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The Switch's OS is not based on FreeBSD at all. The Switch's OS is a continued development of the operating system of the Nintendo 2DS/3DS which was likely a cu
by DCKing 5y ago
The Switch's OS is not based on FreeBSD at all. The Switch's OS is a continued development of the operating system of the Nintendo 2DS/3DS which was likely a custom OS.
Some news sites read the Switch's open source credits crediting the FreeBSD project and ran with the headline "Switch OS based on FreeBSD". By the same measure, people should call Windows "based on FreeBSD" because the kernel uses BSD code or used to at least. It's sub par reporting that turned into an urban legend.
The PS3, PS4 and PS5 operating systems are systems based on the FreeBSD kernel, which is probably why it's tempting to think the Switch would be too.
- tialaramex 5y agoAIUI Even your Windows claim is wrong on the specifics. Microsoft copy-pasted BSD code for a whole bunch of userspace tools, so you'll find some (but not all) of what you'd expect there, but the kernel socket implementation is their own. If you go back far enough (prior to NT in particular) the OS doesn't provide sockets, or indeed TCP/IP, and it's true that (some?) popular third party vendors just used BSD code, possibly after filing off the serial numbers, but that's not the Windows kernel. Also, sockets just aren't that clever. I mean, the idea is pretty clever, but once somebody tells you the idea, it's not exactly rocket surgery to implement.
- nix23 5y ago> it's not exactly rocket surgery to implement. A secure implementation of sockets in a multiuser-system is not what i would call "trivial"...but yeah the base idea is just a "fifo-file"