Mac OS X is already UNIX. In fact, OS X implements *more* of POSIX than Linux.

FooBarWidget · on Nov 27, 2009

POSIX message queues. SysV message queues. POSIX realtime signals. POSIX monotonic timers like clock_gettime(). POSIX semaphores living on shared memory for inter-process synchronization. Pthread spin locks.

Linux has them, OS X does not. These are just a few things that I encountered while developing on OS X. Where did you get the idea that OS X implements more POSIX than Linux?

tomneo · on Nov 27, 2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSIX requires editing then, both,linux and Freebsd are listed in the incomplete side. http://developer.apple.com/leopard/overview/osfoundations.ht... seems to say the same damn lie !

GeneralMaximus · on Nov 27, 2009

Ah. My information comes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSIX

The article might be wrong, of course. Since you appear to have more experience in this area, I'll just take your word for it :)

illumen · on Nov 27, 2009

Yeah, I've also found linux to be a better unix than OSX. Many OSX calls seem lacking compared to linux ones. Compare mmap and threads on both systems for example.

Which shouldn't be surprising considering how much work is going on with linux, compared to the OSX kernel. There's thousands of developers, many of whom work for much larger companies than apple(many of which work on their own Unix too... or have in the past).