If you’re shopping for a new desktop Mac, you’ll almost certainly be hooked on the iMac. However, Apple also makes iMac Pro, Mac mini, and Mac Pro. If you still do not understand the features and differences of the 3 types of iMac, iMac Mini and iMac Pro, read through this comparison.

iMac: Everything in One

The iMacs are the sum total of Apple’s best. An iMAC will include the monitor, CPU, keyboard, and mouse. iMac has a size of 21 or 27 inches, you can optionally configure the iMac depending on how much you have in your wallet.

iMAC’s cheapest is the 21-inch ($1,099) model that comes with a Retina 4K (or 5K) display, which has a P3 wide color gamut. These impressive panels are one of the main attractions of the iMac. When you buy an iMac, you get everything you need to use it: a computer, a display, and devices like a keyboard and mouse.

For the 27-inch iMAC, there is not only a larger screen, but also a higher configuration. This includes an 8 Core CPU (formerly a 6 Core), up to 64 GB of RAM (formerly 32 GB), up to 3 TB of storage (formerly 1 TB), and a more powerful GPU for rendering. good big screen.

Therefore, the iMac is Apple’s best desktop computer. The iMac can be a home computer or learning tool, photo editing tool, the hub of a home recording studio, or for video editing or 3D rendering.

When it comes to Apple, the price is expensive, but in return you will get a cool computer with all-in-one features and a 4K or 5K screen. If you want to save space when using a computer without many devices such as cases, screens, and messy wires, then iMAC is right for you.

The iMac comes with a Magic Keyboard and a Magic Mouse. You can upgrade the Magic mouse to the Magic Trackpad which will make using the iMAC like on a MACBOOK laptop with drag and touch gestures.

Mac mini: smaller and more convenient

Mac mini Apple’s “pocket” desktop computer. Mac mini used to be Apple’s stepchild because it was not upgraded since 2014. It was not upgraded until 2018, which is 4 years later. In March 2020, Apple released its predecessor with timely hardware updates (which is really nice).

To understand the appeal of the Mac mini, you need to understand its intended use. First, it’s a dedicated mini-computer for $799 (whispering, throbbing). You won’t have a monitor, keyboard or mouse, it’s always been like that since the first version back in 2005.

Mac mini provides users with an inexpensive and compact PC to be able to “use” Apple products. Since then, the Mac mini has gained a reputation as a home server solution and can become a PC cinema (HTPC). It’s also a great choice for people who want to use MacOS or who already have monitors and peripherals.

Mac mini is also suitable for programmers who want to develop apps on iPhone and iPad, want to use Xcode and Apple Developer account. Things not available on Windows and Mac mini are still cheaper than MacBook Air.

The Mac mini is also popular in other areas. Build and render videos, or use distributed computing methods to share heavy resources across multiple machines. This speeds up the process of building or rendering videos, and the Mac mini will support users with those requirements.

Other uses include Xcode servers for mobile developers, controllers for professional lighting and sound processing at live shows, and powering digital signage and outdoor displays. To support this, Apple has equipped up to 4 dedicated Thunderbolt 3 ports.

The Mac mini just lacks a dedicated GPU, so it doesn’t have powerful video editing capabilities. You can upgrade most hardware at checkout, like CPU, RAM, and hard drive.

Like the iMac, you can also upgrade your Mac mini’s RAM yourself to save money.

Mac Pro: When there’s nothing else to do

If you look at iMAC Pro and think, I need more, well Mac Pro is your choice. After the first version in 2013, it was really a disaster, at that time users bought Mac Pro just to ….to store garbage. Learning from that time, Apple revived the Mac Pro in 2019 to turn it into a cheese grater (laughs). But it must be admitted that it is a huge beast, both in strength and in body.

The new Mac Pro has the same design as the Power Mac G5, even the case and chassis are all metal. If the starting price of $5,999 sounds a bit underwhelming, keep in mind that the full-options Mac Pro costs more than $50,000 (2nd kidney ache).

Like the iMac Pro, the Mac Pro only has a 28-core Intel Xeon processor ($7,000 option). The machine supports up to 1.5TB DDR4 ECC memory, 32GB Vega II Radeon GPU, 8TB SSD, Apple also provides an additional $2,000 Afterburner card, which speeds up the decoding of ProRes and ProRes RAW encoded video from high end camera.

Mac Pro must be used with Pro Display XDR – $4,999, 32-inch, Thunderbolt 3, 6K resolution to be happy enough. Of course, you can also use any screen you like.

For most users, even an upgraded regular iMac will get nearly all the tasks done, including 4K video editing, RAW image processing, and 3D rendering.

Do you have your choice now?

You’ve heard a lot about Linux and Unix, but you probably still don’t understand the difference between the two terms. Truth be told, Linux is inspired by Unix, but Linux is not Unix, even though it is completely Unix-like. In this article, I will explain the difference between these two famous operating systems.

Difference between Linux and Unix

Linux is an open source operating system and it is completely free. Unix is ​​a commercial product, offered by many different distributors with their own variations, often created specifically for certain hardware. And of course it’s expensive and closed source. But Linux and Unix have more or less the same thing. right?

Yes, however, they have differences in technology and architecture. To understand some of the influences that have shaped Unix and Linux, we need to understand the context in which these two operating systems were born.

Origins of Unix

As of now, Unix is ​​more than 50 years old. It was developed in assembly language, by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the unofficial DEC PDP/7 project at Bell Labs, later owned by AT&T. It was soon ported to the DEC PDP/11/20 computer and was widely used across Bell computers. Unix was rewritten in the C language in the 4th edition. Because C features and compilers make it easier to port Unix to new computer architectures.

In 1973, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie presented a paper on Unix at a conference. As a result, requests to make other copies of Unix came to Bell. Because selling operating systems is outside the scope of AT&T’s business, they cannot treat Unix as a product. This resulted in Unix being distributed as licensed source code. The proceeds from this are enough to pay for royalties, shipping and packaging of the product. However, you won’t get technical support and fixes from AT&T. But you still get the source code and can modify it.

Unix has received support and rapid growth from academic institutions. In 1975, Ken Thompson took a Bell sabbatical at the University of California, Berkeley. Along with a number of graduate students, he began further improving copies of Unix. Users became interested in Berkeley’s additions, which led to the release of Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). This is a set of programs and system modifications that can be added to existing Unix, but it is not a standalone operating system. Subsequent versions of BSD were the entire Unix system.

Unix is ​​now a mix of AT&T and BSD. All other variants of Unix, like AIX, HP-UX and Oracle Solaris is a descendant of BSD. In 1984, AT&T’s restrictions were fixed and they can now manufacture and sell Unix.

Finally, Unix was also commercialized.

Linux’s Journey

Richard Stallman Seeing the commercialization of Unix as an erosion of the available freedoms of computer users, he began to create operating systems based on freedom. Freedom here means being able to modify the source code without limitation, redistribute modified versions of the software, and use the software in any way the user sees fit.

This operating system will copy Unix features, including the entire Unix source code. He named it GNU and established The GNU Project in 1983 to develop this operating system. In 1985, he founded Free Software Foundation (Free Software Foundation) to support the promotion and funding of the GNU project.

All features of GNU are improved beyond the kernel (kernel). The GNU project developers are working on the kernel GNU Hurd, but progress is very slow (this kernel is still under development until now and is about to be released). Without the kernel, there would be no operating system. Simply understand the kernel is like the CPU of a PC.

In 1987, Andrew S. Tanebaum OS release MINIX (mini-Unix) to help teach students about operating system design. MINIX is a functional operating system, like Unix, but it has some limitations, especially the file system. Since the source code must be lightweight enough to warrant university teaching, some functionality has to be sacrificed.

To better understand how . works Intel 80386 in his new PC, a computer science student named Linus Torvalds (the main character appears) wrote some simple task switching code like homework (homework that looks like a final exam). Ultimately, these pieces of code became the basic proto-kernel of the first Linux kernel. Torvalds is now familiar with MINIX. In fact, his first kernel was developed on MINIX using Richard Stallman’s GCC compiler.

