MkLinux

MkLinux

Company / developer	OSF Research Institute, Apple Computer, MkLinux Developers Association
OS family	Unix-like
Working state	Legacy / discontinued
Source model	Open source
Latest stable release	Pre-R2 / 2002-08-05
Supported platforms	PowerPC
Kernel type	Microkernel
License	GNU General Public License
Official website	http://mklinux.org/

MkLinux is an open source computer operating system started by the OSF Research Institute and Apple Computer in February 1996 to port Linux to the PowerPC platform, and Macintosh computers. The effort was spearheaded by Brett Halle at Apple and development split between Michael Burg (device drivers and distribution) at Apple in Cupertino, California, and Nick Stephen (Mach porting & development) at the OSF in Grenoble, France. Other key individuals to work on the project included François Barbou (OSF), Vicki Brown (Apple) and Gilbert Coville (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. MkLinux is short for "Microkernel Linux," which refers to the project's adaptation of the Linux kernel to run as a server hosted atop the Mach microkernel. MkLinux is based on version 3.0 of Mach.

History

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 much later Mac OS X, MkLinux was specifically meant to take full advantage of the Mach microkernel. OS X instead takes the NextStep approach and runs a hybrid system where the BSD kernel is grafted on top of Mach running in a single kernel address space.

The MkLinux distribution was much too large for casual users to download via POTS, even using 56k modems. However, the official CDs were available in a book from Prime Time Freeware.^[1]

As time went on, and Apple released the Open Firmware-based Power Macs, an official PowerPC branch of the Linux kernel was created and was spearheaded by the LinuxPPC project. 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 hardware. 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 was the first attempt by Apple to support a free and open source software project. The work done with the Mach 3.0 kernel was extremely helpful in bringing up NeXTSTEP on the Mac platform, which would later become OS X.^[2]

Versions

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

• Darwin (operating system)

References

1. ^ Morin, Rich (March 1997). Mklinux: Microkernel Linux for the Power Macintosh. Prime Time Freeware. ISBN 978-1-881957-24-9. 
2. ^ Kernel Programming Guide: Mach API Reference

External links

• MkLinux home page
• History of Linux for the PowerPC
• Linux on the OSF Mach3 microkernel