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Date:      Thu, 9 Jun 2005 07:27:48 -0700
From:      John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>
To:        Stephen Hurd <shurd@sasktel.net>
Cc:        Erich Dollansky <oceanare@pacific.net.sg>, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: apple moving to x86
Message-ID:  <732767b54cd8713b8b06e44ebfc9f791@FreeBSD.org>
In-Reply-To: <42A7D3DB.9080300@sasktel.net>
References:  <20050608212440.EDE1520F01@krell.webweaver.net> <42A7AAA6.7070608@pacific.net.sg> <42A7D3DB.9080300@sasktel.net>

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On Jun 8, 2005, at 10:30 PM, Stephen Hurd wrote:

>
>> As there is FreeBSD port to the PowerPC and its peripherals, this 
>> machine will make a very interesting target for FreeBSD: combine the 
>> x86 code base with the PowerPC drivers and get a real hot machine.
>
> The *really* hot machine is going to be the OSX ABI supported under 
> FreeBSD and running Aqua.  I betcha this happens FAST.

I doubt it would be fast at all if it even happens.  Unlike Linux, 
svr4, and ibcs2, OS X is not just a POSIXish UNIX kernel.  It also 
includes mach so there would have to be a lot of emulation to support 
that.  OS X also tends to define its interface not at the kernel 
syscall level but at the library API level (from what I have heard), 
which means that it might require having custom versions of the base 
system frameworks ala Wine which would be an enormous amount of work.

-- 
John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>  <><  http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/
"Power Users Use the Power to Serve"  =  http://www.FreeBSD.org





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