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Why Does MacOS Catalina Use Zsh Instead of Bash?

posted by Fnord666 on Monday June 10 2019, @01:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the fine-print dept.

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4463

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.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @07:22PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @07:22PM (#853820)

    Colors are nice addition if done right. Around here, one thing we do is change the color of the user and "host" portions of the prompt depending on the logged in user and the hostname and IP address. This prevents some of losing where you are in tmux/screen and where you are logged in. Going to run a destructive test after changing a file in production? better double check that the host isn't red anymore and you are the turquoise test user.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @09:40PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @09:40PM (#853901)

    Colors are nice addition if done right. Around here, one thing we do is change the color of the user and "host" portions of the prompt depending on the logged in user and the hostname and IP address. This prevents some of losing where you are in tmux/screen and where you are logged in.

    An excellent use of the tools. I use a different $PS1 for root than I do for a non-privileged user, mostly for the same reasons.