There's actually a very significant difference - a symlink just resolves to a fixed path, whereas an alias always resolves to the same file/folder, no matter wh

There's actually a very significant difference - a symlink just resolves to a fixed path, whereas an alias always resolves to the same file/folder, no matter where it is moved within the filesystem. They remember things like which volume a file is on as well, so if you were to have an alias on a file server or a disconnected drive it would automatically remount the server or ask you to connect the missing volume. (EDIT: Or at least, used to in pre-OS X times. Just tried it now with an external hard drive and it failed to ask for the volume back. Still works with file servers, though.) That alias also points to the same file no matter which Mac it is moved to, so if you create an alias to a folder on a server, you can copy that to 10 different Macs and it will always resolve so long as it can contact the file server. Since they act so differently, you really can't replace one with the other without breaking expected behavior.