Installing Linux packages on Mac OSX

Hi all.
Since Mac OSX based on FreeBSD, does this mean that any package that could be installed on FreeBSD, could be installed on Mac OSX ?
does this mean that any Linux software package (like bin, rpm) could be installed on Mac OSX ?
thanks.

Not sure exactly what you mean by "package". A binary executable wouldn't be directly portable from Linux on x86; you'd need to recompile the source code. Then again, the same is true if you wanted to move it from, say, Linux on x86 to Linux on PPC.

It's also to be noted that BSD Unix is somewhat different from Linux.

Mac OS X is not based on FreeBSD, its based on a slightly derived version called BSD Darwin.

Cheers,

Thanks guys for your feedback.

It's also to be noted that BSD Unix is somewhat different from Linux

well, we can run Linux commands (like ls, pwd ....) on Mac OSX, right ?
This is why I want to leave M$ Windows, They have occupied my mind.

Originally posted by John Todd:
well, we can run Linux commands (like ls, pwd ....) on Mac OSX, right ?

well, those aren't really Linux commands as such, they're more generally Unix commands. the exact details of them might vary a little between different Unix "dialects" (such as Linux, BSD, and MacOS X) - the precise list of options they take might be a bit different, for example - but the general gist of them is pretty much the same in every Unix-like OS, so MacOS X should have them, yes.

This is why I want to leave M$ Windows, They have occupied my mind.

oh, that's not something to be mad about, that's perfectly natural.

Unix is very user-friendly, to those it chooses to pick for its friends at least... and it seems you've been picked!

Originally posted by M Beck:

well, those aren't really Linux commands as such, they're more generally Unix commands. the exact details of them might vary a little between different Unix "dialects" (such as Linux, BSD, and MacOS X) - the precise list of options they take might be a bit different, for example - but the general gist of them is pretty much the same in every Unix-like OS, so MacOS X should have them, yes.

Yes, Mac OS X has them.

A lot of the slight differences are dependent on which command line shell you use. One can minimize the transition differences by picking the same shell as one used on Linux. I believe the newer versions of OS X changed the default shell to match Linux' default shell, though I'm not certain of that.

The default shell is bash as of Jaguar. Prior to that it was tcsh.

Some Linux packages can be installed (e.g. WebLogic, but it's essentially Java app in a Linux installer), but generally no, they don't work.

Originally posted by Unnsse Khan:
Mac OS X is not based on FreeBSD, its based on a slightly derived version called BSD Darwin.

Cheers,

Well, since Darwin is based on FreeBSD, then I guess you say that Mac OS X is also based on FreeBSD.