OS X and Linux what the differences ?
Sunday, February 6th, 2011 at
14:44
I have a macbook intel etc… with os x tiger and i have parallels , i have read all about linux and am thinking of installing it BUT why do i need it as most of the linux applications are available on os x !?! is there any significant difference between the two os ? i am a moderate user on computers and am just starting to learn to write code
Tagged with: intel • Linux • Linux Applications • macbook • moderate user • os x • os x tiger • parallels • tiger
Filed under: Linux Applications
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Given that Mac is essentially BSD Unix, I personally don’t see a pressing reason to try Linux (if you were using Windows, that would be a different story.
Mac OS X uses BSD Unix, which has a pedigree over 30 years old. Linux is a re-write of Unix that is about 17 years old. Linux looks and behaves almost exactly like Unix under the hood (there are still some small differences) and code that compiles on Linux will compile on BSD. The interfaces are different, but each have their own advantages.
If you wish to learn Unix/Linux, you can try to learn the command line and use other Unix based tools. OS X has a command line and it even has some of my favorite Unix/Linux utilities.
Download some of the programs available for both. I believe the GNU compiler is available for Mac. Mac may already have a C/C++ compiler available. If you are a beginning programmer, may I suggest starting with Python. The syntax is easy to use and it will give you a powerful tool to learn and write useful programs with.
You can maybe even pick up a book on Unix to learn about what’s going on under the hood of your Mac. You’d be surprised how powerful the command line can be.
But I don’t see any need to download Linux at this point. Both offer the same reliability and stability. Mac offers more commercial titles.
They are completely different operating systems.
Both Mac OS X and Linux are based on Unix.
Knowing how to use Linux is going to help you immensely with coding in the future.
Hi, first of all Linux is quite different then OS X. Mac OS X is built on top of freeBSD kernel which is the BSD distribution of Unix. Linux is a complete re write of Unix and is free. Just like Dell, Acer, Hp pc’s r clones of the IBM pc but work better than them, in the same way Linux is a clone of Unix which is actually more powerful than Unix now. Learning Linux would be great. I use Linux and I have no problems with it. I hope I helped.
Good Luck!
By what you said in your question, I would say that you should not use Linux. I’d say to even consider using Linux, you should have a basic understanding of what it is. it is a more complicated OS to use and OS X is just fine.