macOS is indeed UNIX. http://flying-geek.blogspot.com/2020/03/apple-makes-great-unix.html

That's not *exactly* how that works...

I'm (I was?) an ArkaHosting customer. (Haven't gotten the email notice though. WTF?) Have a massive database hosted on one of their VPS instances, but it's a MariaDB slave copy of one that lives on my NAS at home. This will be an annoying PITA, but yeah, I never trusted them fully at that price. Use em while it lasts, but be prepared to roll out to a new host if needed.

Somewhat astonishingly, there's still an active hardware development scene for the Apple IIgs. The ROM 3 model I got at a local dealer's hotel sale with cash I saved up mowing lawns, is now equipped with:

• 4MB RAM Card (same company makes a IIgs-to-component adapter and similar adapters for, e.g., the Amiga)
• Solid state storage (the CFFA 3000 has been discontinued, but so many other similar systems are out there, including SCSI-to-SD adapters for Apple II SCSI controllers, Floppy EMU, and others)
• VidHD HDMI board for the Apple II+/IIe/IIgs. Before that, I was using a SCART cable to an HDMI converter, and it was pretty okay.
• Uthernet II Ethernet interface. Supports TCP/IP, AppleTalk... It's not the fastest thing in the world (maybe the 1 MHz 8-bit bus has something to do with that), but the IIgs is talking to my Linux box running netatalk, storing files on the RAID, and 'printing' to PostScript (which readily converts to PDF)
• Wombat USB/ADB converter. I have ADB keyboards and old mice (with balls!) but the Wombat lets me use modern USB mechanical keyboards and optical mice with the IIgs.

I use AppleWorks GS and WordPerfect to write, and it's great having a distraction-free platform that integrates seamlessly with modern tech to do that on. (I'm also using an iPod mini I recently upgraded with a new battery and CF card, with a pair of Sennheiser HD58X headphones, for music. No notifications, no pop-ups, no alerts, just music playback...)

Considering, e.g., the Indian government’s history with BlackBerry, is anyone actually surprised by this?

Um, no. The name Mac OS survived through Mac OS X version 10.11 (El Capitan). It became "macOS" as of Sierra (10.12). Mac OS X has been UNIX in all but name since Cheetah (10.0), and has been officially a UNIXsince Leopard (10.5).

If only (a) zsh was compatible with bash scripts; or (b) there was some way to install open source software under OS X / macOS ... Something as easy as typing "brew install bash" or something. If only.

$ /usr/local/bin/bash --version
GNU bash, version 5.0.7(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin17.7.0)

If you depend on a highly complex bash script that won't run under zsh, and you have that highly a restricted IT environment, change one of the two.

No IIe has 512MB RAM (or storage), and Jobs was gone before the IIgs or "Apple II Forever." I have a very tricked out IIgs (4MB RAM, 128MB CFFA card, Uthernet II Ethernet card, VidHD HDMI card), and it's nowhere near 512MB... The IIe was mostly configured with 128K RAM and dual 143K floppies...

macOS is a certified UNIX: https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/apple.htm

Has been for more than a decade: https://slashdot.org/story/88375

Itâ(TM)s a FreeBSD variant, at least at the kernel level: https://www.apple.com/nz/osx/pdf/OSXYosemite_TO_FF1.pdf
(âoeThe OS X kernel is based on FreeBSD and Mach 3.0â). Has been from the start: https://youtu.be/Ko4V3G4NqII

That's kind of like saying, "explain Star Wars, it looks like every other SciFi space battle movie." Yeah. Now. But at the time, Descent was cutting edge and unique.

Says you. Just before I was born, I entered the Konami Code. I get 29 more tries at this shit. Sigh. Seemed like a good idea at the time...

My brother's family runs all the computers in the house off of one mobile hotspot.

There are ways you can make it less painful. A squid proxy, a local caching DNS server... Won't help with streaming, but for 'web traffic ... I had an entire dorm hanging off a 33.6 modem for a year (pages were a lot lighter then, but still).

I use mine flying as a fuel timer. The haptic feedback can't be lost in the cockpit noise. I've also used it to time instrument approaches (VOR). I have a custom face setup that always shows "Zulu" (UTC) time digitally, local time on the simulated analog face - great for flying cross-country. I have Swiss automatics, a nice Omega and a reasonably nice Tissot, but my Apple Watch (first gen space gray aluminum with a $17 black stainless band from Amazon) is my "go to" watch ~95% of the time. Many folks I know wear Apple watches; anecdotes aren't trends, but at least in my social circles they're almost ubiquitous.

Which is odd, because according to BMW, they only made the recent M5 with a stick to satisfy the American market!

http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2016/8/14/The-E60-M5-With-A-Stick-Shift-Was-BMW-s-Gift-To-North-America-7734955/

https://jalopnik.com/the-manual-transmission-bmw-m5-and-m6-are-dead-1769251264

I have a manual in all of my vehicles (Jeep Wrangler, Porsche 968 Cabriolet, BMW E46 M3, Ducati Multistrada 620 Dark). Heck, I even have manual landing gear in my plane. But they're a dying breed. Ferrari already dropped it. Porsche brought it back in some recent models (Cayman GT4, 991R) but by and large they've disappeared. There was a recent sales event at Beverly Hills BMW, and with over 200 cars in stock, none was a standard. :( McLaren? Nope. (Aston Martin still makes 'em though.) Etc.