Which is better? OSX or Ubuntu?

[Eric Dunbar]

Glad you enjoyed it :-)

Yes, you can run Darwin open source software on OS X, provided it's
been compiled for OS X. The licence itself doesn't determine what OS
the app will run on. There are enough open source software packages
that are Mac OS X _only_.

OS X _is_ Darwin (actually NetBSD) with a mach kernel (that's not in
Darwin) and a whole slew of services Apple has superimposed (e.g. Aqua
for the user interface, Cocoa programming interface, "Classic" for Mac
OS 9, etc.), but, for the most part, the core Darwin (BSD utilities)
is unchanged. (that's one of the reasons developers often develop on
Darwin when they're writing for OS X... they can tackle the nitty
gritty without worrying about such niceties as GUI, etc.).

As for running a particular Darwin app, YMMV. It's going to depend on
exactly which Darwin app you want to use (most Darwin-only apps will
be targeted at "technically" minded individuals... i.e. a GUI isn't
going to be in store for you).

Eric.

On 1/22/06, Richard Colbert Jr <richard at venuspcservice.com> wrote:
> Eric, that is how you're supposed to answer a question like mine. Thanks so
> much!
>
> I have upgraded the memory in the iMac to 320MB now. I think I will wind up
> going with OSX and Ubuntu in the dual boot situation. I do have one more
> question though!
>
> Will OSX allow you to run Open-Source Software designed for the Open-Source
> Darwin OS?
>
> **Note: I know Darwin is the root of OSX, I also know Apple
> changed/added/edited a lot of the Darwin OS in making OSX.**