MacPorts: Free and Open Source for the Mac

In the past, I have written a lot about the power of the OS X platform that it derives from its UNIX roots. Not only does this give OS X its stability and robustness, it also gives it a built-in developer community that you can tap in to.

There are many good reasons for using Fink and MacPorts:
•    To update the open source software, such as Perl and Python, that came with your Mac to their latest available versions.
•    To install programs that do not have parallels for the Mac, such as Gnucash and Imagemagick.
•    To install free and open source alternatives to Mac applications, such as Amarok instead of iTunes or Gimp instead of Photoshop.
•    To install tools, interpreters, and libraries to develop software for the Unix and Mac platform.
•    To have the opportunity to use software that is free as in "free beer" and free as in free speech."

The thing to keep in mind is to choose Fink or MacPorts and stick with it. Open source software comes with many dependencies. Installing one piece of software may require the installation of many other pieces. It is best to leave these details in the hands of a capable package manager. Choose either Fink or MacPorts in order to keep things consistent. I have written about Fink in the past, so today let me give you a brief overview of MacPorts.

Before you install MacPorts, however, you will need to prepare your computer. Your copy of OS X needs to be installed with the BSD Subsystem. It is installed by default by OS X installer discs, but can be installed from your OS X disc. You will need the Xcode development environment, which is available from the Apple Developer Connection (ADC) web site. You will have to register on the ADC site in order to download the Xcode installation, but this is free and mostly painless. Xcode provides your Mac with the basic tools needed to compile and run most open source software. Finally, you will also need X11.app, which is included in the "Optional Installs" package on the OS X install disk.

It might also be useful at this point to familiarize yourself with Terminal.app and X11.app, if you are not already. Terminal.app will be your window in to the world of command line software. Fire it up and try simple commands such as ls to list the contents of a directory or wc to show the number of lines, words, and characters in a text file.

MacPorts is similar to Fink in many respects. It also provides a large variety of open source packages for installation and a straightforward way to manage them. Once you have downloaded and installed it, typing the following at the command line will install the package of your choice:
sudo port install <package name>

Just as Fink has FinkCommander, MacPorts has PortAuthority, a GUI front-end for MacPorts. PortAuthority has a well-designed and self-explanatory interface for the installation and management of your packages. Of course, the repository for MacPorts is separate from that of Fink and is installed in the /opt/local directory. It is a good idea to stick with either Fink or MacPorts as your package manager of choice to maintain consistency and so that software is not unnecessarily duplicated.