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macOS Internals

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Re: macOS Internals

#141

Post by johnthescott »

toddmorey wrote: post #106
wkjagt wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many things in OSTEP that I found really eye opening. One thing that stuck with me was that at some point, when discussing virtualization, it referred to an OS as a virtual machine, and that really changed the way I look at operating systems now. > That is, the OS takes a physical resource (such as the processor, or memory, or a disk) and transforms it into a more general, powerful, and easy-to-use virtual…

Oh that’s a great quote. Really good framing.

ken thompson when asked what he thought of virtual machines, his response "they are such a good idea i wrote one. you may have heard of it: unix"

Re: macOS Internals

#142

Post by lproven »

efreak wrote: post #140
fatneckbeard wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

dos.exe was kind of referring to how a lot of games would just completely ignore DOS even before the days of protected mode and 32 bits, im going back to the 8088 days. but yeah same idea. actually now that i remember it, my first linux was a copy of ... i think Dragon Linux? It used Dos as a bootloader, it ran off the existing DOS FAT filesystem so you didnt have to mess with partitions, and it dealt with the filena…

Interesting. An odd rabbit hole. I've never heard of this kind of thing existing before Ubuntu wubi, (though I don't know why that surprises me, it's not like they're was no need for such a thing before that): > DragonLinux was a distribution of Linux that had the ability to be installed on a loopback file on an existing FAT16 or FAT32 partition. https://sourceforge.net/apps/wordpress/dragonlinux/ In the readme linke…

> I've never heard of this kind of thing existing before Ubuntu wubi

WUBI wasn't the same at all.

WUBI makes a single big file and formats it with a Linux filesystem.

`umsdos` kept Linux files as DOS files directly in the FAT16 filesystem, with a hidden file in each directory containing additional Linux metadata. No Linux filesystem anywhere.

You could even run a DOS defragger and your Linux would survive. :-)

I used a distro called Pygmy Linux that worked this way.

Re: macOS Internals

#143

Post by lproven »

internetter wrote: post #55
microtonal wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For newer macOS changes, Howard Oakley's blog is really awesome: https://eclecticlight.co/category/macs/

I've loved reading blogs and microblogs of Asahi Linux developers, like https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan , https://asahilinux.org/blog/ , and https://rosenzweig.io/ They all have intimate insights into macos internals from reverse engineering it.

The insights are amazing.

The presentation is horrible and I feel like I am wading through syrup trying to glean the odd morsel of info.

Re: macOS Internals

#144

Post by lproven »

galad87 wrote: post #79
kreddor wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The macOS Ventura review doesn't count?

Not really. It lacks the insight and the attention to small changes and under the hood improvements of the Siracusa's reviews, in my opinion.

Strongly agreed.

Siracusa's pieces were all meat, no filler. The modern ones are trivial glances at the cosmetics: all filler, no meat.

Re: macOS Internals

#145

Post by internetter »

lproven wrote: post #143
internetter wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've loved reading blogs and microblogs of Asahi Linux developers, like https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan , https://asahilinux.org/blog/ , and https://rosenzweig.io/ They all have intimate insights into macos internals from reverse engineering it.

The insights are amazing. The presentation is horrible and I feel like I am wading through syrup trying to glean the odd morsel of info.

I think striking a balance between the two is quite difficult. Personally, I say I'd prefer the information being there in poor presentation over a shiny thing that doesn't work but....

Re: macOS Internals

#146

Post by catoc »

tremere wrote: post #125
alin23 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! Yes, I believe privacy policies should be written for end users, not for lawyers. I tried to do the same with my other more complex app as well: https://lunar.fyi/privacy

That's a very refreshing attitude. I had heard of Lunar but was reluctant to try it. Lately my policy has been "the less software the better" precisely because of how predatory most software is. But not your software, it seems! Your privacy policy has made me think it would be a good idea to try and probably buy your app if it works for me. Thanks for being one of the good ones!

Yep, paying rcmd user now. Glad to support 'one of the good ones' (and benefit personally from using it, no altruism here)
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