On 2010-09-05 11:12 , Adam Maas wrote:
the OS is Unix. Do you mean the window manager?
That's something of a Myth. OS X is not actually Unix. It's a Mach
Microkernel running a BSD userspace alongside a separate but
integrated Carbon/Cocoa GUI userspace. [...]
You could actually rip out the BSD portion [...]
it is not a myth and your statement about ripping out BSD is not correct
(the BSD user space is far from the whole story); the basic question is
"what is Unix?", which can be answered on technical and practical levels
technically, Mac OS X is POSIX-compliant and its core OS (Darwin) is
eligible for the Unix trademark (due to its Single Unix Specification
certification); the kernel is not pure Mach, it also draws from BSD (so
the BSD aspect is not just userspace), but most importantly the kernel
supplies all the services a Unix system needs
quoting Apple (emphasis mine): "Darwin is the name given to the *FreeBSD
environment that comprises the heart of Mac OS X*. FreeBSD is a variant
of the Berkeley Software Distribution *UNIX* environment, which provides
a secure and stable foundation for building software. Included in this
layer are the kernel environment, device drivers, security support,
interprocess communication support, and low-level commands and services
*used by all programs on the system*."
practically, Mac OS X includes all the "Unix tools" which defined the
Unix user experience and programmability as i learned them on a PDP
11/45 (pre-X, pre-GNU); X11 is an optional install, but included with
the OS; out of the box, one can ignore the GUI and roll out Mac OS X (or
Darwin alone) as a server which, though not most people's first choice,
is competent for most anything one might expect a Unix server to do
feel free to pick nits, alt.unix.pedants.pdml awaits
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