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I'm fairly sure BSD should have died by now? I definitely remember the death of BSD being reported on Slashdot a couple of decades ago. This announcement is cl

I'm fairly sure BSD should have died by now? I definitely remember the death of BSD being reported on Slashdot a couple of decades ago. This announcement is clearly a mistake.

nix23 5y ago
Before you down-vote, read a bit of history. His Comment is ironically, and the death of BSD was believed to be a sure thing. It's called Irony, and it's a wildly misunderstood language concept here on HN.
- viraptor 5y ago
  > It's called Irony It's sarcasm. And if we can't tell if something's a bad take or sarcasm, that's a good reason to downvote.
  - nicklaf 5y ago
    Conversely, this could also be one reason to read HN with showdead turned on....
- detaro 5y ago
  I don't think there is any operating system or widely used software where there isn't a "$group called it dead ages ago" example. it tells us absolutely nothing interesting, and isn't funny.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- DanBC 5y ago
  > it's a wildly misunderstood language concept here on HN. An alternate understanding is that people are not as funny as they think they are.
- nicklaf 5y ago
  I'll never understand why HN hates humor so much. You could say it's dumb humor, but a community that can't even tolerate dumb tongue in cheek mischief isn't much of a community at all in my opinion. https://everything2.com/title/BSD+is+dying https://everything2.com/title/BSD+is+dying
  - nicklaf 5y ago
    Actually, maybe I do. This thread explains it fairly well, I guess: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=575002 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=575002 A part of me still would prefer the Slashdot way of organizing threads: +1 funny doesn't boost your karma, and (it's been a long time, but iirc) the page can be sorted chronologically instead of by upvotes.
  - Fnoord 5y ago
    I am all for a good joke but this, like memes, is boring humor.
    - simondotau 5y ago
      That's just your opinion. Astonishingly, some people find The Big Bang Theory to be riotously funny while others find it tedious and boring.
      - Fnoord 5y ago
        Yup, my opinion, and I am allowed to act on it by downvoting such a comment.
Mordisquitos 5y ago
I seem to remember that Netcraft confirmed it.
- jart 5y ago
  What is dead may never die, but rises again harder and stronger.
mrweasel 5y ago
The calculations back then placed OpenBSD as being less used than NetBSD. While neither of those two BSD seem to have die, or perhaps just wasn't informed of their demise, OpenBSD looks to have overtaken NetBSD in usage (and news coverage).
medstrom 5y ago
Software doesn't die until all developers abandon it.
- znpy 5y ago
  Meh. Sometimes it takes very long for things to die definitively. "The BSDs are dieing" is definitely a (false) meme but there's some truth to that. On a lot of things the BSD are either cut out or lagging behind by a lot. Example for both things: Being cut out: containers and kubernetes. Heck, you can even have MS-Windows-based kubernetes workers, whereas just yesterday some random guy released an experimental oci-compliant, jail-based container runtime (IIRC). And that's for FreeBSD, does not even apply to Net/Open/Dragonfly/whatever. Lagging behind: wayland. Mostly working on GNU/Linux, what's the status on the various BSDs? Not pretty. So to wrap up: it kinda depends on your point of view. If your use case falls within what's supported and what the developers develop for, then the BSDs are alive and doing well. Otherwise, the BSDs appear to be dieing very slowly.
  - anthk 5y ago
    Arcan > Wayland
    - znpy 5y ago
      Thanks, that doesn't help.
  - sennight 5y ago
    > Sometimes it takes very long for things to die definitively. And other times it occurs very quickly and for no good reason. Linux gleefully deletes functionality like hardware accelerated framebuffer scrolling, because the devs can't be bothered to decouple code or maintain existing work. It is interesting because 15 years ago I'd have assumed it to be a byproduct of a free software virality strategy - making the use of outside code as painful as possible by providing no stability beyond exported GPL symbols. But now, with the wildly successful corporate push in Open™ Source©, I'm starting to wonder if it is just a happy accident that software-defined planned obsolescence is now a thing. All those GPL vs BSD licensed code debates... funny how things work out.

