Linux is often listed as parallel to OSes like macOS. But afaik Mac is also based off of Unix, so can I say Mac is a distro of unix? And then Mac would become parallel to linux distros like ubuntu and debian? Is a distro an OS of their own?
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In the beginning (and outside of niche specialized proprietary mainframe OSs like S360 for IBM series) there was Unix. This core UNIX, like linux started as a single OS but was branched by various vendors into particular flavours: HP-UX for HP minicomputers and CAD stations, BSD by USC Berkley, Xenix from Microsoft.
The Linux kernel was started as a free, open-source but somewhat compatible-ish version of UNIX. And then various commercial vendors have produced various _distros_. But if you understand one Linux distro, you can work happily in any of them. Perhaps over simplifying somewhat, a program written for one distro should work on any of them; maybe not a packaged binary, but it should recompile from source on any distro.. subject to say similar _kernel_ branches. The only things that change between distros are pre-packaged libraries and reskinnable (or interchangeable and pre-configured) user facing apps – like the desktop environment, or the utility for system configuration; default apps. But behind the scenes the guts are all very similar.
BSD from USC Berkley was morphed by some vendors into SunOS (now SOlaris) for Sun servers and workstations, and into the NEXT OS.. which SteveJobs snarfed to form the basis of what would become the current MacOS and IOS.
You’d be correct in saying MacOS (or its kernel) is a descendent of UNIX, but I wouldn’t call it a distro.
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