MkLinux

MkLinux
Developer OSF Research Institute, Apple Computer, MkLinux Developers Association, volunteer community
OS family
Working state Outdated
Source model Open source
Initial release February 1996 (1996-02)
Latest release Pre-R2 / August 5, 2002 (2002-08-05)
Marketing target researchers and hobbyists
Package manager RPM
Platforms PowerPC
Kernel type Microkernel
Userland Red Hat Linux
Default user interface console and X11
License GNU General Public License
Succeeded by OS X, PureDarwin, and Linux
Official website mklinux.org

MkLinux is an open source computer operating system started by the Open Software Foundation Research Institute[1] and Apple Computer[2] in February 1996 to port Linux to the PowerPC platform, and Macintosh computers. MkLinux is short for "Microkernel Linux", which refers to the project's adaptation of the Linux kernel to run as a server hosted atop version 3.0 of the Mach microkernel.[3]

History

For more details on this lineage, see OS X and History of OS X.

MkLinux started as a project sponsored by Apple Computer and OSF Research Institute, to get "Linux on Mach" ported to the Macintosh computer and for Apple to explore alternative kernel technologies on the Mac platform. At the time, there was no officially sponsored PowerPC port of Linux, and none specifically for Macintosh hardware. The OSF Institute, owner of the Mach microkernel and several other Unix-based technologies, was interested in promoting Mach on other platforms. Unlike the design of the later Mac OS X, MkLinux was specifically meant to take full advantage of the Mach microkernel. By contrast, Mac OS X inherited from NeXTSTEP the hybrid kernel called XNU, wherein the BSD kernel personality is grafted atop Mach, which are both run together in a single kernel address space.[3]

The effort was spearheaded by Brett Halle at Apple, and development was later split between two main people: Michael Burg on device drivers and distribution at Apple in Cupertino, California; and Nick Stephen on Mach porting and development at the OSF in Grenoble, France. Other key individuals to work on the project included François Barbou at OSF, and Vicki Brown and Gilbert Coville at Apple.

MkLinux was officially announced at the 1996 World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC). A free CD containing a binary distribution of MkLinux was handed out to the attendees.

In the summer of 1998, the community-led MkLinux Developers Association took over development of the operating system.

The MkLinux distribution is much too large for casual users to have downloaded via the slow dial-up Internet access of the day, even using 56k modems. However, the official CDs were available in a book from Prime Time Freeware, published in English[4] and in Japanese.[5] The book covers installation, management, and use of the OS, and serves as a hardcopy manual.

Apple later released the Open Firmware-based Power Macintosh computers, an official PowerPC branch of the Linux kernel was created and was spearheaded by the LinuxPPC project.[6] MkLinux and LinuxPPC developers traded a lot of ideas back and forth as both worked on their own ways of running Linux. Debian also released a traditional monolithic kernel distribution for PowerPC, as did SUSE, and Terra Soft Solutions with Yellow Dog Linux.

When Apple dropped support for MkLinux, the developer community struggled to improve the Mach kernel, and support various Power Macintosh models. MkLinux continued to be the only option for Macintosh NuBus computers until June 2000, when PPC/Linux for NuBus Power Macs was released.

Legacy

MkLinux is the first official attempt by Apple to support a free and open source software project.[2] The work done with the Mach 3.0 kernel in MkLinux is said to have been extremely helpful in the initial porting of NeXTSTEP to the Macintosh hardware platform, which would later become OS X.[3]

OS X is based on the Mach 3.0 microkernel, designed by Carnegie Mellon University, and later adapted to the Power Macintosh by Apple and the Open Software Foundation Research Institute (now part of Silicomp). This was known as osfmk, and was part of MkLinux (http://www.mklinux.org). Later, this and code from OSF’s commercial development efforts were incorporated into Darwin’s kernel. Throughout this evolutionary process, the Mach APIs used in OS X diverged in many ways from the original CMU Mach 3 APIs.

You may find older versions of the Mach source code interesting, both to satisfy historical curiosity and to avoid remaking mistakes made in earlier implementations.

— Apple, Inc., Kernel Programming Guide: Mach API Reference[3]

Releases

Version Approx Date Notes
DR1 May 1996 Linux 1.3
DR2 September 1996 Numerous bug fixes
DR2.1 May 1997 Linux 2.0; support for PCI machines
DR3 July 1998
R1 December 1999
pre-R2 August 2002

See also

References

  1. ↑ Barbou des Places, François; Stephen, Nick; Reynolds, Franklin D. (January 12, 1996). "Linux on the OSF Mach3 microkernel". Grenoble and Cambridge: OSF Research Institute. Archived from the original on February 11, 2012. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
  2. 1 2 "What is MkLinux?". Apple Computer, Inc. Archived from the original on April 23, 1999. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Kernel Programming Guide: Mach API Reference". Apple, Inc. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
  4. ↑ Morin, Rich (1998) [First published March 1997]. MkLinux: Microkernel Linux for the Power Macintosh (Book and 2 CD-ROMs). Apple Computer, Inc. (3rd ed.). Sunnyvale, CA: Prime Time Freeware. ISBN 978-1-881957-24-9. OCLC 717806070. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
  5. ↑ Morin, Rich (May 2000) [First published March 1997]. MkLinux: Microkernel Linux for the Power Macintosh (Book and 2 CD-ROMs). Ascii books (in Japanese). Apple Computer, Inc.; translation by Kosumo Puranetto. Tokyo: Asuki. ISBN 9784756134219. OCLC 122901286. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
  6. ↑ Mark Hatle (February 1999). "History of Linux for the PowerPC". Archived from the original on March 13, 2013. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
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