Operating Systems > macOS

another dumb question

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Calum:
If Mac OSX is UNIX based, can it 'talk' directly to a oh say a Red Hat or Turbolinux box? can they read each other's files? run each other's programs? or is there ome interface required, some emulator that you need to install?
I just thought it would be nice if the UNIX army came together and cooperated a bit more instead of each regiment marching off on its own tangent.
So, can it?

voidmain:
They would not be binary compatible (run each others programs) because the processor arch is different.  However, you should be able to take most source packages and compile them on either platform with little effort. They should both use roughly the same commands to do the same job on either platform. Piping/redirection/etc should work the same.

Text files are compatible so you should be able to NFS mount between the Mac and other *NIX and share files.  Of course file formats are dependent on the app that produces the file so if you have a Mac specific program that writes a proprietary file format you can't expect other *NIX systems to be able to read it without having that same app.

radagast:
There are a good many different flavors of *nix available.  "Unix" is not even a totally descriptive term because there is more than one flavor and that includes Linux, among many others.

Unfortunately many Mac users don't understand that many *nix users have no more fondness for Apple, with or without OSX, than they have for Windoze.

Many commercial developers, especially those with existing *nix products which can be readily modified to run under OS X, most definitely have an interest.  But if you visit sites like Slashdot you'll discover that many Linux users dislike Macs more than Windoze.  It varies.  Usually Windoze draws more boos.

There are dozens of different distributions of Linux alone.  Linux users can't agree among themselfs.  The FreeBSD people and the GNU people don't agree.  The GNUStep people don't agree with the NeXTStep people (Apple bought NeXT, the basis for OS X).  Many GNUStep people are former NeXTStep people who don't like OS X.

All is not bad in the world.  In fact a review of the daily posts of updates and new files on Version Tracker will show there's a flood of OSX freeware and shareware, much of it derived from Linux, FreeBSD or whatever, or written, new, for Mac OS X.

Most Mac users live in our own little world too much and repeat all the same nasty things over and over about Windoze users who represent something like 90% of the desktop users.  Mac users amount to (depends on who you read) about 5% and the same is roughly true of "all other," mostly *nix people.

Reading a thread at SlashDot (probably the main watering hole on the net for Linux types) when OS X is brought up will quickly show you that very little is even known or draws any interest from the average Linux user.  But Apple has something that Linux doesn't have and that's the OS X GUI.  Linux (vs. + other *nix brands & flavors) have been struggling for years through the open source, volunteer programmer process to write a decent GUI.

A Graphical User Interface is what OS X largely amounts to dropped on top of a (variation) of the Darwin kernal which is derived from FreeBSD.   The various forms of a GUI for Linux have progressed, but it's questionable there will ever be anything equivalent to the Mac GUI or Windoze.

But Linux and Mac users share one clear and common concern.  Both are in distinct minorities.  Linux users have their "free" open source software to use on whatever PC they choose to buy.  They don't have the reliance that Mac users have on applications software that is written to specifically work with the Mac GUI, i.e., Microsoft Office, Photoshop, etc. (we all know the litany), but the fact remains that we are in a minority, can use all the help in terms of *nix software modified to run under OS X, and have already begun to "grow" our own culture of *nix geeks, those Mac users who have been running Linux servers for years, and now have the best of both worlds with Mac OS X.

But we do share a common interest and common concerns, mainly one:  Micro$loth.

voidmain:
Very nice post but I fail to see the logic. I think Apple could make a killing if they sold an x86 version of OSX. In fact it would now be easier than ever to port to other archs since the underlying OS is *already* ported to other archs.  I almost think porting has to be an intention of Apple because of this move, otherwise why do it? Just make sure you let me know before they make that decision, I want to buy some stock!  M$ became pretty wealthy not selling a single piece of hardware, in fact all they ever sold was inferior software.  They were just really really good as selling junk.

I for one would buy a copy of OSX for x86 but will probably never buy a Mac. I'm sure there are other people like me, why lose out on my dollar?  I would be willing to bet that there are a lot of WinXP people out there who have a nice shiney new PC that would LOVE to wipe out XP and run OSX on it about now after realizing how extremely bad MS has become.

[ January 23, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]

Calum:
You took the words right out of my mout, VoidMain! I would ditch windows in a flash if there was some alternative (i mentioned before, that my laptop, my only pc at the moment, has winspecific hardware that i can't identify, let alone find linux drivers for). I'm stuck running windows, but if Mac OSX came out for x86 pcs, what with Apple's corporate structure and all that, directly at odds with the decentralised opensourceness of linux, it would no doubt target windows specific hardware first as a conversion mechanism and people like me would take the day off work to celebrate!
I reckon now that MacOS is UNIX based it'll only be a matter of time surely before programs are written for the Mac to open previously linux only files.
Even if they are not directly compatible, there should be some way to synch them up, like the Palmdesktop thing, where you have 2 totally different architectures running totally different OSs but swapping files et c.
Plus, now that MacOS is UNIX based, it'll STOP all the linuxheads (no offence to any that might be around!) from shying away from MacOS. This whole *NIX thing was what made me take another look at MacOS recently, and i am sure many other people feel the same way.
If we do want a MacOS for the PC, then we'd better start emailing Apple, people, because if they don't know, they won't deliver! It wouldn't hurt sales of Macs either i reckon, because people would maybe buy a mac and a pc rather than 2 pcs if they knew the mac and pc were compatible with each other...
I am very encouraged by your comments. I do hope to see an x86 MacOS in the future!

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