Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!randvax!segue!gene From: gene@segue.segue.com (Gene Hightower) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Re: Mac System 7.0 vs. Unix Message-ID: <7871@segue.segue.com> Date: 14 Jun 91 23:52:44 GMT References: <1991Jun7.201220.19510@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov> <1068@witch.witchcraft.sf.ca.us> Reply-To: gene@segue.segue.com (Gene Hightower) Organization: Segue Software, Inc. - Santa Monica, CA. +1-213-453-2161 Lines: 82 This should go someplace other then comp.windows.x. In article <1068@witch.witchcraft.sf.ca.us> chappell@witchcraft.sf.ca.us (Tom Chappell) writes: >larryc@puente.jpl.nasa.gov (Larry Carroll) writes: >>This is a kind of silly thing to ask, but my supervisor doesn't think so: >>How does Apple's System 7.0 operating system compare with Unix? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ So lets compare it with Unix. First let me say that by "Unix" I am talking about SunOS 4.x and HP-UX from first hand knowlage. I can't speak for all the systems that are (or have ever been) called Unix. >Man, oh man, I can't believe you just said that. I won't bother with a full >list, but apart from the "cosmetic" changes, System 7 includes: > >1. Peer-To-Peer networking via AppleTalk (LocalTalk, TokenTalk, or EtherTalk) >2. Inter-Application Communication, INCLUDING IAC BETWEEN APPLICATIONS RUNNING Unix systems have networking. NFS provides file sharing, but there are lots of ways that Unix systems use the ability to network. With a window system such as X, programs can run on one machine and display graphics on the screen of another machine. The X window system is not unique to Unix, but the Mac OS makes it hard to build more then the server side of the system. In other words, to use Macintish A you have to sit in front of Mac A and use it's keyboard and screen. You can't access its CPU power from another computer. >3. Support for File, Folder, and Volume Aliases, similar to UNIX links, except The same as "symbolic" links. Symbolic links can point to files on other filesystems and via NFS to files on remote machines. >4. Publish and Subscribe. One Macintosh user selects a portion of a document, This feature is mostly a feature of the application you are running, i.e. the drawing or word processing program. System 7 may provide support to such operations, but it does not provide the operations directly. Unix applications have had the OS support (in the form of IPC) for some time. >5. Virtual Memory. Allows Macintosh users to actually run several applications Well, almost virtual memory. All of the programs run in the same address space. The programs don't move around. If you run programs A, B and C and program B needs more space, you are out of luck. You could give each program a huge block of address space, but it's not as good as each program having its own space. Another problem with this way of doing things is that one program can screw up not only itself, but any other program on the system, or the OS itself. System 7 also swaps to the filesystem. This has drawbacks. Speed mostly. OS/2 does this also. The big reason is that folks can upgrade to the new virtual memory OS without rearanging hard disk space. >6. No More Finder. In the bad old days, there was a Finder and a MultiFinder. This is taking away a feature. >7. Apple Events. System 7 now provides a standard method for applications to This sounds like another form of IPC. Sounds like points 1, 2, 4 and 7 are all interprocess communication. Unix has this. >I might add that all of this stuff has been added so seamlessly that your >impression is, "It seems like the biggest change to the Apple OS is cosmetic." I didn't see that many cosmetic changes in 7 anyhow. I would have liked to. The monochrome flat look of the scrollbars and buttons is looking out of date next to the 3-D and color stuff showing up in OPEN LOOK, Motif and NextStep. >Next time, try posting questions about the Macintosh to one of the Mac news >groups. I don't get the Mac related newgroups, so I have not moved this thred.-- Gene Hightower