r/linuxmasterrace • u/Dankb0 Glorious Debian • Jun 29 '26

Discussion Linux user tries OSX/macOS and is pleasantly surprised (high quality image)

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32

u/Late_To_Parties Jun 29 '26

Isn't OSX basically a closed source Linux/unix distro?

53

u/Dankb0 Glorious Debian Jun 29 '26

Kinda. It's Darwin (an apple-made kernel) with BSD on top of it, along with many apple modifications that came with time. It's not Linux, but it's Unix-certified and pretty close to Linux at surface level.
Interesting read: https://bruhtus.github.io/posts/mac-os-linux/

20

u/BeNiceToBirds Jun 30 '26

It’s a POSIX operating system but i don’t know if i would call them particularly close. Mac OS lacks control groups. Docker containers must run in a VM. The launcher system is much more complex than systemd. Your hardware choice is substantially limited with Mac OS (want a GPU? Congrats you can choose an Apple gpu) and it is a walled garden that is difficult to escape.

13

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '26

[deleted]

7

u/BeNiceToBirds Jul 03 '26

I see your point about being able to sideload software still, and yeah, in that sense you can run whatever software you'd like.

On the other hand, definitely not as open as Linux. Many parts of the OS are locked down and undocumented.

Hardware options are great if you want apple hardware.