I'm fairly sure BSD should have died by now? I definitely remember the death of BSD being reported on Slashdot a couple of decades ago. This announcement is clearly a mistake.

nix23 5y ago

Before you down-vote, read a bit of history. His Comment is ironically, and the death of BSD was believed to be a sure thing. It's called Irony, and it's a wildly misunderstood language concept here on HN.

viraptor 5y ago
> It's called Irony It's sarcasm. And if we can't tell if something's a bad take or sarcasm, that's a good reason to downvote.
- nicklaf 5y ago
  Conversely, this could also be one reason to read HN with showdead turned on....
detaro 5y ago
I don't think there is any operating system or widely used software where there isn't a "$group called it dead ages ago" example. it tells us absolutely nothing interesting, and isn't funny.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
DanBC 5y ago
> it's a wildly misunderstood language concept here on HN. An alternate understanding is that people are not as funny as they think they are.
nicklaf 5y ago
I'll never understand why HN hates humor so much. You could say it's dumb humor, but a community that can't even tolerate dumb tongue in cheek mischief isn't much of a community at all in my opinion. https://everything2.com/title/BSD+is+dying https://everything2.com/title/BSD+is+dying
- nicklaf 5y ago
  Actually, maybe I do. This thread explains it fairly well, I guess: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=575002 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=575002 A part of me still would prefer the Slashdot way of organizing threads: +1 funny doesn't boost your karma, and (it's been a long time, but iirc) the page can be sorted chronologically instead of by upvotes.
- Fnoord 5y ago
  I am all for a good joke but this, like memes, is boring humor.
  - simondotau 5y ago
    That's just your opinion. Astonishingly, some people find The Big Bang Theory to be riotously funny while others find it tedious and boring.
    - Fnoord 5y ago
      Yup, my opinion, and I am allowed to act on it by downvoting such a comment.

Mordisquitos 5y ago

I seem to remember that Netcraft confirmed it.

jart 5y ago
What is dead may never die, but rises again harder and stronger.

mrweasel 5y ago

The calculations back then placed OpenBSD as being less used than NetBSD. While neither of those two BSD seem to have die, or perhaps just wasn't informed of their demise, OpenBSD looks to have overtaken NetBSD in usage (and news coverage).

medstrom 5y ago

Software doesn't die until all developers abandon it.

znpy 5y ago
Meh. Sometimes it takes very long for things to die definitively. "The BSDs are dieing" is definitely a (false) meme but there's some truth to that. On a lot of things the BSD are either cut out or lagging behind by a lot. Example for both things: Being cut out: containers and kubernetes. Heck, you can even have MS-Windows-based kubernetes workers, whereas just yesterday some random guy released an experimental oci-compliant, jail-based container runtime (IIRC). And that's for FreeBSD, does not even apply to Net/Open/Dragonfly/whatever. Lagging behind: wayland. Mostly working on GNU/Linux, what's the status on the various BSDs? Not pretty. So to wrap up: it kinda depends on your point of view. If your use case falls within what's supported and what the developers develop for, then the BSDs are alive and doing well. Otherwise, the BSDs appear to be dieing very slowly.
- anthk 5y ago
  Arcan > Wayland
  - znpy 5y ago
    Thanks, that doesn't help.
- sennight 5y ago
  > Sometimes it takes very long for things to die definitively. And other times it occurs very quickly and for no good reason. Linux gleefully deletes functionality like hardware accelerated framebuffer scrolling, because the devs can't be bothered to decouple code or maintain existing work. It is interesting because 15 years ago I'd have assumed it to be a byproduct of a free software virality strategy - making the use of outside code as painful as possible by providing no stability beyond exported GPL symbols. But now, with the wildly successful corporate push in Open™ Source©, I'm starting to wonder if it is just a happy accident that software-defined planned obsolescence is now a thing. All those GPL vs BSD licensed code debates... funny how things work out.