OS X is BSD based, BSD can recognize PC hardware (i.e. FreeBSD), therefore it SHOULD be possible to install OS X on a PC. The problem is getting the install discs to boot, as Mac firmware boots cds differently than a PC bios. If anyone has any ideas on how to modify the OS X.3 discs to boot on a PC, please offer suggestions. This is probably not going to work, but in theory it should and so I'm going to give it a try. It would be nice to make my dual boot system (xp and mandrake) a triple boot system.

Darwin is FreeBSD (and I've heard there is a Darwin port for x86 out there) but the Mac GUI is written and compiled for the Mac.

Yes, Mac OS X does use a great deal of code from BSD, but they are not one and the same. OS X is a lot more than just BSD. Darwin, the kernel, can be compiled to run on x86, but the code for the Mac application frameworks and user interface, among other things, is known only to Apple. The Mac OS is distributed as a PowerPC binary. It can only run on PowerPC hardware, and then only with appropriate Apple firmware. The Darwin kernel's source code is available, as are some binaries (I think) for Intel processors. Darwin is a good way to get to know the internal workings of OS X, but it is not a complete Mac operating system.

Aqua (GUI), Cocoa (API interfaces to Aqua, OS X in general), Carbon (from pre-OSX days), Quartz (rendering with PDF), and Quicktime are proprietary (and closed source). Darwin is electic. It is a software architecture whuch runs under the above mentioned software libraries. The kernel is a BSD subsystem and a Mach derivative named XNU. BSD system calls are accepted by the kernel. FreeBSD 4.4 (to 5.x?) is the target for compatibility (there is a little influence from OpenBSD). BSD adds functionality and compatibility (such as POSIX) to XNU, while the Mach component handles message passing and resource management. Darwin also has what's called an I/O kit, which are C++ libraries for driver developement. Also there is a dynamic kernel module loading method called KEXT. It would be more appropriate to call Darwin the core system (or platform, environment, etc.) and XNU the kernel. Darwin runs on x86 and the platform is supported by Apple (they even have a Darwin-x86 mailing list). It does not have a GUI library, but X11 is readily available. Incidentally, developement of binary compatiblity for Mach and Darwin is under way in OpenBSD.

Darwin for the x86 port is just not fully functional, nor is it very stable, and certainly not easy to use, any linux distribution would be better than it. Does any body know if Apple plans to port OS X for an x86 machine? There are several Mac applications that I want to use that are only available for OS X and aren't worth purchasing an entirely new computer for. Does anybody know any decent OS X emmulation for windows or Linux?