The best of both worlds?
Regular readers of this column know that I'm quite a fan of the Apple Computer operating system and have been since the first version came out in 1983. I've also been a Unix geek for even longer. I cannot imagine how I would get my work done without Mac OS and Unix.
Up to now I've been using Tenon's MachTen, a Unix program that runs as a Mac OS application, to enable me to have both on the same platform. With it, I can run Mac applications yet have a full-fledged Unix at my command. Now I can get the whole package from Apple - I picked up and installed a copy of OS X, Apple's new operating system, yesterday.
In Mac-mode, OS X improves on the current Macintosh user interface in a number of subtle and not so subtle ways - it's just different enough that it will take time to get used to some of it. Because OS X is installed with OS 9.1, the current Mac operating system, just about all current Mac applications can run in OS 9.1 mode. Some new applications can run in native OS X mode and benefit from the new user interface. But if all you got with OS X was the revised user interface it would not be that interesting or relevant to most readers of this column.
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The thing that should be interesting to those of you who still use Unix (or Linux) is that under the covers OS X is a full-blown Unix system. Apple does not make this obvious in its documentation but Unix is there and can be used via a command line interface just like any other Unix versions. The command line interface is accessed through the "Terminal" application.
This is a quite complete Unix version, including a full development environment (442 applications in /usr/bin, 31 in /bin, 54 in /sbin, and 114 in /usr/sbin). I have not been able to discover that any BSD 4.4 application is missing, and many gnu applications are included.
So far I can find that only one of the Unix applications I depend on was not included and that is ssh. But the sources for ssh can be downloaded and compiled following these instructions.
Meanwhile Tenon has developed a nice X Window server and a set of tools that can be used if you want to use OS X as a production Web server.
With only a day's worth of playing around, I'm sure I have not found many of the inevitable bugs or omissions but it sure looks good so far. If I were Apple, I would make OS X available for Intel platforms - that would make for an interesting contest. Next step, put OS X on my new Titanium G4 PowerBook - I can hardly wait!
Disclaimer: With 365 years behind it, Harvard knows how to wait even if I don't and the above is my own evaluation.
Bradner is a consultant with Harvard University's University Information Systems. He can be reached at sob@sobco.com
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