3 ms·
I mean technically OS X is an open source OS with a closed-sourced windowing system built on top of it. I hate myself for posting this comment.
by benihana 13y ago
I mean technically OS X is an open source OS with a closed-sourced windowing system built on top of it.
I hate myself for posting this comment.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- zimbatm 13y ago_Your dark troll side has spoken_. I'm not even sure that that's technically correct, it's probably not possible to get the same kernel by compiling Darwin. I would be surprised if Apple kept pushing new feature into the open source kernel.
- pmjordan 13y agoThey do keep adding stuff to the open source portion, but you're right that there's plenty of closed source code running on a stock OS X kernel. This is loaded in as kexts, so the mach_kernel binary itself is open and reproducible. Drivers for anything vaguely recent are all closed, as are any security related things (crypto, firewall, sandbox, quarantine, etc.) and a few other odds and ends. Recompiling the kernel is entirely doable [1] (and occasionally useful for kext development), though running a kernel with literally no proprietary code will be quite a lot of effort. (and various important bits of OSX userspace will cease functioning) [1] I've personally had success with the instructions at http://shantonu.blogspot.com/ http://shantonu.blogspot.com/ - not that Apple has accepted any of my patches...
- ebarock 13y agoNah! You don't need to hate your self, OS X is good and that's it! hehe