Yellow Dog Linux

I was reading somewhere (forgot the page) that Mac OS X has a UNIX base. Is that true?

uncholowapo wrote:I was reading somewhere (forgot the page) that Mac OS X has a UNIX base. Is that true?

Yes - very true.

MacOS X is based on BSD UNIX. Roughly speaking, this is sort of the "Father" of Linux. (I don't want to take this analogy too far, though )

There's a good history about BSD here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bsd

MacOS X is not based on standard BSD, though - it's an open source fork called Darwin. The main difference is in the kernel. Unlike the kernels found in BSD & Linux, MacOS X uses a modified Mach kernel.

Simply put, most UNIX kernels include some low, low, low level "modules" to improve performance. This is kinda bad because if the module crashes, so does your kernel. But - especially in the early days of PCs - this was necessary to make them perform efficiently. A Mach kernel is basically nothing but kernel - it can launch, prioritize and kill threads. You implement your modules on top of this in normal "user" space - not in "kernel" space. If a module dies, the kernel can restart it safely.

(Well - that's the theory anyway. )

Again - more about Mach here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_kernel

Since UNIX doesn't particularly care about graphics, Apple runs its own graphic system on top of Darwin called "Quartz". This is a replacement for the X Windows that Linux systems generally run, and was originally based on Visual Postscript. (Yes - the same thing that runs LaserPrinters). It's programmable via a native GUI library called "Cocoa" or a partial backwards compatible Mac OS 9 GUI library called "Carbon".

Interestingly enough - since it's BSD based, you can run X Windows on a Mac as well. It's a quite decent implentation, too - it runs simultaneously with Quartz, and a few applications like The Gimp & OpenOffice use X Windows for their display on the Mac.

So - in conclusion - Mac OS X is a BSD UNIX system (Darwin), using a Mach kernel (XNU) with a custom graphics layer called Quartz that offers X Windows support.

Sound good?

Cheers,
Paul

Thank you so much for the extensive response.

Can you install both Mac OS and Windows vista on the same computer? I own a hp dv3000 and My OS is WIndows Vista Home Premium. I also like Mac OS and want to install it in my computer so that I can use both of the OS. Is that possible? If possible, how?
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colleenex wrote:Can you install both Mac OS and Windows vista on the same computer? I own a hp dv3000 and My OS is WIndows Vista Home Premium. I also like Mac OS and want to install it in my computer so that I can use both of the OS. Is that possible? If possible, how?

Hi collenex,

Unfortunately, this is the wrong place to ask. This community board is about the Linux operating system Yellow Dog that runs on Apple's last generation of computers. These are computers based on the PowerPC processor - sometimes called G4 or G5 machines. This is not the same processor that's in your HP - that uses an Intel x86 family processor.

Therefore, we don't answer technical questions about Windows or Mac OS here. We mention them from time to time for comparison.

Cheers,
Paul

P.S. The answer to your question is no - not legally. You need to buy a Mac to officially run Mac OS. If you had a Mac, you could load a licensed copy of Windows Vista on it with a built-in tool called Boot Camp. But - legally - your HP Laptop should remain Windows - or Linux.

is Mac OS X good enough for G3? or vice versa? i don't know my stuff very well. hehe.

levian wrote:is Mac OS X good enough for G3? or vice versa? i don't know my stuff very well. hehe.

Again - this is a Yellow Dog Linux forum, not a Mac OS forum. It's best to ask that on a more applicable forum.

Locking this thread to further posts.

Cheers,
Paul