This is a common question people usually ask for Mac user like me .. If you ask me this question I would answer ” NO “. But that’s not because I’m not a Linux user, actually I love Linux and I love to read about how people took that open-source operating system and develop it until Linux became one of the most powerful operating systems available for computers.

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Let’s start from the beginning ..

In the early 1950s, a computer could execute only one program at a time. So there was no operating systems at all. Because people to operate more than one program at the same time. Companies started to make complex programs that could do more than one task at a time. Until Unix became to computing life.

Now let’s talk about a little bit about Unix ..

Ken Thompson wrote B, mainly based on BCPL, which he used to write Unix. B was replaced by C programming language, and Unix developed into a large, complex family of inter-related operating systems which have been influential in every modern operating system today ( like Linux and Mac OS ). The name “UNIX” is a trademark of The Open Group which licenses it for use with any operating system that has been shown to conform to their definitions. This made Unix the world’s first portable operating system, capable of being easily ported (moved) to any hardware. This was a major advantage for Unix and led to its widespread use in the multi-platform environments of colleges and universities.

What did companies did after this huge movement of programming ?

They took that powerful Open-Source base layer ( Unix-Like ) and built their own operating systems based on Unix, mostly because they found it as a powerful way to interact with the hardare. When people hear the word Unix, they usually think it’s something related to the Linux OS. When Apple told people that they used Unix as their core foundation and powerful technologies such as Grand Central Dispatch, OpenCL, Bonjour networking, and built-in synchronization. People thought that they used Linux, but actually Both Max OS and Linux are Unix or Unix-like systems. and both follow the POSIX standard, but neither is based on the other. You can also run Unix commands and shell scripts via the “Terminal”, but that doesn’t mean Apple just copied Linux files because Linux uses the same unix commands and shell scripts.

Now, Let’s talk about Mac OS individually..

Mac OS X is based upon the Mach kernel. Certain parts from FreeBSD’s and NetBSD’s implementation of Unix were incorporated in NeXTSTEP, the core of Mac OS X. NeXTSTEP was the object-oriented operating system developed by Steve Jobs’ company NeXT after he left Apple in 1985. While Jobs was away from Apple, Apple tried to create a “next-generation” OS through the Taligent, Copland and Gershwin projects, with little success.

Eventually, NeXT’s OS, then called OPENSTEP, was selected to be the basis for Apple’s next OS, and Apple purchased NeXT outright. Steve Jobs returned to Apple as interim CEO, and later became CEO, shepherding the transformation of the programmer-friendly OPENSTEP into a system that would be adopted by Apple’s primary market of home users and creative professionals.

Mac OS X, whose X is the Roman numeral for 10 and is a prominent part of its brand identity. The first version released was Mac OS X Server 1.0 in 1999, and a desktop-oriented version, Mac OS X v10.0 “Cheetah” followed on March 24, 2001. Releases of Mac OS X are named after big cats: for example, Mac OS X v10.6 is usually referred to by Apple and users as “Snow Leopard”.

Box artwork for Mac OS X. Left to right:

Cheetah/Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard.

and now Linux Individually ..

Linux refers to the family of Unix-like computer operating systems using the Linux kernel. Linux can be installed on a wide variety of computer hardware, ranging from mobile phones, tablet computers and video game consoles, to mainframes and supercomputers. Linux is a leading server operating system, and runs the 10 fastest supercomputers in the world.

The development of Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed, both commercially and non-commercially, by anyone under licenses such as the GNU General Public License.

People developed the main version of Linux and created more distributions for it. So when someone says ” I use Linux as my operating system “, but actually that’s not specific enough. Typically Linux is packaged in a format known as a Linux distributionfor desktop and server use. Some popular mainstream Linux distributions include Debian (and its derivatives such as Ubuntu), Fedora and openSUSE. Linux distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting utilities and libraries to fulfill the distribution’s intended use.

Here are some Screenshots of common distributions ( Click on the logo to enlarge )