CNN has an article originally from Macworld on the possibility that OS X will be ported to Intel-type hardware. There is much mention of Wilfredo Sanchez and his recent port of Darwin to Intel compatible hardware, and the economic state of Apple and how that may shape the decision to run with this idea. Most of it is speculation, but definitely interesting if it comes to pass, seeing as not much would be needed in the porting effort from where they are already.

OSDNs favorite BSD zealot BSD-Pat Lynch was on the scene at the latest BSDCon, and took the time to send us in a report. Lots of links to stuff for you BSD folks to share and enjoy.

scout.finch writes: "John Siracusa has just written a review of the new Mac OS X Public Beta over on Ars Technica. His thorough and unflinching reviews of previous developer releases have been the most accurate source of information on Mac OS X thus far, and this installation is no exception."

Vizer writes: "Apple is shipping CDs with the development tools for MacOS X to its developers. Not only that, but the tools will be downloadable in mid-October. Details are on the Apple Developer Connection site. This jives well with what we've been told in the past by Apple, about how MacOS X will eventually ship as two CDs, one of which is just the basic user installation and the other CD full of developer tools.

And yes, developing for MacOS X is very familiar to anyone who has done some BSD programming, except that the paths are all different and HFS+ volumes are case-insensitive. Having the terminal window with access to various unix utilities is great, and nearly all of my un-ported apps run in the compatability environment without complaint. No OS crashes, no problems other than finding out where Apple hid all the preferences and utilities.

No, I don't want to go back."

zephc writes: "Apple has announced its iBooks, now with more RAM and DVD drive options, and (sweetness) Firewire (among other things)." Looks like it's at least three new models - and in other Mac Expo news, as promised OSX has been released in beta. Of course, it's a beta that costs $29.95 in the Apple Store, but whatever. MacNN has some coverage as well, as well as photos from the floor -- including the infamous flooding incident.

Ruddy writes: "ZDNet has screenshots and a preview of Mac OSX beta being released Wednesday at the Apple Expo in Paris, as well as a list of some apps and utils that will ship on the beta CD (apparently no download). Some of the leaking details are a very NeXt-ish file browser, No Airport support yet, only partial USB and only partial Firewire; Full Java 2, Full OpenGL, Full SMP; Choice of Aqua or Graphite eye candies; New Dock choices; installing on G3 & G4s only--requiring the OEM video cards (no Voodoos or 3DFX) and single monitor systems only; installs alongside OS9 with no major speed hits for Classic apps. The screenshots look fab and it all sounds pretty heady except for the connectivity shortage, but will it look and feel? And will it plug and ...play? Highlights from the rollout will be webcast here starting Wednesday."

gwernol writes: "David Every has an interesting article over at MacWeek that asks the question: is UNIX an OS? Before you jump off the deep end, read the article. It's actually a pretty good discussion of what components a modern OS needs beyond a kernel and a shell. It also discusses Mac OS X, the forthcoming 'UNIX++' from Apple." At the very least, it should inspire some decent conversation.

mblase asks: "According to a recent MacCentral article, one of the benefits of Mac OS X's NeXT-based roots is that "since Mac OS X is BSD based, the ports shouldn't be too difficult. The hardest part, according to Robert Palmer, will be writing the GUI (graphical user interface) front end to make administration easy." My question is, is this likely to happen? Will UNIX developers want to port their applications to an operating system that costs more in hardware and OS software both? Or is the demand likely to come from the other direction -- OS X server admins who want the stability and popularity of established UNIX applications, even if the graphical front-end Mac users have come to expect may be less than ideal? This will doubtless be a big issue for Apple as they tout Mac OS X as a server platform for the future."

kono was among the hoards of folks who noted that Tenon is gonna be releasing a tightly integrated X11 Server for MacOS X, which should greatly increase the potential for those of us hoping have a desktop that we could conceivably share with our graphic designer MacOS fanatic girlfriends.

Davor Buvinic asks: "In my spare time I like to study about GUIs. Recently,I was amazed with the new design that I saw in the previews of the future MacOS X, until I discovered in theWeb that things like file dialogs attached to windows dated from the earliest prototypes from the Apple Lisa (July 1981). My question is: Is there any news in GUI design? The newest design I probed was Rob Pike's ACME user interface for programmers. Is anybody (individual or research center) working in a new GUI design? I mean a GUI for the mainstream, no immersive virtual 3D environments, that probably need a powerful Silicon Graphics to run." Have we done as much with the GUI as we possibly can, or are there other reasons behind the lack of technical innovation in most desktops?

firewort writes: "Someone sure got back from WWDC quick, and posted a review of Aqua, MacOSX DP4. Nice screenshots, too! " Fairly detailed overview of the UI changes. And with the BSD kernel, it looks like I may finally have an OS that my gf and I could agree on.

PirateBek asks: "As Apple OS X is based on the Mach3 BSD kernel, does anyone know if it can natively (or be compiled to include) support Samba services? Nothing seems to be listed on the Apple site." If not, does anyone know if the Samba Team is planning any support?

The February Netcraft Survey is out with Apache showing its highest share ever: 58.08%. The number of hosts surveyed also passed the 10 mill mark. The survey also has some other notable nuggets, such as Apple introducing their MacOS X Server (which runs Apache) into the load balancing pool serving their site.

bonaldi writes "Steve Jobs publicly announced the new face of Mac OS yesterday, the *nix based Mac OS X. The server-side system has been about for a while, but the client side has some nasty surprises. The worst could well be the all new too-bloody-big icons (which is a failing of a lot of *nix systems). I didn't buy a 21" screen so my icons could look like 640*480. " Check out the screenshot: I've got a challenge: How long before someone creates E and GTK themes that mimic this? It really does make me wish we had better support for anti-aliased support under X.

Juan Fernando writes "Mac OS Rumors is reporting that Apple's long anticipated OS 10 Server (formerly known as OS X Server which is formerly known as Rhapsody) has reached Golden Master, and should be available mid-month thru the Apple Store."

wesman writes "This is probabbly only currently of interest to MacOSX Server and Openstep people but you never know. More details here "