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Why does macOS Catalina use Zsh instead of Bash? Licensing
Yesterday, at its WWDC developer conference, Apple unveiled the latest version of the MacOS operating system. Codenamed Catalina, it's a fairly significant update for the platform, not least because of the changes that have taken place under the hood. Take, for example, the default shell, which has been migrated from Bash to Zsh.
Bash has been the primary macOS shell since OS X 10.2 Jaguar. For almost sixteen years, MacOS developers have used it to write scripts and issue commands to the underlying operating system. It's deeply ingrained in how developers work. So, why the sudden change?
In a word: licensing.
[...] Newer versions of Bash are licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3 – or GPLv3 for short. This comes with several restrictions which could potentially have caused a few headaches for Apple further down the line.
Firstly, the GPLv3 include language that prohibits vendors from using GPL-licensed code on systems that prevent third parties from installing their own software. This controversial practice has a name: Tivoization, after the popular TiVo DVR boxes which are based on the Linux kernel, but only run software with an approved digital signature.
Secondly, the GPLv3 includes an explicit patent license. This can be hard to wrap your head around, but in a nutshell, it means that anyone who licenses code under the GPLv3 also explicitly grants a license to any of the associated patents. This isn't a comprehensive licensing deal; it only applies to the extent required to actually use the code.
[...] These two clauses are likely the reason why Apple's increasingly vary[sic] of GPL-licensed software, and is desperately trying to remove it from macOS. Between MacOS 10.5 Leopard and MacOS 10.12 Sierra, the number of GPL-licensed packages that came pre-installed decreased by an insane 66 percent – from 47 to just 16.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Monday June 10 2019, @03:18PM (5 children)
I've been using OSX for probably 12 years or so on laptops and Linux on my desktop since 2000. I had always like my Macs until everything after Snow Leopard. Since then, they just have gotten harder and harder to use and the interface less and less convenient. One example, the maximize button now makes a window full screen and hides the menu bar. That makes it hard to use (and for some programs impossible). There appears to be no way to go back to standard behavior and so instead of having a nice easy one-click method to make a window big, like I get with Linux, I have to manually grab edges and move them around. Why? What millionaire executive made that brain dead decision? At one point OSX suddenly and silently decided to change the direction of scrolling so that when you pull the wheel toward you -- scroll down -- instead of going to the bottom of a page you go to the top. Why should I have to do an internet search to figure out how to fix that -- at least it was fixable. Or the way multiple desktops are handled -- there's a new method that is so bad and hard to use I can't even keep in my brain the details of the assbackward interface to describe it. I broke down and paid for a program to make it behave logically.
I have an old mac I use to run my 3D printer -- when I accidentally allowed it to update I gave up and just put Linux Mint on it. So much better. Anyway, the last Powerbook I bought is my last Mac.
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Monday June 10 2019, @08:40PM (4 children)
,br> I hate that maximize problem. I use spectacle for window management which has a real full screen action. Natural scrolling gets me every time, but at least they give you a system preferences setting for it.
They have been going downhill for a while but its not as bad as windows thought the gap is shrinking.
I don't think you are running snow leopard on that PowerBook which you don't explicitly state but you give yourself an aire of fabrication in your comment by lack of detail.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday June 10 2019, @09:32PM
I am not running snow leopard any longer, it was EOLed some time ago. I was just saying that snow leopard was the last version I liked. I don't even pay attention the names any more. I'm running various versions of $someMountain on each of my machines. With the machine I have connected to my CNC I was forced into an "upgrade" due to some software requirements. With the one connected to the 3D printer, I dusted that off from a closet when I set it up. I just remember a year or so later "upgrading" to a newer version somehow and my memory of that was that I didn't intend to -- probably a PEBCAC situation -- and being really non-plussed with how sluggish and unusable the machine was afterward. I've been totally satisfied with Mint on it (though to be fair, all it does is receive files over ssh, run a slicer, and feed gcode to a printer -- I don't do any actual work on it).
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday June 10 2019, @09:32PM (1 child)
Oh -- and thank you for spectacle!
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Tuesday June 11 2019, @05:11PM
(Score: 2) by ragequit on Tuesday June 11 2019, @12:24PM
Magnet also.
16 different windowing shortcuts, including halves, thirds, and quarters of the screen.
The above views are fabricated for your reading pleasure.