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Long ago, it was that a linux system was "linux kernel, big pile of random GNU utilities for userland" while a BSD was "every utility is written by the same tea

by cduzz 2y ago

Long ago, it was that a linux system was "linux kernel, big pile of random GNU utilities for userland" while a BSD was "every utility is written by the same team." This ends up with the documentation "working" and very consistent vs a linux (jeez, no man pages, what the heck is this "info" crap?). Things are better now, especially in the documentation front, but it remains that the "gnu" ecosystem is still a hodgepodge of different utilities written by different teams at different times and there are still inconsistencies. I've spent decades in the linux ecosystem and away from "unix" so the memories are hazy and the brain damage (from linux) permanent at this point; the fish no longer notices the water.

freedomben 2y ago
Yes, this has been my experience as well, even at the kernel level. I actually enjoy looking at and hacking on BSD kernel code. Linux kernel code is ... another story. But I tend to think the difficulty with Linux/GNU is more a result of the enormously larger community and the huge diversity of use cases. For example if you stick with a complete vendor (Red Hat being the best example) among the system tools is a fair amount of consistency and documentation (man pages). As you accumulate more applications and extra tools, that's where the community fragmentation really hits. This is most intensely felt when I try to set up a workstation (laptop or desktop) with a BSD. Even discounting hardware support, I run into so many things where BSD is consistent because in part because it doesn't exist there. I still have a dream though that one day BSD will start becoming the GOTO for various places. Though, I think how Apple took it and made it common but also locked it down, I have my suspicions that the permissive licensing (which as a developer I really love) does seem to end up being taken by big tech to get huge profits and used without giving (much) back.

by cduzz 2y ago

freedomben 2y ago

Yes, this has been my experience as well, even at the kernel level. I actually enjoy looking at and hacking on BSD kernel code. Linux kernel code is ... another story. But I tend to think the difficulty with Linux/GNU is more a result of the enormously larger community and the huge diversity of use cases. For example if you stick with a complete vendor (Red Hat being the best example) among the system tools is a fair amount of consistency and documentation (man pages). As you accumulate more applications and extra tools, that's where the community fragmentation really hits. This is most intensely felt when I try to set up a workstation (laptop or desktop) with a BSD. Even discounting hardware support, I run into so many things where BSD is consistent because in part because it doesn't exist there. I still have a dream though that one day BSD will start becoming the GOTO for various places. Though, I think how Apple took it and made it common but also locked it down, I have my suspicions that the permissive licensing (which as a developer I really love) does seem to end up being taken by big tech to get huge profits and used without giving (much) back.