Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Mac OS X Leopard is Now Officially Unix

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the thank-god-now-cat-will-work dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Mac OS X Leopard is now officially Unix, according to the Opengroup." I know everyone out there was really worried about this one. Welcome to the August news vacuum!

8 of 351 comments (clear)

  1. Good for them by ceeam · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now can we have POSIX specs publically available (free)?

  2. If it meant anything by mjgraham · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If UNIX meant more than real world UNIX Compatibility, there's now an easily usable, affordable real UNIX on the market - is the jist of the news. For the few organisations that demand real UNIX this could be in Apple's favour. Yes, the hardware may be crappy, but admin costs would be lower. Or not. Either way the Pointy-haired bosses of the world will be all over it, so many admins will have no choice.

  3. Re:Money is taken away from the idiots by ThosLives · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's not about the 'name' it's about what the certificate represents: Compliance with a specified set of tests.

    That's actually very valuable and it isn't just the name, because it means that if you have an application that relies on the functionality proven by those tests, then you're good.

    That's the whole point of standards and standardizing bodies. You want a gallon to be a gallon (US or UK, just be consistent!), a kilogram to be a kilogram, a UNIX to be a UNIX. Testing isn't free, so instead of relying on volunteers to do testing it looks like IBM, Apple, Sun, HP, and Fujitsu paid some guys calling themselves the Open Group to do some verification and certify that some standards are met. I don't see a lot of controversy there.

    --
    "There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
  4. Re:No Linux? by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oddly enough, I don't see any Linux vendors on that list. Does this mean that OSX is more Unixy than Linux?


    The certification process is expensive. Very expensive. A Linux distro could, in fact, be certified, but no one has been interested in spending that much money to get one certified. It would take a lot of money, and what's it worth, really?

    It would take a lot of money.....? Hey, yo! Mark Shuttleworth! You're a billionaire, right? You want Ubuntu to be UNIX-certified, right?
    --
    My blog
  5. Re:Thank goodness! by HairyCanary · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ummm... when I hit Ctrl-D, it DOES close the terminal. Ever thought about examining the preferences? I guess not.

  6. Re:I think its a major achievement by ericrost · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Linux isn't UNIX for cost reasons. UNIX is a copyrighted compatibility certification. It costs a lot of money to get that moniker, and it really doesn't mean anything in these days of Linux and BSD.

    Linux is Linux, it doesn't NEED to be UNIX.

    --
    My Babylon
  7. Re:It passed the certification by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's not just testing, there is a LOT of money involved here. Maybe Apple only paid to test the Intel version, there is little reason for them to pay to test a legacy (for them) architecture, the newest PPC models are now nearing two years old now.

  8. Re:Dumb questions by david.emery · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think the more accurate statement is that Leopard is the first one that -passed- certification.

              dave