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I don’t think it’s performative. That seems really uncharitable. Seems like most “performative“ accusations are.

I think a ton of people were REALLY misinformed about how much water AI data centers use. I know I was at one point.

Now there may be people pushing that narrative still on purpose because it clearly works. But I don’t think the average person who uses that talking point is doing anything other than expressing a concern based on the (terrible) information they got somewhere.


You can already run older versions of macOS inside a VM on macOS.

So it seems like in theory that should be doable if someone just made the container images right?


Yep. For a few years. And they keep enhancing it too.

It’s the only legal way to do so, due to the software license on MacOS.


That is a far more useful reply than the GP comment. If they had stated something similar I don’t think they would’ve been downvoted.

Poe's Law and all that, but I was trolling/shitposting.

Containers are REALLY REALLY popular. This is a a great value add for developers on Mac who need to deal with Linux containers.

Which is a ton of ‘em.


Yeah. But in exchange it’s a lot of work to keep up with. For GUI stuff you’re now having to have some sort of Wayland layer/driver.

Running VMs is really really easy and low maintenance demand on Apple. And it’s guaranteed compatibility.

Wasn’t compatibility what really sunk WSL1?


> Wasn’t compatibility what really sunk WSL1?

Yes, but a big part of the problem with WSL1 was the size of the conceptual gap between POSIX and Windows NT that WSL1 had to bridge. An “MSL1” would likely have fewer problems because the gap between macOS and Linux is smaller, given they are both POSIX

The other thing Apple could potentially do, is add Linux-compatible APIs to macOS. IBM wanted to support Kubernetes on their z/OS mainframe operating system, so they implemented on it a clone of Linux namespace APIs, e.g. unshare. Then we could have macOS nodes in a K8S cluster-which might actually be useful for some people, e.g. if you have a Jenkins CI farm, the Linux nodes can run on K8S, but currently macOS nodes (which you need if you are targeting iOS or macOS) can’t, they have to be bare metal or VMs.

More Linux-macOS source compatibility would also benefit macOS by making it less work to port software to it from Linux


Linux and the BSDs take APIs one from the other all of the time. The issue with having a Linux ABI is that you don't need just the few APIs you're missing, you need to implement the WHOLE Linux API and it has to be _perfect_, otherwise stuff will randomly break. I loved the original WSL, I had to use it for a time period back in the day when I was stuck on a Windows PC, but it can't be denied it was full of random bugs

The original WSL proves that you actually don't need to be perfect or to have the entire ABI to be pretty useful.

It's true that missing ABIs will cause random crashes and problems. However, a lot of apps can run with a minimal set of ABIs.


>for GUI stuff you’re now having to have some sort of Wayland layer/driver.

The target for this isn't GUI stuff.


Generally I’d agree but the comment I replied to mentioned people running Linux applications and in my mind that means GUI.

Maybe that’s not what they intended.


CGamesPlay said above its balloon memory so it won’t use all that memory by default, but it can’t release balloon memory yet.

Apple won’t support them with MacOS 27, and it seems they announced this tool as part of this year’s WWDC.

Basically: they’ve moved on.


The author actually estimated $10-$15,000 worth of tokens.

Where does the GPL say you have the freedom to relicense code or derivatives under MIT by fiat?

Isn’t having to stay under the GPL a very big part of the GPL license?


> Where does the GPL say you have the freedom to relicense code or derivatives under MIT by fiat?

The first part of this sentence (where in the GPL) is unreached if the second part of it is unmet (relicense code or derivatives) which I contend it likely is. You're begging the question.

However:

> The output from running a covered work is covered by this License only if the output, given its content, constitutes a covered work

earlier:

> A “covered work” means either the unmodified Program or a work based on the Program.

It's that element that would be difficult to prove "work based on the Program"


Asking an LLM "here's a thing, rewrite it in Rust" is pretty clearly creating either a derivative work or a different form of the same work, just like asking a transpiler would.

There's no evidence that "here's a thing, rewrite it in Rust" is the technique Scott used here.

"here's a test suite, write code in rust that makes that suite pass" is reasonably supported by the article. That would likely not be a derivative work.



Ew. So it tells the LLM where the git source is for the thing they’re duplicating, but I don’t see instructions saying not to read or copy those files or algorithms.

I could have missed them. I didn’t read everything. I did some quick searches.

But the fact they’re not obvious is kind of troubling. Or that they didn’t just copy the tests and documentation for the LLM and not the source to prevent it from looking would hurt any case they had for clean-room privileges in my eyes, ignoring my other comment with concerns about using the tests at all.


If we assume an u licensed or MIT licensed test suite, an LLM could develop from that and documentation and you’d get something you could license MIT.

IMO, IANAL, etc.

And we’ll ignore the question of what the fact the LLM has certainly seen the git code during training means.

But the test suite would have to stay under the original license. And if you use a GPL test suite as they kernel to develop a program from can you license it non-GPL? I’d question that personally. Same acronyms above apply.


This is the exact thing I'm not sure about. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48470397 where I posit a simpler question: if a `test_sum()` function is copyrighted, does writing a `sum(a, b)` function infringe on the copyright of the software product that `test_sum()` is a part of. I'd say no. There's another part of the GPL that applies here:

> A compilation of a covered work with other separate and independent works, which are not by their nature extensions of the covered work, and which are not combined with it such as to form a larger program, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an “aggregate” if the compilation and its resulting copyright are not used to limit the access or legal rights of the compilation's users beyond what the individual works permit. Inclusion of a covered work in an aggregate does not cause this License to apply to the other parts of the aggregate.

So assuming that sum(a, b) is non-infringing and not combined to form a larger program (i.e. the tests aren't compiled into the grit code), then the GPL explicitly doesn't apply to this use


test_sum is assumedly relatively trivial. So as a lay person I’d expect some sort of obviousness test to apply. Like so much of the stuff in the Google/Oracle lawsuit.

But if you take all the individual tests used to test git as a whole, that seems far more unique. Seems like at that point you’re really having to duplicate the actual git internals, and that seems like it should be covered.


> test_sum is assumedly relatively trivial. So as a lay person I’d expect some sort of obviousness test to apply. Like so much of the stuff in the Google/Oracle lawsuit.

Feel free to extrapolate to the threshold where it's not and at that point apply.

> you’re really having to duplicate the actual git internals

Copyright covers the expression, not the method. So the Rust function:

    fn sum(a: u8, b: u8) {
        a + b
    }
is distinct from the C function:

    int sum(int a, int b) 
    {
        return a + b;
    }

That's not copyrightable because it's trivial.

Please feel free to strongman. Extend the argument until it hits a point of non-triviality and then apply reasoning.

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