If you've been wanting to set up a development environment on your new Leopard install, the one thing you'll need to install yourself is MySQL (or PostGRE or some database). If you're still using Tiger there's a nice that you can grab, but if you're on Leopard YMMV with that package. Alternately you can compile MySQL from source. Dan Benjamin at Hive Logic has put together a nice tutorial on with instructions that will work on both Tiger and Leopard. Benjamin walks you through each step and gives a reasonable amount of detail about what's going on. If you've never compiled software on your Mac before this might be a good learning experience and you're unlikely to go wrong with these instructions. Mac users like to say that Macs “just work,” but when it comes to installing popular software programs like databases, things don't just work.
In fact, it's kind of sad that you have install a database at all on a Mac. In contrast, to demonstrate how things “just work” in Ubuntu Linux, Mark Pilgrim has (arguably NSFW at times). Here's Pilgrim's guide the prerequisites you'll need to install before putting MySQL on your Ubuntu machine. That's right, none. Your Ubuntu “desktop” is fully capable of installing and running hundreds of different “server” programs.
You don't need to buy a special “server” version for $1000. Other things you don't need: a compiler or a bunch of developer tools. And you sure as fuck don't need to sign up for some confusing “developer program” that forces you to surrender your rights and your personal information.
Tips And Tricks On Mac: Compiling Valgrind For Mac Pro
Check out the rest of Pilgrim's article for a laugh after you read Benjamin's and get things sorted on your Mac. See Also:.