RE: [PLUG] Without OS X

["Christian Hedemark" <chedemark@cc3.com>]

Paul said:
> Sounds reasonable, but I'm sorry to say my one line question 
> about OS X 
> has turned this list into a OS X list!  Just remember, OS X wouldn't 
> exist without things like OSS and Linux.

Actually, that is a slight misperception.

OS X would have come just as easily *without* Linux.  *BSD was around
long before Linux, but Linux happened to pop at a time that the *BSD's
were mired down in legal troubles.  I dare say this could have gone very
differently without the lawsuit (in terms of Linux' current popularity
and its proportion to *BSD's popularity).

Also, "Open Source" was a marketing term that was coined relatively
recently, and is not universally loved by people who use software that
fall into this category.  Even the older term "free software" is
misleading, as it means different things to different people (are you
talking about the cost, or the freedom?  and if the latter, the freedom
of the end user or the freedom of the software to remain free regardless
of the end user's wishes?)

Much of OS X is indeed free, under someone's definition anyway.  You can
get the Darwin BSD distro and run it on some x86 hardware and most
recent Apple hardware.  The really neat bits that set OS X apart from
other BSD flavors are unfortunately proprietary and not included in
Darwin.

This is a huge subject and one which I can' really cover here at work.
But it suffices to say that when you are talking to a large group of
Linux users, chances are there are a lot of OS X fans in that audience
as well.

===========================================================
Notice:  This e-mail message, together with any attachments, contains 
information of CC3 that may be confidential, proprietary and/or legally 
privileged, and is intended to be read and used solely by the individuals 
or entities named as recipients on this message.  Without limiting the 
foregoing, all copyrightable graphics, content and documents, and all 
trademarks, service marks and trade names, contained in this e-mail message 
or any attachment are exclusively owned by CC3, and no rights are granted 
in such content and materials except as expressly stated in this notice. 
===========================================================



_________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group        --       http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug