This is just a place where I am going to put my thoughts on the relationship between freeBSD and the other *BSDs, with OSX. I am not a programmer, nor nor am I a zealot. I have interacted with just enough people in the free software community to know that they, in general, rude and critical people. They however, are also brilliant perfectionists and very devoted. They turn out a quality product. I just like the well washed Apple users better, even though they can get just as hysterical. Strangely, most Apple users are only only interested in using their Apple and not fiddlig with it. This is my sounding board for my own ideas on how a casual *BSD user may approach OSX. See also my MacBlog.
Volumes, no doubt have already been written on the subject. My, reasons may be different. I was a NeXT user. Jobs went to Reed College. I went to Reed College. I used NeXT before I used a normal *NIX box. I have used Linux and freeBSD. My current server uses freeBSD. I was never a Apple user before OSX. I have always used a MS Windows laptop. I don't game. I have a real job now, and my time is critically important. I have not been bored since 1991. My operating system is not my hobby. I have too much to do. I think it is pretty obvious why I switched. Now I have a PowerBook.
Using different alphabets is easy from the System Preferences and International Settings. Termical.App can even speak UTF-8. Some programs can not. Xemacs has problems with it, but Pico seems to be UTF-8 native. Make sure you de-select "wide glyphs" under Window Settings -> Display if you are doing cyrillic.
OSX is Darwin is BSD
Do not use POSIX tools (like cp,mv,rm,rsync) on Mac HFS+ files with resource forks.
ditto -rsrcCpMac, works like the finder's drag and drop; and thus does not preserve permissions. Use with '-r' to copy directories.rsyncx
psync, not suggested for use with Panther.
cp |
CpMac |
ditto |
rsync |
rysncx |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Can copy single files: | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Can copy entire directories: | yes (-R) |
yes (-r) |
yes | yes | yes |
| Can preserve resource forks, type & creator: | no | yes | yes (-rsrcFork) |
no | yes (-eahfs) |
| Can preserve ownership, permissions: | yes (-p) |
no | yes | yes | yes |
| Included with standard OS-X install: | yes | no | yes | yes | no |
RsyncX puts a replacement rsync in
/usr/local/bin that is HFS+ aware.
rsync -eahfs [SRC] [DEST]
/usr/local/bin/rsync --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync --eahfs -e ssh -avz --showtogo --stats `whoami`@catbert.lsait.lsa.umich.edu:/Library/NetBoot/NetBootSP0 /Library/NetBoot
(from UMich.Edu)
It is possible to use the "normal" rsync (/usr/bin) with HFS+ volumes if you use dittoe as the shell, from Wan Tat Chee:
rsync -auIW -e '/usr/bin/ditto -rsrc' {sourcedir} {destdir}
rsync --delete -ae '/Developer/Tools/CpMac' {sourcedir} {destdir}, works on locked files but does not preserve creation dates
MvMac (requires developer tools)
Apple has a responsibility to its share holders and users, to maintain a well functioning company. This means running the company for a profit. Apple has taken a free operating system with countless hours of volunteer labor, and build upon it a commercial product after many more countless hours of development. Some ask, what has Apple done for for the free software community to compensate it for all its work. I will answer this.
First off, is this not the point of free software? I used freeBSD for a long time and did not give a plug nickle back to the community. I assume the core programmers where happy I was using their work. I assume the core programmers are happy Apple recognized their work as the best, and appropriated it. This is not GnuLand where nobody is allowed to make a living. In addition, Apple has hired a lot of the core programmers and now they are capitalizing off their work. Apple has also released a lot of code into the open source community. I would say that this is just smart buisiness. Smart buisiness is showing responsibility to the users and shareholders.