Many people taking their first OS X steps will have had previous Linux experience. This page contains a collection of advice for experinced Linux users who want to move quickly to OS X.

Q. How do I get the familiar GNU tools that you get with most Linux distros?

A. Two popular distributions of GNU tools exist for OS X. Fink is the oldest and by far the most established distribution. It is based on debian's 'apt' package management tool.

A recent Linux distribution 'Gentoo' has just begun a project to port their own package management system called portage over to OS X. This system is a distant and substantially improved decendant of the BSD 'ports' system.

Q. I dont like tcsh, can I use GNU Bash like on my Linux box?

A. Yes, These days OS X ships with the BashShell.

Q. How do I safely start and stop daemons?

A. OS X does not use init.d scripts, but instead relies on a tool called SystemStarter to load services at startup. These processes are configured by editing scripts and plists in bundles called StartupItems.