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Not really. For one thing, the default version of git would quickly become outdated, and could potentially cause confusion with a user-installed version. What
by neilc 18y ago
Not really. For one thing, the default version of git would quickly become outdated, and could potentially cause confusion with a user-installed version.
What Apple should really do is build a proper package management system. IMHO, that is a fundamental part of a modern operating system, especially one designed for use with F/OSS software.
- Zev 18y agoIt is possible to update the $PATH to grab from /usr/local/bin/* (user stuff land) before /usr/bin/* (system stuff land). If you're comfortable using command line to manage code, editing the ~/.bashrc shouldn't be too difficult to manage.
- neilc 18y agoYeah, obviously. But the point is that if the presupplied git quickly becomes out of date, what's the point in Apple shipping it and it taking up disk space? The Apple-supplied versions of other OSS packages (e.g. Ruby) don't exactly set a good precedent.
- Zev 18y agoHow often is there a new feature and not just a bugfix in git? Honest question as I don't use git. And does git really use up that much space to be an issue? I imagine the problem is just conflicting binaries/libraries which can be fixed pretty easily in .bashrc...
- lallysingh 18y agoThe engineering effort required is too far outside their business focus. They've got a very basic one, but nothing in terms of what modern Linuxers are used to. They've blessed macports as their preferred one, which does a reasonable job. As far as I've seen, apple will include the latest stable version of a tool per major upgrade (e.g. tiger, leopard, etc.). They'll keep it the same version until the next major one, without touching point releases. In terms of the principle of least surprises, it's actually the way I'd prefer. The other post's advice for .bashrc is very good, it's what I do.
- neilc 18y agoThe engineering effort required is too far outside their business focus. Then they should stop claiming that OSX is suitable for use as a server OS.
- lallysingh 18y agoMuahahaha, that's just an inside joke :-) Seriously, apple only cares enough about servers/etc to have a complete solution for their other markets, such as small business & education.
- JulianMorrison 18y agoWhy not just adopt .deb and apt?
- lallysingh 18y agoSame response to macports below: Not-Invented-Here syndrome. I suspect they've got the same problem others do: a case of NIH, without the resources to invent it themselves. Ugh.
- Zev 18y agoFWIW, macports is linked to from http://macosforge.org/ http://macosforge.org/ - which is open source stuff hosted by Apple and worked on by Apple engineers for the most part.
- davidw 18y agoApple actually had one of the old-time Debian guys, Klee Dienes, for a number of years, starting way back in 1997. I guess he wasn't successful in convincing them to do things properly.
- aaronblohowiak 18y agoThey should strip out their custom builds and have macports pre-installed.