[MUD-Dev] Open Source Environments / MacOS X

[Chris Jacobson]

On 3/16/00 7:23 PM, scott guzman (shade2x at home.com) stated:

>doh. My news is outdated, heh :-p. Well, if nextstep is the new one it's
>going to be, I'm guessing that BSD never became a factor; or have you
>heard otherwise? Anyway, I think that NeXTStep, like NT, also took a lot
>of Unix concepts over to its platform, don't you think?
>
>Oh, and could you tell me more about this "Federation of Independent
>Wizards" that you belong to? You seem to know your stuff :-).

Ok, being the resident Mac-head here (developing LexiMUD from MacOS, 
targetted at POSIX-compliant systems, and MacOS using a POSIX layer 
library called GUSI2), I'll clear up these issues:

Apple was founded by Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs eventually left Apple and founded NeXT (And later Pixar).
In 1998 (or 97 was it?) Apple bought NeXT, and Steve Jobs became the 
interim CEO of Apple, later to become the full CEO (and receiving a 
salary of only $1.)

This merger was part of the key plans for Rhapsody, the NeXT-MacOS 
hybrid.  Later, as technology changed focus (moving away from Java), and 
other changes in the industry climate, the focus became MacOS X.  
Rhapsody as it was became MacOS X Server, a veyr NeXT-ish system (and 
available=A0now, with WebObjects).  MacOS X Client, the more user-centric 
system, is still in the wings, undergoing development and more 
Mac-ization.

MacOS X Client (and I believe Server, after Client's release) has a Mach 
/ FreeBSD - hybrid core called Darwin, which is open source.  Tho the 
current release of Darwin is NOT up to date, the plans are to keep the 
public release up to date once OS X Client ships.

Above the Mach 3 / FreeBSD core will be the Carbon and Quartz layer.  
Carbon is the new API, already available to MacOS 8.6 and 9 in a smaller, 
still in-development form.  Quartz is the new vector-based GUI system 
(imagine PhotoShop meets Illustrator meets MacOS).

OS X DR3 shipped to developers in the last couple months.  The full 
release is expected Spring of this year - and Apple is, for once, on 
schedule (and possibly a little ahead, from the reports from the DR3 
front).

- Chris Jacobson



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