• wolf@lemmy.zip
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    7 days ago

    Sad story. Best OS I ever run was around 2002 NetBSD on a desktop. It is quite bad that Linux is the only viable player for an operating system on desktops/laptops. (With viable I mean has drivers for all of my my hardware and runs the software I need for personal and professional life.)

    • ___@lemm.ee
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      6 days ago

      Redox looks like it’s up and coming, hopefully something useable pans out from it once cosmic is rolled out of alpha.

      Microkernel is an uptime and security benefit on modern hardware.

      • wolf@lemmy.zip
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        6 days ago

        I would be happy if something usable comes out of it. OTOH, the classical problem is and has always been driver support. I am not sure I like the plan of running a complete Linux as a subsystem for driver support, and I have doubts Redox will have native drivers for all hardware within the next decade.

      • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        With the same logic, Microsoft’s dominance also helps the user in not having to choose between multiple types of systems.

        • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          If Windows was free and open source you wouldn’t hear me complaining.

          The reason Windows is so dominant to begin with is because they standardized stuff and people didn’t have to open a terminal because of it.

      • wolf@lemmy.zip
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        6 days ago

        According to your logic we should all use Google Chrome. ;-)

        Comparing Linux with the BSDs is really apples and oranges. The BSDs have a very nicely integrated base system, everything just works™ and everything works together. When you only ever used Linux or Apple with homebrew, you never experienced a system where all basic tools really fit and work together.

        Linux is a pragmatic choice, but it is an Unix-clone made by PC people. The BSDs are a Unix operating system for PCs made by Unix people. We loose something very important if the BSDs get totally out of style/forgotten.

        • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          You make a very good point about Chrome. If Google was not the lord of development I might actually have nodded along with that as well.

          My BSD experience comes from Truenas core which did not play nice with docker and needed a ton of custom work with jails. They have since moved to Linux with scale and suddenly everything integrates a lot more nicely.

          Though there are multiple Linux versions as well maintained by different companies. But the altruistic dictator still plays a key role. I’m not sure what my opinion is now.

          • wolf@lemmy.zip
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            6 days ago

            Well, I funnily enough also agree with you, having just one widely used browser engine for all platforms sounds great in theory… (Until someone decides to not let you block advertisement anymore…;-))

            Docker is one of the reasons I use Linux and for all practical purposes nearly all open source software is developed for Linux and later ported to the BSDs (if one is lucky) - so, again, I am also using Linux because it runs what I need to run.

            I simply would love to have some practical and relevant options for OSS operating systems. I fully understand that this is not going to happen and Linux won.

            Anyway, have a good day!

        • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          Linux already has a ton of distros. Supporting an entirely different OS is far more of a hassle for developers than releasing a deb snap or flatpak.