Is installing Linux alongside OSx necessary?

[courteous]

Put it another way, would (most) things work on OSX as they would on, say, Ubuntu?

Or, is there any notable package not working on OSX? Then, for software-compatibility, the dual-boot (with Windows, obviously) is enough ... no need for triple-boot?

PS. Was gcc removed since Xcode4 ... and do I have to install it myself?

 

[miles01110]

Necessary? No. OS X and Ubuntu are different. If you want Ubuntu, install Ubuntu.

 

[courteous]

You're right, "necessary" wasn't the best word ... what I'm asking is this: has anybody run into trouble with some packages (that we're necessary for their work) not working on OSX? If this isn't likely, then installing, say, Ubuntu alongside wouldn't offer any additional functionalities, right?

How well do Unix and Linux packages/APIs mix?

 

[johnhurley]

How well do Unix and Linux packages/APIs mix?

Probably not so good ... linux is all GNU and os x is derived from an old port of bad ( as far as I know ). A lot of shell scripting stuff can be ported over without too many complications probably. Most c stuff in os x is done using cocoa right?

If you have enough space and memory not hard to use something like virtual box and setup a linux vm.

I have way enough linux boxes ( oracle database servers ) at work that I don't need to run any local linux machines.

 

[Sincci]

You're right, "necessary" wasn't the best word ... what I'm asking is this: has anybody run into trouble with some packages (that we're necessary for their work) not working on OSX? If this isn't likely, then installing, say, Ubuntu alongside wouldn't offer any additional functionalities, right?

How well do Unix and Linux packages/APIs mix?

Well, you can't use directly packages from let's say ubuntu on OSX, but you can install Macports and let it recompile everything you need to your system. Most of that stuff is for command line only, but there are some apps that use X11 (which the OSX has support by default at least in Lion, on the other versions you need to install some additional packages from your OSX installation cd/dvd). The only requirement for Macports is that you have Xcode4 installed.