Torvalds decided to create its own operating system to overcome the limitations in MINIX. In 1991, he announced the group MINIX Usenetto ask for ideas and suggestions on your project.

Linux is actually a clone of Unix. You can also call Linux Unix, but don’t call it that. The word “clone” means that a small part of a clone is developed into a new copy of the original. Linux was created to resemble the look and feel of Unix and meet similar needs.

But either way, Linux is a kernel looking for a complete operating system, and GNU is an operating system looking for a kernel (a love affair between two early tech moguls). What happens next seems inevitable. And it changed the world.

So who is the developer?

A Linux distribution consists of many different components. The Linux kernel, the GNU suite of core utilities, and user-land applications are combined to form a complete distribution. And someone must do the combination, maintenance and management. The distributors and communities of each distro (distribution) all play an important role in getting a Linux distribution into the hands of users.

Linux is the result of the collaborative efforts of unpaid volunteers, organizations such as Canonical and Red Hatand other sponsors.

Each Unix is ​​developed as a single combination using tightly controlled development facilities. Usually, they have a single kernel and are designed specifically for the hardware platforms provided by the developer.

BSD UNIX’s free and open source operating systems such as FreeBSD, OpenBSD and DragonBSDusing legacy BSD code and new ones as well.

Standards and compliance

In general, Linux is not compliant Single Unix Specification (SUS) as well as POSIX. It tries to satisfy both criteria but does not want to be bound by these two criteria. Literally, there were one or two exceptions, like Inspur K-UXand Chinese Linux is POSIX compliant.

A true Unix, must conform to one of the two standards above. Several BSSD derivatives, including all from one version of macOS, are POSIX compliant. Variants like AIX, HP-UX and Solaris, are all distros of those organizations.

Trademarks and Copyrights

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Linux Foundation manage this brand on his behalf. Linux kernel and kernel utilities are released in various community license by GNU. The source code is available for free.

And Unix is ​​a registered trademark Open Group register. It is copyrighted, proprietary and closed source.

FreeBSD is copyrighted by FreeBSD project and is the source code available.

Differences in usage

From a novice’s perspective, in the command line, there’s not much of a difference. Because of standards and must be POSIX compliant, software written on Unix can be compiled on Linux but will be limited. Shell scripts, can be used directly on Linux in many cases.

Some command-line utilities have slightly different options, but it’s essentially the same toolkit available on both platforms. In fact, IBM AIX has AIX Toolbox for Linux Applications. This allows system administrators to install hundreds of GNU packages such as Bash, GCC, and more.

Different Unix components have different graphical user interfaces (GUIs). A Linux user familiar with GNOME or Mate will feel a bit overwhelmed when they use KDE or Xfce for the first time. It is similar to the GUI available on Unix, like Motif, Common Desktop Environmentand X Windows System. All are similar for ease of use by users.

You will learn more about the difference while administering the system. For example, there are mechanisms init difference. System V Unix derivatives and BSD streams have different init. By default, Linux distributions will use an init system derived from Unix System V or systemd.

In the end, the biggest difference isn’t what you see on the screen.

MacOS and Linux are both widely used operating systems. Both are inspired by Unix so very stable and powerful. These two operating systems have a lot in common, but they are still different in their own way. So in this article, we will learn 5 differences between MacOS and Linux.

Brief History of macOS and Linux

The main parts of macOS and Linux are the kernel, utilities, interfaces, and applications.

macOS is based on the BSD Unix kernel called Darwin, which is open source. Other parts of macOS (for example, the GUI and applications) are closed source and proprietary. Apple builds and maintains these software systems, and they become part of the Mac.

Apple adopted Unix into macOS in the early 2000s. Before that, macOS was based on a non-Unix operating system.

On the other hand, Linux started as a personal project and was a clone of the Unix operating system in the early 90s by Linus Torvalds. Strictly speaking, Linux is just the kernel. The operating system itself is made up of core components like GNU utilities and desktop environments like GNOME, KDE, etc.

