is MacOS just a Linux?

Question

I haven't used MacOS yet, but I have used Linux a LOT, and I was reading this tutorial about how to spin down a hard drive in MacOS, they used a SHELL (not a GUI like Windows), and a command that I use all the time when I'm using Linux (sudo)
Makes me wonder, is MacOS just a Linux distro?
If yes, then why are there people claiming MacOS is the BEST OS and Linux is the WORST?
And why won't Mac software run on Linux?

Answer 1

It is NOT a Linux however Linux is a BSD-derived OS while Macs and IPads have OSes which are built on BSD. I'm a long-term Linux User but also an older person with a lot of relatives we used to call "MacFascists". There is something called GNUStep which is meant to provide free OSes with the same advantages as Cocoa. It's most often used for porting OS X and the proprietary parts to architectures it's not designed to run on. It has better uses than that.

Answer 2

While Mac OSX is another *nix like OS somewhat similar to Linux, I believe it is something called Dolphin that is BSD based. And while many commands are the same or similar, if you ever ran FreeBSD (which I have done and used for doing things on apache web servers) or NetBSD (which I have on a Unix shell account), or SunOS (which my first ISP used), the binaries are different code, partition formatting or some paths can be different, and some commands are different, even though they have many common commands that can at least make it easy to find your way around most any *nix like system (cd, ls, cat, "more" or "less", etc.). And the desktop is different with the Mac typically using a single button mouse. I can also find my way around my Android phone when I ssh to it running SSHServer app (although, Android is based on Linux).



But I don't know full details about Macs. I have been running Linux for about 20 years from the time Win3.1 did not have native dial up networking and even tcp/ip was not installed by default. But my last Apple product was an Apple ][+ in early 1980's, so I have never run any Mac OS.

Answer 3

Mac OS is BSD Unix with a major "simplification' layer on top of it. It is designed to be "idiot proof".



I am a Linux person (using it now). I bought an Macbook Air last month. I have powered it up about five times. Now I do not remember the login password. I'm not feeling motivated to bother with it.



I think it is pretty useless for the power user. It is perfect for the very causal user because it is 99.9% free of malware.



As for me, well, I will likley blow away mac OS, and install Linux on it.



Edit: Considering Apples recent blunders, I see no reason to invest anymore in it. For examples:



Honestly, most users had no idea we were using iMessage. I do not obsess over my phone enough to notice the blue vs green bubbles. Most people do not notice. What a blunder Apple! Why not let people opt-in to iMessage rather than leave it on by default? Anyway, I was lucky that I never had any trouble with iMessage, but millions of others were not so lucky.



With regard to iOS 8, now I wish I had my iPhone 5 with iOS 7 back. My iPhone 6+ is more problems than it is worth.



I suppose iMessage is enabled on my MacBook? I never took the time to find out.

Answer 4

MacOS uses internally a Unix variant, a Mach kernel. It's binary incompatible with Linux and its internal architecture is different. The rest of MacOS is completely proprietary.



It is the same thing with Android, it boots Linux, and yet, it doesn't include most command-line utilities, XServer, KDE, GNOME, etc.

Answer 5

Yes. Linux is a version of mac os.