OSX BSD vs Linux

loom001

loom001

Registered
This might be a better place to ask the question rather then General Discussions.

Ok I have now purchased a G4 1gig, 256 ram, CD-R/DVD, 60HD, OSX, and 64meg NVIDIA video. I am going to use my previously purchased 19" Viewsonic CRT with DVI to VGA pig tail. My question before actually opening it is. My main motivation for buying the Mac is to actually learn UNIX. Is this MAC going to be able to help me do that or would I, just be better of going out and buying a cheap PC and loading up Linux?

From what I am reading OSX is based on a BSD kernel. So what I am trying to understand is the MAC look and feel just a windows manager like KDE is to Linux? Is BSD truly the under the hood driver of the OS? I am somewhat confused because nothing that I am reading really spells it out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks :confused:
 
loom001 -
I'm a long-time UNIX/Linux guy, and I just got a 12" PB (my first contact with a Mac in many years). I can tell you most assuredly that the BSD UNIX kernel that's at the heart of MAC OS X is a complete UNIX implementation, and OS X has the potential to be a great place to learn about UNIX. That being said, your analogy
of to KDE under Linux is roughly true -- except that the MAC OS X window environment is so good that you might not *need* to use the underlying UNIX facilities, so your rate of learning may be slower. I should mention that I'm a big fan of KDE, and I don't mean to slight it, it's just that MAC OS X is more complete and well integrated with the other software and hardware on the Mac than KDE is with a Linux system.
The way I use my PB is to try to do things through a GUI-enabled program, and if it doesn't work, I drop down to the UNIX shell. It works really well for me, but I already know my way around UNIX systems. If you've got the motivation, you can certainly become a UNIX guru using Mac OS X, but you don't really need to dive into the command line/ X11 stuff to get things done, so it might not just happen on its own the way it tends to do on a Linux system.
 
That randomdude just about said it all. Mac OS X is Unix ++.

I believe Apple's BSD implementation is compatible with v. 4.4 of FreeBSD.

And the thought of a Powerbook always makes me drool. I'm sure you'll have fun.

Doug
 
Originally posted by loom001
My main motivation for buying the Mac is to actually learn UNIX. Is this MAC going to be able to help me do that or would I, just be better of going out and buying a cheap PC and loading up Linux?
Click to expand...

That all depends on what you wish to accomplish. With Mac OS X, you certainly can learn your way arround unix, the command line, and most admin stuff. And you can even use the x window enviroment.

But, then again, there are some things about OS X that are different than Linux and other BSD operating systems.

For one, the entire system isn't open source. Which means you'll never manually patch the entire os. Or recompile it.

With Linux and the BSDs, "Package Management" is a huge deal. RPM/DEB, Ports, etc. Yes, you can install these and more under OS X, but the entire system isn't package-aware. Your nice aqua finder has no clue what an rpm file is, for example. Not to mention, under other unix os's, the entire system is based on a package management system.

Under RedHat, everything is an .rpm file. EVERY single file came from an rpm.

Under OS X, you'll have fink, ports, rpm, apple's .pkg files, and various binary installers all on the same system. This has its advantages and disadvantages, obviously.

Moving right along...

On Linux and the BSDs, there's also a lot more involved. You don't have Apple releasing kernel source patches. Instead, you download the patch, patch your source, and recompile. (Granted, you *can* recompile the darwin kernel, but its not nearly the same experience).

Not to mention the hardware aspect. OS X will not teach you how to configure grub, lilo, or any other unix boot tool. Nor will it prepare you for stubborn bios issues.

All in all, and once again, it really depends on what you will be doing. What are you training for? Installing desktop linux workstations? Admining a cluster of headless unix servers? Managing a network of windows boxes authenticating off a unix pc? Getting FreeBSD to display dvd's smoothly? Setting up IRIX on 8-way systems?

There's just so much, and while all unixs are very similar, they all have their own quarks. There are even benifits to comercial unix experience, although these are steadily dropping.
 
Acutally, kilowatt, no unix systems yet have quarks (until XPress comes out for OS X), but they do all have their quirks!

Insert rimshot
 
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