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Homebrew and Macports maintainers could have easily reached out to Apple and gotten free DTKs to port with, just like thousands of other developers. But the tr

Homebrew and Macports maintainers could have easily reached out to Apple and gotten free DTKs to port with, just like thousands of other developers. But the truth is that XCode built software is far more important to Mac users and that’s where Apples focus was. Homebrew users are less than 1% of their installed base. The other truth is the M1 hadn’t been important to Homebrew maintainers. At least not yet.

Wowfunhappy 6y ago
On the MacPorts side, I know that at least Saagar Jha (who posts on HN often) did indeed have a DTK. Perhaps consequently (?), MacPorts does support ARM right now.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  I have very little to do with MacPorts's ARM support, I'm not even a maintainer ;) Most of that infrastructure was already there from the PowerPC→Intel transition, and Apple engineers had patches for basic support ready fairly quickly. I worked a little bit on early support for some heavily-depended-on packages, but I wasn't really directly involved in the effort.
  - Wowfunhappy 6y ago
    Whooops! I only mentioned you because I remembered you were listed on MacPorts's website until recently, as a contact for "Apple DTK issues" or something like that.
    - saagarjha 6y ago
      Ah, I remember adding myself to that page because I was trying to see if there was anyone else with one to help. The actual team is here: https://trac.macports.org/wiki/MacPortsDevelopers https://trac.macports.org/wiki/MacPortsDevelopers
ricketycricket 6y ago
DTKs were $500 USD, not free.
- armadsen 6y ago
  I think he's suggesting that Apple would have donated them to Homebrew and MacPorts if they had asked. Seems extremely doubtful to me...
  - callahad 6y ago
    Apple offered free remote access to DTKs for open source developers, in cooperation with MacStadium. Cite: https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/3853#issuecomment-678249700 https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/3853#issuecomment-678249...
  - coldtea 6y ago
    What's "doubtful"? Apple has done similar things in the past...
  - mikemcquaid 6y ago
    Apple did donate them to Homebrew without us asking. When we asked for more: they donated more.

Wowfunhappy 6y ago

On the MacPorts side, I know that at least Saagar Jha (who posts on HN often) did indeed have a DTK. Perhaps consequently (?), MacPorts does support ARM right now.

saagarjha 6y ago
I have very little to do with MacPorts's ARM support, I'm not even a maintainer ;) Most of that infrastructure was already there from the PowerPC→Intel transition, and Apple engineers had patches for basic support ready fairly quickly. I worked a little bit on early support for some heavily-depended-on packages, but I wasn't really directly involved in the effort.
- Wowfunhappy 6y ago
  Whooops! I only mentioned you because I remembered you were listed on MacPorts's website until recently, as a contact for "Apple DTK issues" or something like that.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    Ah, I remember adding myself to that page because I was trying to see if there was anyone else with one to help. The actual team is here: https://trac.macports.org/wiki/MacPortsDevelopers https://trac.macports.org/wiki/MacPortsDevelopers

ricketycricket 6y ago

DTKs were $500 USD, not free.

armadsen 6y ago
I think he's suggesting that Apple would have donated them to Homebrew and MacPorts if they had asked. Seems extremely doubtful to me...
- callahad 6y ago
  Apple offered free remote access to DTKs for open source developers, in cooperation with MacStadium. Cite: https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/3853#issuecomment-678249700 https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/3853#issuecomment-678249...
- coldtea 6y ago
  What's "doubtful"? Apple has done similar things in the past...
- mikemcquaid 6y ago
  Apple did donate them to Homebrew without us asking. When we asked for more: they donated more.