Compiling Unix software

[good_adrian]

Hey I'm currently a Windows user looking at switching my current OS to either Linux or Mac OS X...

I'm currently learning to program and love open source...OpenSource is the best thing eva... linux/unixes distro's r bursting with it... thus my interest in Linux...

So here's my question... Mac OS is Unix based so can i get open source programs written for Linux or other Unixes and compile and use it on Mac OS X? or am i dreaming?

 

[Captain Code]

It depends on the program. Some things will compile under linux and MacOSX while other things won't.

Things written for other UNIXs will most likely compile fine.

Best thing is to just try it, and if it doesn't work, someone may have ported it, just search google or something.

 

[bbos]

Also, check out the fink project http://fink.sourceforge.net. A number of contributors have ported / are porting, unix software to MacOSX. It makes Unix installation easy as it handles all the dependencys.

Cheers,

Brooke ::alien::

 

[Cat]

Check out FinkCommander if you go with Fink, very usefull GUI for Fink packges.

Via Fink you can either download binaries directly or compile them from source, which requires the Developer Tools from Apple.