“What it is: Darwin 1.0 is a bootable version of the OS X kernel
and Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) layer. No Quartz, no
Carbon, no Cocoa, no Aqua. Darwin has no windowing system of its
own and is therefore limited to just a single, text-based
console.”
“Not to be overlooked, Darwin-for-x86 apparently compiles,
but getting it running is another matter entirely. A fair number of
drivers will need to be written to support various bits of x86
hardware. Easily excitable media entities take note: A
considerable chasm exists between compiling code successfully and
delivering a functioning operating system.”
“What it isn’t: Darwin 1.0 is not a rip-roaring, ready-to-go,
high-availability Unix system ready to out-Linux Linux or
out-FreeBSD FreeBSD. Darwin isn’t useful for newbies or those
interested in getting their feet wet with Unix. (Installing one of
the PowerPC-flavored Linuxes is much more suitable for that task,
despite the differences between Linux and the BSDs.)”