Editing MkLinux (section)

==History==
{{Details|topic=this lineage|macOS|macOS version history}}
MkLinux started as a project sponsored by Apple Computer and OSF Research Institute, to get "Linux on Mach" ported to the Macintosh computer and for Apple to explore alternative kernel technologies on the Mac platform. At the time, there was no officially sponsored PowerPC port of Linux, and none specifically for Macintosh hardware. The OSF Institute, owner of the Mach [[microkernel]] and several other [[Unix]]-based technologies, was interested in promoting Mach on other platforms. Unlike the design of the later [[macOS]] versions 10 and newer (not to be confused with the contemporaneous [[Classic Mac OS|Mac OS]] versions 9 and older), MkLinux was designed to take full advantage of the Mach microkernel.

The effort was spearheaded by Apple's VP of Development Tools [[Ike Nassi]]<ref name="Ike Nassi CHM interview">{{cite interview |last=Nassi |first=Ike |author-link=Ike Nassi |interviewer=[[John Markoff]] |publisher=Computer History Museum |date=August 26, 2016 |type=Video |series=CHM Oral History Collection |id=102717191 |title=Nassi, Ike oral history |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102717191 |access-date=February 9, 2019}}</ref> and Brett Halle at Apple, and development was later split between two main people: Michael Burg on device drivers and distribution at Apple in Cupertino, California; and Nick Stephen on Mach porting and development at the OSF in [[Grenoble]], France. Other key individuals to work on the project included François Barbou at OSF, and Vicki Brown and Gilbert Coville at Apple.

MkLinux was officially announced at the 1996 [[World Wide Developers Conference]] (WWDC). A free CD containing a binary distribution of MkLinux was handed out to the attendees.

In mid 1998, the community-led MkLinux Developers Association took over development of the operating system.

The MkLinux distribution was too large for casual users to have downloaded via the slow [[dial-up Internet access]] of the day, even when using 56k modems. However, the official CDs were available in a book from Prime Time Freeware, published in English<ref name="MkLinuxbookEnglish"/> and in Japanese.<ref name="MkLinuxbookJapanese"/> The book covers installation, management, and use of the OS, and serves as a hardcopy manual.

Apple later released the [[Open Firmware]]-based [[Power Macintosh]] computers, an official PowerPC branch of the Linux kernel was created and was spearheaded by the LinuxPPC project.<ref name="HistoryofLinuxforthePPC"/> MkLinux and LinuxPPC developers traded a lot of ideas back and forth as both worked on their own ways of running Linux. [[Debian]] also released a traditional monolithic kernel distribution for PowerPC—as did [[SUSE Linux|SUSE]], and [[Terra Soft Solutions]] with [[Yellow Dog Linux]].

When Apple dropped support for MkLinux, the developer community struggled to improve the Mach kernel, and to support various Power Macintosh models. MkLinux continued to be the only option for Macintosh [[NuBus]] computers until June 2000, when PPC/Linux for NuBus Power Macs was released.