macOS
Apple's proprietary, Unix-based operating system that powers Mac computers, highly favored by web and software developers for its stability and native command-line tools.
What it is
macOS combines a polished commercial user interface with a robust, POSIX-compliant Unix foundation. This makes it incredibly popular for developers, as the underlying terminal environment behaves very similarly to the Linux servers where code is eventually deployed, removing the friction of cross-environment incompatibilities.
When you would use it
You use macOS when you want the reliability of a commercial operating system paired with the developer-friendly architecture of a Unix environment, or when iOS development is required.
Common operations
- Developing and compiling native iOS applications using Xcode.
- Running Unix-based build tools natively without a virtualization layer.