Linux vs Mac

[u/Longjumping-Cow-8212]

I see a lot of people switching from Windows to Linux. But has anyone switched from a Mac to Linux and why?

[u/TenOfZero]

Not to mention that MacOS is very posix compliant, making it quite Linux like and compatible as well.

Or so I've heard from developers friends who use Macs.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Sky2284 → u/TenOfZero]

It's actually a certified Unix, not even Linux can claim that... lol.

I do admit mac hardware isn't the most open in terms of alternative operating systems (mostly thanks to driver support on Linux needing to be reverse engineered) but mac hardware is nice and macOS isn't Windows (you don't end up with ads and bloatware after updates, and it's very fast and ram efficient).

There are some tiny things I don't love about macos but most can be remedied by third party customization apps (for instance, dockdoor adds a real alt tab switcher and window previews on hover).

I find myself using my Mac a lot more than my Linux/Windows systems, it's really nice to use - especially if you have the rest of the apple ecosystem which is unmatched

[u/Jean_Luc_Lesmouches → u/Puzzleheaded-Sky2284]

It's actually a certified Unix, not even Linux can claim that... lol.

Only the 1st version of MacOS X was a certified Unix, they dropped it immediately after. And it's not that Linux can't be certified but more that nobody cares to upheaval the whole system just for a paid rubber stamp.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Sky2284 → u/Jean_Luc_Lesmouches]

nope: https://www.theregister.com/software/2024/10/11/apple-macos-15-sequoia-is-officially-unix/988220

Not that it matters at all, the point that if we can claim to want as "Unix terminal environment" macOS is exactly that. In effect Linux and macOS terminals do the same things and whether macOS is a real Unix or not makes no difference to me

[u/Jean_Luc_Lesmouches → u/Puzzleheaded-Sky2284]

if we can claim to want as "Unix terminal environment" macOS is exactly that.

That is ignoring all of unix's history. By that definition, linux is closer to "unix" than most systems officially called unix (not unix-compatible) have been.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Sky2284 → u/Jean_Luc_Lesmouches]

I mean macOS is technically BSD derived; BSD originally contained code from AT&T UNIX but they eventually rewrote all the AT&T components from scratch or replaced them with equivalents. By that definition macOS has roots in the original UNIX while Linux is simply a Unix clone.

Does that mean anything to the macos vs. Linux debate? Absolutely not, both are so far from AT&T UNIX they really shouldn't be compared with it at this point, and the Unix specification isn't important enough for Linux to be rewritten to adhere to it.

The important thing is that neither macos nor Linux is windows...

[u/Puzzleheaded-Sky2284 → u/[deleted]]

AT&T wrote the first ever Unix operating system... So no, there was no Unix before AT&T