Posts Tagged ‘osx’

Mac OS X != BSD

From a mailing list I am on (redacted for obivous reasons):

Regrettably I don't know enough about BSD internals to look for the solution
in the previous OS X where it is running OK. What I will do is un-install
Xxxxxxx, download a new distribution, and install it again. If that doesn't
effect a cure, I will have no idea what to do.

Ugh. That’s what we get when the shameless propaganda such as “Mac OS X == BSD” is allowed to spread. Yes, Mac OS X is “based on BSD”, in the sense that it uses tho same Mach kernel, but a lot of things are different, even under the hood.

Here’s the most obvious one: where’s the home directory under Mac OS X? /home? Unless Tiger or Leopard changed this, it’s under /Users or some non POSIX b.s.

People should know that “knowing BSD” != “knowing Mac OS X”, and vice versa.