5 ms·

Someone who wants to understand their system and perhaps program it in C is advised to join those of us in the world of desktop (well, laptop mostly for me) BSD

by juped 7y ago

Someone who wants to understand their system and perhaps program it in C is advised to join those of us in the world of desktop (well, laptop mostly for me) BSD. A fresh OpenBSD install couldn't be more pleasant to hack on, IMO. If you want lightness, or need the Linux kernel for something, Alpine Linux is a tiny and solid project. No systemd to be found (not even an option on BSDs; Alpine Linux is OpenRC).

bn7t 7y ago
Also Void Linux is a systemd-free distro I can recommend.
pjmlp 7y ago
Laptops are the new desktops. :)
kuschku 7y ago
Hilariously, OpenBSD is closer to systemd in its philosophy than anything else — one umbrella project developing all parts of the OS, often depending on each other.
- AdieuToLogic 7y ago
  > Hilariously, OpenBSD is closer to systemd in its philosophy than anything else ... Hilariously, this is premise is entirely wrong. > ... one umbrella project developing all parts of the OS, often depending on each other. Systemd is not the OS. Full stop.
  - growse 7y ago
    > Systemd is not the OS. Full stop. Do you mean the project, or the unit system? I'd argue an init system is very much a key part of the operating system, as important as the kernel. You can't really do much without one. If you mean the project, then you've missed the point.
  - Izkata 7y ago
    > Systemd is not the OS. Certainly seems to want to become it.
    - AdieuToLogic 7y ago
      > > Systemd is not the OS. > Certainly seems to want to become it. touché
  - kuschku 7y ago
    > Hilariously, this is premise is entirely wrong. Then take KDE as example (an umbrella project with many separate, independent projects below it, all of which are separate binaries, but many work better when used together, or depend on another). Or Gnome. Or any other such umbrella project.
    - AdieuToLogic 7y ago
      > > > Hilariously, OpenBSD is closer to systemd in its philosophy than anything else ... > > Hilariously, this is premise is entirely wrong. Note that you originally asserted: one umbrella project developing all parts of the OS And I responded with what I feel confident is a statement of fact: Systemd is not the OS. > Then take KDE as example (an umbrella project with many separate, independent projects below it, all of which are separate binaries, but many work better when used together, or depend on another). Or Gnome. Or any other such umbrella project. The examples you provide are umbrella projects, no doubt, but none are Operating Systems. Neither is systemd. While the term "OpenBSD" can be used in the context of a distribution (common), OS (common), and the tools used to initialize same (uncommon), systemd only qualifies for the latter.
- clarry 7y ago
  They also couldn't be further from its philosophy. Systemd: let's break and change how everything works. You need to relearn everything. OpenBSD: things work largely the way they've worked for decades. Even as parts of the system are rewritten, the user experience remains very much like it was before, and often the old way of configuring and using things works exactly as before even if the underlying tools have seen a complete rewrite.
  - growse 7y ago
    > They also couldn't be further from its philosophy. > Systemd: let's break and change how everything works. You need to relearn everything. > OpenBSD: things work largely the way they've worked for decades. Even as parts of the system are rewritten, the user experience remains very much like it was before, and often the old way of configuring and using things works exactly as before even if the underlying tools have seen a complete rewrite. You're arguing a different point. *BSD's focus on 'experience stability' is completely tangential to the fact that it's a curated series of different utilities, tools and programs designed to work together. Much like systemd.
int_19h 7y ago
The BSDs are great for that vintage Unix feel, but I find that hardware support is not adequate enough to run it as a desktop OS on modern hardware. Worse yet, a minor OS upgrade can break hardware support that was there before: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=230172 https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=230172
swiley 7y ago
I’ve wanted to. I tried netbsd a couple times but I’ve never gotten it to compile.

by juped 7y ago

bn7t 7y ago

Also Void Linux is a systemd-free distro I can recommend.

pjmlp 7y ago

Laptops are the new desktops. :)

kuschku 7y ago

Hilariously, OpenBSD is closer to systemd in its philosophy than anything else — one umbrella project developing all parts of the OS, often depending on each other.

AdieuToLogic 7y ago
> Hilariously, OpenBSD is closer to systemd in its philosophy than anything else ... Hilariously, this is premise is entirely wrong. > ... one umbrella project developing all parts of the OS, often depending on each other. Systemd is not the OS. Full stop.
- growse 7y ago
  > Systemd is not the OS. Full stop. Do you mean the project, or the unit system? I'd argue an init system is very much a key part of the operating system, as important as the kernel. You can't really do much without one. If you mean the project, then you've missed the point.
- Izkata 7y ago
  > Systemd is not the OS. Certainly seems to want to become it.
  - AdieuToLogic 7y ago
    > > Systemd is not the OS. > Certainly seems to want to become it. touché
- kuschku 7y ago
  > Hilariously, this is premise is entirely wrong. Then take KDE as example (an umbrella project with many separate, independent projects below it, all of which are separate binaries, but many work better when used together, or depend on another). Or Gnome. Or any other such umbrella project.
  - AdieuToLogic 7y ago
    > > > Hilariously, OpenBSD is closer to systemd in its philosophy than anything else ... > > Hilariously, this is premise is entirely wrong. Note that you originally asserted: one umbrella project developing all parts of the OS And I responded with what I feel confident is a statement of fact: Systemd is not the OS. > Then take KDE as example (an umbrella project with many separate, independent projects below it, all of which are separate binaries, but many work better when used together, or depend on another). Or Gnome. Or any other such umbrella project. The examples you provide are umbrella projects, no doubt, but none are Operating Systems. Neither is systemd. While the term "OpenBSD" can be used in the context of a distribution (common), OS (common), and the tools used to initialize same (uncommon), systemd only qualifies for the latter.
clarry 7y ago
They also couldn't be further from its philosophy. Systemd: let's break and change how everything works. You need to relearn everything. OpenBSD: things work largely the way they've worked for decades. Even as parts of the system are rewritten, the user experience remains very much like it was before, and often the old way of configuring and using things works exactly as before even if the underlying tools have seen a complete rewrite.
- growse 7y ago
  > They also couldn't be further from its philosophy. > Systemd: let's break and change how everything works. You need to relearn everything. > OpenBSD: things work largely the way they've worked for decades. Even as parts of the system are rewritten, the user experience remains very much like it was before, and often the old way of configuring and using things works exactly as before even if the underlying tools have seen a complete rewrite. You're arguing a different point. *BSD's focus on 'experience stability' is completely tangential to the fact that it's a curated series of different utilities, tools and programs designed to work together. Much like systemd.

int_19h 7y ago

The BSDs are great for that vintage Unix feel, but I find that hardware support is not adequate enough to run it as a desktop OS on modern hardware. Worse yet, a minor OS upgrade can break hardware support that was there before: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=230172 https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=230172

swiley 7y ago

I’ve wanted to. I tried netbsd a couple times but I’ve never gotten it to compile.