> Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 11:58:40 -0400 > From: Bill -Sx- Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > On 4/24/02 10:37 AM, "Vuillemot Ward W." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Is it me, or is Apache/Perl poorly supported on Mac OS X? That is to say, > > Apple has done enough changes to UNIX to break a lot of things that should > > just plain work. One of the reasons I am/was excited by Mac OS X was its > > UNIX underpinnings. As a web developer, I thought I would finally be able > > UNIX, in general, doesn't "just plain work." Never has for me - but maybe I > am being too "Think Skulled" ??? > "Unix" is NOT the same across platforms by any stretch of the imagination. It never was, and it never will be. If it was, it would be called "WinTel."
I normally work with Tru64 Unix on Alpha and with Alpha Linux, and I can say without qualms that the Open Source community simply does not support anything but Sparc or Intel. And it simply cannot deal with the idea of a 64bit clean environment. It takes exceptional work by a very small cadre of very dedicated people to provide all of the ports to all of the other platforms that exist. That any Open Source software exists at all for non-Sparc and non-Intel platforms is a minor miracle. I've used many, many different iterations of Unix in the past 20+ years and every one of them is "different." There is nothing which can be described as "should just plain work" as soon as you leave the explicit relm of Unix branding, POSIX compliance and the like. Personally, I find far more broken and idiotic assumptions in every Linux implementation I've worked with than with OS X. Don't like Netinfo -- then stay away from Sun's YP. Miss /etc/passwd? Then don't contemplate C2 security. Hack scripts depend upon "things that should just plain work," but for which there is no valid reason for them to work. OS X is incredibly secure. It is THE MOST OUT OF THE BOX, SECURE SHIPPING UNIX today -- bar none. I run Tru64 in C2 mode, but we have to build the system and sanitize it "off-line" before it is secure enough to plug into a remote network. The only open "hole" that OS X ships with is NFS. I can not say the same thing for HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, Tru64 or any version of Linux. Period. Yes, that means that some things "don't just plain work." But it means that I can sleep much better at night. -- T.T.F.N. William H. Magill Senior Systems Administrator Information Services and Computing (ISC) Networking & Telecommunications University of Pennsylvania [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.isc-net.upenn.edu/~magill/ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
