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Comment by jacquesc | Hacker News Reader

Great post detailing everything wrong with Catalina so far. I installed it on my personal Mac, and that scared me off of ever installing it on my work laptop. Hopefully I can jump to whatever the next thing is. Or maybe it's time to get off Macs for good.

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Or maybe it's time to get off Macs for good.

At least don't try to use the version of Linux under MacOS as a Linux system. The OP is running cron jobs and Python in the background, and changes in the Apple security environment broke them. If you need to run Linux stuff, put it on a real Linux system.

How about running it as a BSD system?

If you want a BSD system, run {Free,Net,Open,Dragonfly}BSD. You can do it on cheaper and better hardware than Apple offers. It just might not look as stylish, but who cares? T-series Thinkpads have better keyboards than Macbooks, and you can still get a used T60 for less than a hundred bucks. (More recent models will cost more, but you'd be shocked at what you can do with a T60 once you get a new battery, max out the RAM, and replace the HDD with a SSD.)

I'd just like to second the used-Thinkpad route. I picked up an X250 (Skylake i5) on eBay last spring for $160, and after maxing out RAM (8GB), a decent SSD and a new battery I'm out ~$350 for something that is both indestructible and quite zippy. Yes, it's not shiny, but IMHO it's a far more practical Unix-y workstation. (I mainly run Linux but I've tested OpenBSD too and everything Just Works.)

Python and cron are not unique to nor did they originate in Linux. They should be expected to work on all Unix derivatives including BSD and macOS.

>> don't try to use the version of Linux under MacOS

MacOS is based on Unix not Linux. However, I mostly agree with your sentiment and would extend it to “use the right tool for the job”. Use launchd (although I hear it is on the way out) instead of Cron etc.

It's based on Mach via NeXTStep. Not Unix.

Way back in the day, Mac OS X was, "Unix Certified(tm)", so it's correct to say it's unix, technically. Has that certification changed?

macOS catalina is UNIX certified: https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register

Ummm not in the dimension I live in. Ever since the launch of Mac OS X, Apple has considered and marketed macOS / the Mach micro kernel as a Unix.

See: https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/801429696172374556/

macOS is Unix. It's the only successful desktop Unix that's ever been published.

The exact same problem happens when you use launchd.

What is going to replace launchd???

I recall Rene Ritchie saying that Apple introduced a new scheduler that they have used privately since Mojave (could be related to the BGTaskScheduler, but I'm uncertain).

I just remember thinking, oh crap, now I need to learn a new scheduler.

It IS a Unix, not "based on Unix"

macOS runs on Darwin, which is a BSD derivative. There’s no Linux involved at any level as far as I know. Also, cron is a standard Unix tool that predates Linux by at least a couple of decades I think.

How dare a user run a Unix utility on his Unix computer...

lol

But OS X is a unix, and linux is not. If you want to run unix utilities, you should probably do that on a real unix.

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