Just so I know: in what way is it gutted? Mac OS X fully meets the Single UNIX specification and thus is one of the few 'registered' Unices.

The mach kernel is often described as 'anemic'. (Incidentally, a couple of friends who work on the kernel don't have good things to say about its codebase.)

Mach is not OS X's kernel, XNU (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xnu) is. It contains a modified version of Mach 3.0, but it's not the same kernel. But regardless, the kernel is not particularly important when discussing the operating system's unixness.

I don't think that was the question.

Today, it comes without a compiler. Getting one, and finding out where it got installed, is non-trivial. I don't like that.

This is true of Ubuntu as well. You have to run "apt-get install build-essential" in order to get a compiler. This might be easier than on a Mac, but regardless it's disingenuous to say that Mac is not a Unix because it doesn't come with a compiler.

(I use Ubuntu regularly and have never owned an Apple product.)

Ubuntu is not a good example of a UNIX environment.

That said, really? It doesn't come with gcc anymore? I find this offensive.

> That said, really? It doesn't come with gcc anymore? I find this offensive.

Lots of Linux distros don't install one by default, and this has always been the case. For that matter, for a long time, Solaris (unquestionably a UNIX) didn't come with a compiler.

If Ubuntu is not Linux and therefore *NIX/Unix compliant, then what is it?

Linux Is Not UniX.

Different distros have different amount of compliance with traditional UNIX. Ubuntu is one of those which has ventured the farthest away from it.