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I've been trying to stick with bash for at least 20 years (I did have a brief tcsh phase before that) since a time when sticking with it meant having to install
by jdboyd 5y ago
I've been trying to stick with bash for at least 20 years (I did have a brief tcsh phase before that) since a time when sticking with it meant having to install it on every unix system I touched. However, now that MacOS defaults to zsh, I'm starting to wonder if I should summon up the effort to change again.
- jolmg 5y agoI think the most noticeable difference is that `$foo` doesn't word-split unless you do `${=foo}`. Beyond that, I don't think one would notice they were using zsh instead of bash. In most ways, zsh is pretty much a superset of bash.
- dekhn 5y agopersonally, I don't have interest in zsh because bash is the default shell in Linux, which is the UNIX system I use (I find mac's unix to be really a weird variant). Mac switching to zsh is just more evidence they're diverting from the mainstream.
- handrous 5y ago> I find mac's unix to be really a weird variant It's closer to BSD than it is to Linux. Not super similar, but closer, especially in ways one tends to notice on the command line.
- tomc1985 5y agoIt still sticks pretty close to BSD. I am seeing a ton of (entirely natural) similarity since I started seriously playing with FreeBSD
- dekhn 5y agoyou're right, Mac OS X is a derivative of BSD but it also has significant Mach tech (like the linker). I've used freebsd for years and I still find Mac OS to be the least useful UNIX.
- smhenderson 5y agoIronic it's one of the few (only?) popular, widely deployed ones left that gets to sport the fact it's a certified Unix OS - https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/ https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/
- dekhn 5y agoSort of. I see this a different way. Many years ago, Linux replaced UNIX as the "standard UNIX", and certification become irrelevant. Further, unless I'm missing an important technical detail, Linux could, with some effort, pass the certification process.
- mprovost 5y agoApple switched to zsh because newer versions of bash are licensed under GPLv3.
- dekhn 5y agoI know what the reason is. I don't care. I use GPLv3 and have no interest in an OS that doesn't. You can run bash on windows or compile it yourself on any platform. microsoft even distributes it with windows.
- Firehawke 5y agoNot strictly correct. It's provided by whatever WSL distro you download, and that download comes from the distro as opposed to Microsoft.
- nonamenoslogan 5y agoCompile it yourself on MacOS, problem solved. Or install it with Homebrew?
- saghm 5y agoIIRC, MacOS had to ship with a fairly old version of bash by default because newer versions have a more copyleft license; I always assumed that their swap to zsh was because they wanted something both up to date and compatible in terms of the license (and the fact that most bash "just works" when you run it in zsh is a plus).
- gnubison 5y agomacOS is about as standard of a Unix as you can get, apart from Linux with coreutils.