Operating systems and Linux distributions
Operating Systems
Linux
GNU Linux aims to be a free and open-source unix (or unix-like) operating system that will run on most types of computer hardware. Various distributions of GNU/Linux exist that have different package management systems and other features. Most of these are ideal platforms for X-ray crystallography and other scientific computational requirements.
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a proprietary BSD-unix-derived operating system that runs on Apple's computers. The BSD-subsystem, called Darwin, attempts to be open-source.