Re: what are the difference and similarities between Linux and Mac OS
Originally Posted by
Spice Weasel
People are all OMFG APPLE ARE EVIL, but they have contributed the Linux print system, Webkit which is used in many different free web browsers and their underlying system, far more than most.
CUPS existed long before Apple took it over, and Webkit is a fork of KHTML. Apple still contributes to Webkit: it introduces the security flaws in Webkit, and Google fixes them.
Really, there's so little that's similar. OS X has POSIX-style file handling and permissions underneath, but these are often obscured by userspace hacks. Much of OS X's real Unix-style stuff is obscured or mutilated by Apple's hack-happy engineers.
A lot of OS X's important systems (such as management of users) are not implemented in-kernel, but are add-on daemons. While I'm sure this has some benefits of stability, it also makes it a royal pain to do anything in OS X's recovery (single-user) mode because you need to start all the daemons by hand in order to actually do anything.
OS X does have an X11 server available for it, but as far as I know it's not by default. OS X doesn't use it.
Apple does include things like Python and Apache inside OS X, but these are often crippled versions; there exists the real possibility of security flaws in Apple's modifications. And finally, OS X is showing its age - there are a number of problems in the system design that open up security flaws, which can only be fixed by breaking existing applications.
Yep, OS X has more in common with Linux than Windows does; but there is not really any "shared heritage" between them.
I try to treat the cause, not the symptom. I avoid the terminal in instructions, unless it's easier or necessary. My instructions will work within the Ubuntu system, instead of breaking or subverting it. Those are the three guarantees to the helpee.
Bookmarks