this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I’m pretty sure you’ll like it, a hell of a lot more that Winblows anyway. like I said, macOS is UNIX (which linux was made to emulate), so they’re interoperable and have very similar architectures under the hood. macOS is defiantly different in its Apple-y ways, but still plays very nice with linux systems and also supports many linux software ports. There’s also a macOS command-line package manager called Homebrew that’s used to distribute many of these crossover software packages.
NO! macOS updates very rarely (if ever) break things, even with the legendarily persnickety Adobe apps, mostly because Adobe apps don’t have to hack shit in order to run on macOS, because macOS isn’t a dumpster fire of an OS like windows is.
Oo okay sweet! Mac OS doesn't seem too bad now.
macOS is actually pretty awesome. lots of FOSS people don’t like it simply because of Apple and because of how Apple tends to be a bit overbearing when hit comes to how it likes to do things. macOS has limited customizability, for example, which is something linux users like to go bonkers with. I get it. but there are still ways to do what you want regardless. lots of hacks and stuff.
But it’s the most widely-used and most commercially-successful distribution of UNIX in the consumer space, and the only one still around in any meaningful way. Apple managed to bring UNIX to the masses and to scale it from smartwatches to servers where others failed for decades, all in one, unified ecosystem of software and hardware products. Yes, Apple’s control over that ecosystem is too much for some to bear on philosophical grounds, but those objections usually turn out to be mostly symbolic when put to practical tests.
The other main objection is that Apple products tend to be in the “premium” range of pricing and are “anti-consumer” in that they’re difficult or impossible to repair or upgrade. Those are valid criticisms, however they affect a very tiny sector of users, so make what you will of that.
Note: Linux, currently, cannot run on Macs with Apple Silicon processors. great efforts are underway to make linux compatible with the processor, and AFAIK, the linux kernel itself runs on the AS processors, but the project hasn’t gotten much farther than that, being stuck on untangling the display adapter or something. The effort is, however, ongoing and should, hopefully soon, see a fully-compatible AS linux kernel with compatible AS linux builds n the near future.