Darwin on x86
Q: I must say that Apple is doing a really good job with their open-source strategy, and I'd like to congratulate you for trusting in the power of the community.
It would be great if you could give more attention on the porting of Darwin for the x86 platform (don't let the guys who are doing that alone!), as it will help a lot on the rapid growing of the developer base, helping the development of the system and (of course) the development of new drivers, filesystems and other important components that could be modified to work also on the PPC side.
A: Thanks. Much of Darwin is processor-independent BSD code. We're using the x86 platform as an integrity-check to help us make sure that the architectural underpinnings function just as well in Darwin as in the BSD code. This is important to maintain compatibility with the ever-evolving BSD software base, and also helps us to maintain a high-quality code base through the benefits of designing for software portability. We welcome new drivers and other components to help test Darwin on the x86 platform.
Q: Will Mac OS X be ported to the PC?
A: There are no plans to make Mac OS X available on any non-Apple platforms. We're simply making Darwin, the underlying operating system of Mac OS X, a better system by using x86 as a test bed to ensure architectural soundness and to reap the benefits from applying portable software coding practices.