5 differences between MacOS and Linux

1. Open Source Software and Proprietary Software

Both Linux and macOS use open source software, but while Linux distributions are entirely open source, the components of macOS are closed source and proprietary.

From the open source kernel to GNU utilities and interfaces, Linux is a scaled-down version of free and open source software. You are free to modify and repackage the entire operating system to your liking. You can even commercialize and monetize it, as is the case with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

In most cases, the license terms for Linux require that the modifications you have made also be made public to the community.

With macOS, it’s mostly an open-source kernel. Other parts like the desktop and apps are not open source. Of course, other Apple components like the Swift programming language are open source.

Unlike Linux, which you can use on any hardware of your choice, macOS is used on Mac devices. When you buy a PC from Apple, you’re paying for both the software and the hardware.

2. Software management

Linux has long embraced the concept of a central software repository, from which users can download and install applications using the command line or through interfaced tools.

Most Linux distributions come with a package manager such as APT on Debian-based distributions, DNF or Yum on Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Pacman on Arch-based distributions. With the package manager, you can install, remove, update and manage software applications easily on your PC.

The traditional method of installing apps on macOS is through the applications folder. You download the application you want to install from the internet and drag it to the applications folder and macOS will take care of the rest.

Another more convenient option is to use the Mac App Store to install software applications.

You can also use Homebrew, a package manager that works on macOS similar to Linux package managers like APT. Homebrew also works on Linux.

3. The importance of the command line

The real power of Linux lies in the terminal or command line. macOS has a similar terminal emulator available, but most of the attention is on the Mac desktop.

Terminal allows you to interact with your PC and software resources efficiently and easily. Plus, it allows you to automate and schedule tasks with ease. Software engineers, advanced users, and Linux system administrators incorporate terminals into their workflows.

Most Linux distributions use Bash (GNU Bourne Again Shell) as the default shell for the terminal. In 2019, Apple replaced the Bash shell with Zsh (the Z shell). Z shell is highly customizable and shares many similarities with Bash, ksh and tcsh.

Because Linux and macOS mostly use similar shells, the core commands you run on Linux will also work on a Mac, and vice versa.

4. Desktop Environments (Desktop Environments)

In the early days of Linux, kernel-based operating systems didn’t have a GUI, and most Linux servers still don’t. You must interact with the operating system through the terminal. Over time, the Desktop environment (an environment with an interface instead of the command line) has been developed to help users interact with the operating system in a more intuitive and friendly way so that the operating system can serve the needs of users. both casual and non-technical users.

There are many desktop environments you can choose from, all of which give you a way to interact with the system. Some prominent desktop environments include GNOME, XFCE, KDE, Deepin, etc. You can freely install several desktop environments on Linux, however, you can only use one environment. field at a time.

The GUI on macOS is the default and is the same for all users. Aside from changing the wallpaper, themes, and similar tweaks, you don’t have the option of installing another desktop environment manager to change the look and feel of macOS.

5. Distributions

On Linux, a distribution is a specific type of Linux that comes with a specific set of applications, Desktop environments, and system utilities. Different distributions often target a specific group of users such as ethical hackers, programmers, software developers, etc.

There are literally thousands of Linux distributions that you can choose from depending on your working needs. For example, Kali Linux, a Debian-based distribution, is mainly used for penetration testing and ethical hacking. It comes with a lot of tools and utilities suitable for white hat hackers.

Arch Linux is another example of a Linux distribution that is lightweight and comes with default tools. It is widely used by Linux enthusiasts and computer enthusiasts who love to customize the operating system.

On the other hand, with macOS, everyone has the same kind of operating system regardless of their passion or job. This is because Apple is the only company that develops and controls this operating system.

The reason why there are so many Linux distributions stems from the fact that the Linux kernel and its core components are all open source. This allows users to easily create new versions of Linux that target certain audiences.

Conclusion

Linux and macOS are both great and inherit some of the legacy of Unix. For example, both come with the same command line shell and have identical file structures. All other differences stem from the fact that the Linux kernel is open source and anyone is free to modify it.

If there are too many Linux distributions and you don’t know which one to choose, you can check out the 8 best Linux operating systems today. here Please.