09-05-2002
Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, HP/UX, AIX, and other systems are collectively called UNIX-like systems. They all, practically speaking, conform to the standard (usually called POSIX) that is one good working definition of "UNIX-like."
(UNIX used to be a trademark that applied only to systems distributed by AT&T, but now it's part of a branding program that can be applied to any system that meets certain standards and otherwise qualifies according to the trademark owner, The Open Group.)
FreeBSD is indeed inside Mac OS X. However, it's invisible to the average Mac user. But, it's there, and more advanced users can get to it.
If you're after basic knowledge, reading up on the topic of "UNIX" will provide background for all of these systems, although not for the non-UNIX-like parts of Mac OS X. Beyond that, reading up on the specific systems you're using (e.g., Linux) make sense. For system administration, you can get even narrower, reading up on the brand-specific stuff (e.g., SuSE Linux).
Hope this helps...
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LEARN ABOUT OSX
perl::ostype
Perl::OSType(3pm) Perl Programmers Reference Guide Perl::OSType(3pm)
NAME
Perl::OSType - Map Perl operating system names to generic types
VERSION
version 1.002
SYNOPSIS
use Perl::OSType ':all';
$current_type = os_type();
$other_type = os_type('dragonfly'); # gives 'Unix'
DESCRIPTION
Modules that provide OS-specific behaviors often need to know if the current operating system matches a more generic type of operating
systems. For example, 'linux' is a type of 'Unix' operating system and so is 'freebsd'.
This module provides a mapping between an operating system name as given by $^O and a more generic type. The initial version is based on
the OS type mappings provided in Module::Build and ExtUtils::CBuilder. (Thus, Microsoft operating systems are given the type 'Windows'
rather than 'Win32'.)
USAGE
No functions are exported by default. The export tag ":all" will export all functions listed below.
os_type()
$os_type = os_type();
$os_type = os_type('MSWin32');
Returns a single, generic OS type for a given operating system name. With no arguments, returns the OS type for the current value of $^O.
If the operating system is not recognized, the function will return the empty string.
is_os_type()
$is_windows = is_os_type('Windows');
$is_unix = is_os_type('Unix', 'dragonfly');
Given an OS type and OS name, returns true or false if the OS name is of the given type. As with "os_type", it will use the current
operating system as a default if no OS name is provided.
SEE ALSO
o Devel::CheckOS
AUTHOR
David Golden <dagolden@cpan.org>
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
This software is copyright (c) 2010 by David Golden.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
perl v5.16.2 2012-10-11 Perl::OSType(3pm)