Is OS X based on Unix?

Just curious?

 

It's based on some flavor of Unix, not Linux.

 

It's based on some branch of BSD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution#Significant_BSD_descendants

 

FreeBSD to be specific. It's because the BSD license is permissive

 

OS X is based on Darwin (core components of OS X), which was the OS from NeXT (which Steve Job's cofounded after he left Apple). Darwin was a based on NeXTSTEP (opensource desktop), BSD (it is not a deritive of FreeBSD or OpenBSD).

For clarity OS X is a certified Unix (rather than just being Unix compatible or based on Unix).

There is a useful diagram on this wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_(operating_system)

 

I recall seriously lusting after a Next box. Too expensive

 

EVERYTHING is based on UNIX! Everything there is!
You should narrate that Petyr Baelish style, from the Game of Thrones TV series.
Mrk

 

That was when Apple nearly went out of business and Microsoft bailed them out with cash. Didn't users have to forklift to upgrade (change systems out completely) after they moved to their new OS?

 

To a great extent, that's true. If not directly derived, most modern OSes are at least modeled to a certain extent on UNIX. Windows NT was originally designed to compete with UNIX in the business market. In order to do that they had to implement a lot the security features of UNIX like a file system with file permissions. My personal approach to Windows is to make it work more like UNIX. This involves rigorously separating data and binaries, setting file permissions appropriately so binaries don't get altered by malicious software and using a standard user account with no "root" access for day to day computing.

One reason OSX is so secure is that is derived from UNIX and it is set up so even administrators don't have full root administrative access to the system. Yes, there is a fstab file in the etc folder in OSX but you need a special file manager to get to it. The true root user in OSX is Apple.

 

That's true for all Apple OS, no?

... down to the device level

Maybe good security is here just an inadvertent consequence of aggressive monetization

 

For the money you pay, Apple will take care of you. The last time I owned a Mac was before IOS but it is the same principle. I thought of Apple at the time as "Mother Apple". You have security, yes, but not freedom. I don't use Apple products because I like the freedom to mess with the system or replace it with another one.

OSX's security is good because it is based on UNIX and Apple makes it extremely difficult to mess with the kernel and system base for end users unlike a basic Windows installation which gives users full administrative control.

 

Regarding Windows, this is true before Windows XP. Windows 8/8.1 are actually pretty secure system. That is, you set up a standard account and use it for everyday computing, and don't allow every single .exe downloaded from the internet to run.

 

Windows XP and all NT based versions of Windows up to 7 default to an administrator account. It is up to the user to set up a limited account. It is a full administrative account. OSX defaults to an administrator account that is more of a super user with installation rights account. There is an option to create a more limited user account.

 

In Win7/8/8.1, the first user account you created belongs to admin group, however there are restrictions like UAC prompt every time you need to install software. You can even configure that account to input Admin password at UAC prompt. I wouldn't call that a full administrative account.

 

In OSX, there is no access to the key system files in an Administrator account. In a Windows administrator account you can delete change and delete files in the system32 and other important system folders if you want to. You will be warned by UAC, but you can do it. A lot of what has been put in newer versions of Windows is to take care of users doing stupid things. OSX takes it to the point that it is impossible without 3rd party software. Windows just warns you. Before Windows 2000, Windows NT was sold to businesses and it was assumed there would be a skilled system administrator setting things up. With 2000 and XP it was put in the hands of consumers with little or no knowledge of what goes on inside a computer.

 

This chart is good to make things clear:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Unix_history-simple.svg

OS X is derived from FreeBSD and Nextstep

 

The Apple base system is open source UNIX.

Apple's Cocoa shell that makes OSX unique is proprietary to Apple.