open source "Darwin OS" to Intel platforms? I have glanced at the code, and there is a little architecture-specific code that I'm really not familiar with. If anyone has any information on this, I'd love to have it. Thanks. "

Gr1nderX writes, "Ars just posted a large Mac OS X DP3 technical article that talks about the structure and functioning of OS X's (UNIX) filesystem, and how that impacts the Aqua GUI. IMHO, the most fascinating part of the article concerns the extensive use of XML that Apple makes in managing application resources, file meta-information, service configuration and startup options, etc. The XML parser that's built into the core OS basically gives you the ability to use either the GUI or a text editor to completely control and configure every aspect of the OS. " Lot of good stuff in this one: if only powerbooks weren't so expensive...

Hawks writes, "For you NetBSD junkies out there who don't like Darwin, according to the Changes to NetBSD/macpps 1.5 page, NetBSD now boots on the PowerMac G4's and iMacDV's. I would assume that means it should boot on the iBook and possibly the new Pismo PowerBooks. Hummm, 400Mhz laptop running *BSD...droolllll

Rourke McNamara writes, "Some screenshots and my reactions after using Mac OS X DP3 for a few hours. " Several interesting things: like seeing tcsh running top on MacOS. It's chock full of BSD goodness, but with that pretty interface on top. It'll definitely be interesting to see where this one heads.