Q. What is Darwin OS?

Darwin OS is a complete operating system based on the core technologies in Mac OS X Server. It is an advanced BSD Unix system which offers advanced networking, services such as the Apache web server, and support for both Macintosh and Unix filesystems. Darwin OS runs on PowerPC-based Macintosh computers and a version for Intel PC-compatible computers should be available in the future.

Q. What platforms does Darwin OS run on?

Darwin OS runs on recent PowerPC-based Apple Macintosh systems. Since Darwin OS is based on the Mac OS X Server code base, most configurations supported by Mac OS X Server are likely to run Darwin OS. See the Mac OS X Server Hardware and Compatibility FAQ for more information on Mac OS X Server supported platforms.

Note that the Adaptec Fast-Wide SCSI driver from Mac OS X Server is not included in Darwin OS. If you have a Fast-Wide drive in your computer (including those in the new "Blue and White" G3 machines), Darwin OS will not be able to use it.

Q. But I heard Darwin OS runs on Intel PCs...

Most of Darwin code is platform-independant, and some of the platform-dependant code includes some support for Intel processor-based systems. There are, however, some parts of the system (eg. HFS+ and AppleTalk) which have not been ported to the Intel platform. The current Darwin release is compiled for PowerPC only, but it should be possible to bring up an Intel version with some additional work.

Q. What do I need to compile Darwin OS code?

You need to install the Darwin OS or Mac OS X Server with the developer tools onto your computer. Darwin OS can build itself; our distributions are now being built natively.

Q. Is Apple planning to provide developer resources for Darwin? What can we expect?

A public read-only CVS server is available now, and the projects page provides a listing of the latest release of each of the Darwin OS projects. Additional resources will be added as needed and as time permits.

Q. Is there a binary release of Darwin?

Yes, the 0.3 release of Darwin includes a complete operating system installer which works on most Power Macintosh G3 systems, as well as a few others.

Q. How do I login? What can I do with it?

By default, there is only one account (root) with a blank password, as on most UNIX systems. We include Apache, sendmail, and handful of other services. We hope to include more in future releases.