At least before the iPhone era began, Apple has played up the fact that OS X has *nix roots in order to draw hackers to the Mac. Check out this switcher's test

At least before the iPhone era began, Apple has played up the fact that OS X has *nix roots in order to draw hackers to the Mac. Check out this switcher's testimonial from 2002: http://web.archive.org/web/20021030230932/http://www.apple.com/switch/stories/index2.html http://web.archive.org/web/20021030230932/http://www.apple.c... And another switcher story explicitly mentioning Unix: http://web.archive.org/web/20021031010139/http://www.apple.com/switch/stories/ http://web.archive.org/web/20021031010139/http://www.apple.c... And notice this from the tech specs of the Titanium PowerBook G4 circa 2002: "Whether you use a Mac, Windows, or UNIX system, your search for the world’s best high performance thin and light notebook computer is over." "Complementing this performance platform is Mac OS X—a supermodern operating system that combines the power and stability of UNIX with the elegance of Macintosh." http://web.archive.org/web/20021004151455/http://www.apple.com/powerbook/specs.html http://web.archive.org/web/20021004151455/http://www.apple.c... And don't forget about the former NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP users who more than likely migrated to the Mac in order for them to continue using an updated (if with a different UI) version of the operating system they loved.