Unix Advantages

kerisbf

kerisbf

geez o pete
Alright, I have another question involving Macs and Universities for you:
There is a small movement for Mac laptops at my University (see my other post entitled "Laptops and Universities"), but unfortunately, there isn't much support for it. All of the advocates are Art and Design majors, and in an effort to widen our support base, I'd like to know what aspects of the Mac OSX could be of use to others. Anything you guys can feed me would help a lot!

Thanks!
kerisbf
 
Our computing commons has 3 secionts, 50% are PCs, 30% are Macs and 20% are UNIX machines.

I don't know much about UNIX myself, but I did have to use it a little when I was a CS major :eek: . I wonder how how close Mac OSX is to a regular UNIX .. as in .. if you login console mode, is that basically the same as an all-out UNIX PC? Because if it is close enough, CS majors may be able to just use Macs.

I don't know what I'm talking about though. I'm rambling. testuser or someone else who knows UNIX and programming can help you out more.
 
There are many different kinds of UNIX, and each computer geek prefers his own "flavor" of UNIX. There's BSD UNIX, System V, Irix, etc., etc. Each flavor has it's slight differences, but all of them are used basically in the same way, and you can always install utilities that you want on your particular kind of UNIX.

But, yes, Mac OS X is a full-fledged UNIX operating system (as long as you install the BSD subsystem when you install Mac OSX – this is pre-installed by default when you get a new Mac, too), so if you start up in console mode (by either holding down Command-S at startup or by logging in as ">console" with no password) you are basically using UNIX.

UNIX has many advantages. The first, and the main one, is stability. Mac OS X has a VERY efficient memory manager that prevents memory fragmentation (a problem that really plagued the Classic Mac OS), and prevents memory intrusion by other processes (which usually results in a crash). These two benefits alone makes UNIX the ideal foundation for an operating system. There are other things though: it provides pre-emptive multitasking, which means that no one process can hog your computer, and UNIX automatically designates CPU power according to the priority of a process. This means that you can do much more at once than you ever could with the Classic Mac OS.

In general, though, because of the Classic environment and the developer support, nothing much has changed with the Mac. There are still a number of great graphics applications that benefit from the G4 processor and from the benefits of UNIX, and you can still use your old applications if you really need to.

Hope that provides some good info to use.
 
I have an iBook with Mac OS X and I find it to be a perfect portable for CS majors. I am going back to get my Masters in a couple of months, and I think OS X will suit me just fine (more than fine actually). OS X gives you all the UNIX goodness any CS major would want without the dearth of commercial apps that plagues Linux. Furthermore, you can install XDarwin so you can have the X-Windows apps running along side Mac OS apps, and if you spend some money and get Virtual PC, you'd be able to run X-Win apps, Mac apps, and Windows apps all at the same time on the same machine! You can't beat that! Also, the iBook is very well made and very durable. It's a great little machine and affordable. Also, the free developer CD that Apple supplies for OS X allows any CS major to play and compile most major languages of today (C, C++, Java, Objective-C).

-B
 
I am entirely with Phatsharpie on this one. I am an IT major at my uni and the only one here who uses a mac!
Mac OS X is easily the best implementation of Unix I have ever encountered, and the iBook is one of the best made laptops around. With multi-homing I can just plug into a network jack, and know that in two to five seconds I'll be on the network. I can easily run X-windows apps alongside office and photoshop. I can run java in an environment that leaves windows looking a little silly, and I can serve up my files on FTP, Apache or samba.
So, from a CS or IT major's point of view, Mac is a formidable weapon.
 
Hey symphonix,

Where are you getting your IT degree? I am flying back to Melbourne to get my Masters in IT in June! I am gonna be an American student in Oz... Can't wait to get back to Melbourne, I got a contract to work there last year and instantly fell in love with the city.

-B
 
I agree as well!

I had an iBook and have a PowerBook and they all have done my C++ assignments very well even through my college uses PeeCee to teach us. I still can have Project Builder to build my C++ program which can be complier on my college's PeeCee DOS console mode.

:D
 
I have the best of both worlds. I am (possibly) doubling in Film and CS. Yes I know it's weird to do a cross school double major and I'm not sure if it will work out (CS is hard but Film isn't yet). Anyway.... in CS I use the development tools non stop. I love that I can use the project builder which is sooooo much better than emacs and then compile in my terminal which is better than DOS (what everyone else uses). My Molecular Cellular Developmental Biologist friend uses Macintosh with some program I don't know what it is. There aren't many other majors that require specific programs, just a word processor and internet so Mac works across the board.
 
Originally posted by themacko
Our computing commons has 3 secionts, 50% are PCs, 30% are Macs and 20% are UNIX machines.
Click to expand...

Been a while since you have been in the CC eh? The HP-UX terms have been gone for almost a year now.

Good news is that the word on the wire is that we are getting 70 of the new iMacs in the CC. Doubt they will be running OS X yet, but atleast they will be capable of it.
 
Good news is that the word on the wire is that we are getting 70 of the new iMacs in the CC. Doubt they will be running OS X yet, but atleast they will be capable of it.
Click to expand...
Unless someone physically changes it (which doesn't happen too often in lab settings) it will be OS X by default.
 
They will be running os 9. Due to sotware compatablitiy and not having a Netinfo network set up yet. Doesn't matter what they come installed with because they will be reformatted and have a custom image put on the HD (This happens all the time in a Lab setting at a major university).
 
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