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I believe it's a licensing issue, could be completely wrong though.

Apple has chosen not to ship any GPLv3 code.

If your well-beloved GNU coreutils did not breach every POSIX standard and add new flags to every program, no such problem would exist. Seriously, I do not know whether Mac OS is using a custom implementation of UNIX utilities, or distributin BSD coreutils, but I know that it is a licensed, certified UNIX.

UNIX certification means nothing if the utils are intentionally outdated and incompatible with the de facto UNIX-like implementation due to petty licensing concerns.

At the end of the day, whether some script works is the issue, not a UNIX branding.

Except Mac OS X is a de jure UNIX implementation, and concern about GPLv3 is not petty.