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You can easily bring macOS up to Linux level GNU with brew. I agree generally though. I see macOS as an important Unix OS for the next decade.

Steltek 6y ago
"Linux" is more than coreutils. The Mac kernel is no where close to Linux in capability and Apple hates 3rd party drivers to boot. You'll end up running a half-baked Linux VM anyway so all macOS gets you is a SSH client with a nice desktop environment, which you can find anywhere really.
- Shared404 6y ago
  > all macOS gets you is a SSH client with a nice desktop environment Also proprietary software. Unfortunately, many people still need Adobe. I personally like Krita, Shotcut, and Darktable better than any of the Adobe products I used to use, but it's a real issue. E: Add "many people"
- john_alan 6y ago
  The micro-kernel design on macOS has benefits over Linux's monolithic kernel. You also get POSIX compliance.
  - astrange 6y ago
    macOS doesn't have a microkernel, but it does have userland drivers and it's pretty good at being macOS/iOS. Linux's oom-killer doesn't work nearly as well as jetsam.
    - john_alan 6y ago
      macOS has a Hybrid kernel with a decent portion being micro components I thought?
      - astrange 6y ago
        Mach started as a microkernel, but when they jammed together Mach and BSD they put it in the same process so it's not really separated anymore. Recently there are some hypervisor-like things for security, and more things have been moving to userland instead of being kexts. I'd still say it's less of a microkernel than Linux since it doesn't have FUSE.
mceachen 6y ago
> bring macOS up to Linux level GNU with brew. Ugh, not even. Simple and straightforward shell scripts that work on decade-old Linux distributions don't work on Big Sur due to ancient macOS bsd tooling. Just look at stackoverflow or similar sites: every answer has a comment "but this doesn't work on my macOS box." (I've had to add countless if-posix-but-mac workarounds for PhotoStructure).

Steltek 6y ago

"Linux" is more than coreutils. The Mac kernel is no where close to Linux in capability and Apple hates 3rd party drivers to boot. You'll end up running a half-baked Linux VM anyway so all macOS gets you is a SSH client with a nice desktop environment, which you can find anywhere really.

Shared404 6y ago
> all macOS gets you is a SSH client with a nice desktop environment Also proprietary software. Unfortunately, many people still need Adobe. I personally like Krita, Shotcut, and Darktable better than any of the Adobe products I used to use, but it's a real issue. E: Add "many people"
john_alan 6y ago
The micro-kernel design on macOS has benefits over Linux's monolithic kernel. You also get POSIX compliance.
- astrange 6y ago
  macOS doesn't have a microkernel, but it does have userland drivers and it's pretty good at being macOS/iOS. Linux's oom-killer doesn't work nearly as well as jetsam.
  - john_alan 6y ago
    macOS has a Hybrid kernel with a decent portion being micro components I thought?
    - astrange 6y ago
      Mach started as a microkernel, but when they jammed together Mach and BSD they put it in the same process so it's not really separated anymore. Recently there are some hypervisor-like things for security, and more things have been moving to userland instead of being kexts. I'd still say it's less of a microkernel than Linux since it doesn't have FUSE.

mceachen 6y ago

> bring macOS up to Linux level GNU with brew. Ugh, not even. Simple and straightforward shell scripts that work on decade-old Linux distributions don't work on Big Sur due to ancient macOS bsd tooling. Just look at stackoverflow or similar sites: every answer has a comment "but this doesn't work on my macOS box." (I've had to add countless if-posix-but-mac workarounds for PhotoStructure).