Some people seem to wonder why someone would want a BSD that took over the
whole machine, rather than run on top of the MacOS.  Well, I can see the
desire for doing that...and apparently MachTen does it well...but that is,
as I understand it, also a somewhat expensive piece of commercial software.
I'm just a lowly undergrad, with no money for such a thing.  Instead, for
now, I run MacMiNT, which emulates Unix in a Mac application.  It's freeware
and it works...

However, I would like a real and more full-fledged Unix without paying a lot
of money for it.  Just because I MacBSD takes over my system doesn't mean I
can't use the MacOS most of the time anyway (which i will).  But when I have
to do some development, I'll switch to MacBSD.  I'd rather have my Unix take
over the whole box and run efficiently, rather than have to go through the
MacOS.  Doing it that way would seem to add overhead and reduce Unix's
capabilities, no?

As for the argument of buying a cheaper machine than I Mac to run Unix.  Well,
if all I wanted was Unix, that's what I'd do.  But I already have my Mac, and
for a number of things I really like the way it does its job with the MacOS.
So if I can get more out of it, and do my Comp Sci work on it with MacBSD,
then hey...Free capabilities.  Can't complain about that.

Personally, I like the idea of Unix taking over the whole machine when it
runs on my Mac.  I'd like to see what my machine can do as a Unix box.

Scott Kaplan
sfkaplan@cs.amherst.edu

P.S. Good luck with the IIci work! I hope it goes well!

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