DarwinPorts was started publicly in 2002 by several people at Apple, and was initially hosted at opendarwin.org, at darwinports.opendarwin.org. In time it gained its own domain, darwinports.org.

Around that time, another individual registered the .com version of the domain, and initially offered to either work with the DarwinPorts project or to even transfer the domain permanently:

• ​original thread about the .com
• ​unanswered query about the .com
• ​further discussion about the darwinports.org site, including some bits about the .com

Nothing ever happened with a domain transfer and the .com continued to be run separately, occasionally confusing DarwinPorts users and frustrating those running the real DarwinPorts.

After a time, those behind opendarwin.org began planning the shutdown of that site as a whole. Hence, everything hosted there would need to move elsewhere. Eventually, it was decided to rename the project to MacPorts to illustrate the focus, and by a happy coincidence, get away from the old name and confusing differently-owned sites. The new project was moved to (and still lives at) MacOSForge, which is hosted by Apple and used for several open source projects.

Now, that .com site appears to claim "The Original DarwinPorts" even though the original was the one at opendarwin.org, that it's a weekly mirror of a site that no longer exists, and that the .com will continue to exist even if Apple ceases hosting of MacPorts. Of course, since no original development beyond the website is done at the .com site, it'd be stale really fast...

Note that downloading the official DarwinPorts/MacPorts has never and will never ask for your email prior to offering the download.

​Questions still come up concerning the .com confusion