- Nov 26, 2019
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By the way, anyone who loves Linux should try Illumos (OpenIndiana being the most end-user friendly version) and the BSD variants. I particularly like FreeBSD and OpenBSD; OpenBSD has the advantage of integrated networking software which one would otherwise only find in high end routers and layer 3 switches, or in add-on software for Linux (there is a Linux program that does BGP and OSPF and another that emulates a Cisco 7200 series router, but openbgpd and openospfd have an interesting and elegant style of configuration file that uses the same syntax as all other configuration files on the OpenBSD system. DragonFlyBSD has an interesting filesystem design. NetBSD runs on a plethora of interesting hardware and is also well put together. Doing embedded systems programming, one encounters BSD fairly frequently among existing systems aside from Juniper routers and switches and NetAPP Network Attached Storage Systems, and MacOS (which used to use a fairly standard FreeBSD userland but has since moved away from this, with each new release being less comfortable in terms of its UNIX facilities in my opinion), one also finds these operating systems on a plethora of consumer electronics and industrial applications.
MINIX version 3 in the 2010s was thought to have the largest installed base of any PC operating system, since all Intel CPUs used an extremely stripped down version of it to run their management engine. But one can also get MINIX fully functional.
I quite enjoy playing with the other open source OS projects as well, for instance, Haiku, which sadly did not have the resources to keep pace with web development, so whereas in 2009-2010 Haiku’s pre-alpha preview was remarkably stable, limited mainly in hardware support, and was capable of being used as a web surfing and e-mail system, this slipped a bit, but perhaps they have caught up since 2020. The GNU Hurd kernel is finally at a state of reasonable functionality. Then there is PureDarwin, an important project intended to hold Apple accountable by ensuring that an open source operating system using the open source code in Mac OS remains available (this ceased to be the case for many years when the OpenDarwin project was shut down in late 2006 IIRC).
Finally there are some embedded real time operating systems which are open source and actually useful, such as eCos. While limited compared to VxWorks or QNX, it is still a pretty good lightweight hard real time system, and there are a few others where it came from.
MINIX version 3 in the 2010s was thought to have the largest installed base of any PC operating system, since all Intel CPUs used an extremely stripped down version of it to run their management engine. But one can also get MINIX fully functional.
I quite enjoy playing with the other open source OS projects as well, for instance, Haiku, which sadly did not have the resources to keep pace with web development, so whereas in 2009-2010 Haiku’s pre-alpha preview was remarkably stable, limited mainly in hardware support, and was capable of being used as a web surfing and e-mail system, this slipped a bit, but perhaps they have caught up since 2020. The GNU Hurd kernel is finally at a state of reasonable functionality. Then there is PureDarwin, an important project intended to hold Apple accountable by ensuring that an open source operating system using the open source code in Mac OS remains available (this ceased to be the case for many years when the OpenDarwin project was shut down in late 2006 IIRC).
Finally there are some embedded real time operating systems which are open source and actually useful, such as eCos. While limited compared to VxWorks or QNX, it is still a pretty good lightweight hard real time system, and there are a few others where it came from.
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