RE-Linux

[The Liturgist]

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.

 

[YeshuaFan]

I used to really like SuSE but since they migrated to systemd and other architectural changes I find them disagreeable. I do like that it provides more options in terms of filesystems than RHEL/Fedora/CentOS and clones.

I like PCLinucOS as a rolling release, and am not starting to work with their debian edition

 

[YeshuaFan]

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.

Bsd is very reliable operating system, but can be very tricky in regards to getting set up on wireless networks

 

[YeshuaFan]

I started experimenting with Linux since the 2009 time-frame. I'm heavily into technology, but not a super computer-user so it had to be relatively easy: Ubuntu or one if its variants seemed the way to go. I tried many different distros and settled on Ubuntu Mate.

If one of my computers came with Windoze I'd dual-boot with it: since I paid for the Windoze license I might as well keep it for those times when I'd need it. I recently got a great deal on a couple of used enterprise-grade laptops, so I bought a hard drive for each and installed Ubuntu Mate on them; my (non-techie) wife is very comfortable with it.

For quite a few years (since 2012?) I've been using Linux almost exclusively at home, and it has actually helped me at work. It has also helped me with other people's computers when they have a problem, such as their filesystem went corrupt, or something they tried to do went sideways.

FWIW, the founder of Mint is a racial bigot, proud of it, and was unrepentant last I did research. Before I knew that I did try Mint, but eventually discarded it: I, and others have noted that it can be a little 'odd.' YMMV


Never heard that about the Mint founder?

 

[YeshuaFan]

Hi Jesse
The distro is OpenSuSE. It comes in two variants - OpenSuSE Tumbleweed (which is rolling release, and gets all updated packages that have passed their QA process). and OpenSuSE Leap which is a point release and binary compatible with SuSE Enterprise Linux. I use Leap for day to day stuff due to it being very stable - but I keep my eye on Tumbleweed to see new features and updates.

To me, their Yast application always was harder to use fully then those in distros such as Ubuntu, and Mint

 

[The Liturgist]

Bsd is very reliable operating system, but can be very tricky in regards to getting set up on wireless networks

Indeed; that said if you use the laptops the developers of OpenBSD use (historically, they preferred ThinkPads) you can be assured of success.

 

[The Liturgist]

To me, their Yast application always was harder to use fully then those in distros such as Ubuntu, and Mint

I found it easy when I was first transitioning from Windows NT, VMS and OS/2 workstations and, before I learned how to properly admin a modern Linux system from the command line (I had some experience with Solaris and CDE, but it was a different experience). Now I find it gets in the way. But back in the mid 2000s, after being acquired by Novell as a replacement for the extremely dated legacy Netware OS (Novell ported the Netware file and authentication server from IPX to IP with Linux replacing their old cooperative multitasking OS, which was bootstrapped using the MS-DOS clone DR-DOS, like how DOS was used to load non-NT versions of Windows*, which Netgear acquired along with the rest of DigitalResearch). SuSE had the best desktop experience, particularly with their Linux Enterprise Desktop.

*Windows 3.1 and 3.11 used less of DOS, and Windows 9x was a single user pre-emptive multitasking OS that could use DOS drivers as a last resort, except I think in the short-lived Windows ME, which used DOS only as a bootloader. But Win95 and especially 98 were better if operated with native drivers only, with which they could provide a pretty decent user experience; Windows 98 is particularly remembered with fondness by gamers, and indeed many of my favorite games like Sim City 3000, The Sims, RollerCoaster Tycoon, Caesar 3, and Sim City 4 were developed on or were backwards-compatible with Windows 98 SE.

As late as 2007 or 2008 one could surf the web on it using Firefox 2 or Opera, which I did on a VMware Server 1.0.7 VM. VMware Server was a wonderful product, usable for a wide range of applications, not suited to heavy datacenter use like ESX/vSphere, but still quite good, but all of VMware has been ruined by Broadcom, since vSphere is no longer being updated to keep apace with the competition, so that the only increase with version numbers is the pricetag and only existing enterprise deployments are sticking around, although the final releases of VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion are available as free downloads without support.

The tragedy is that VMware was the most innovative virtualization company, introducing to x64 features previously available only on IBM’s mainframe hypervisor z/VM, and some still unmatched anywhere else like memory compression and deduplication and live storage migration. Now HyperV, KVM and Xen and so forth are the dominant full hypervisors.

I am not happy with the implementation of Docker and want to develop a system which can work with Linux Containers, Illumos/Solaris Zones, and FreeBSD Jails (which were the first systems of this type), using ZFS and btrfs copy on write to clone the containers rather than how docker does it.

 

[YeshuaFan]

I'm using Zorin. It has its pros and cons. It's the first Linux OS that I have used on a regular basis (other than Android, but should Android still be considered Linux?). I have little experience with Ubuntu from a college course I took years ago.

One of the best linux for window users to migrate over into as very similar to what they are used to in layout

 

[YeshuaFan]

Indeed; that said if you use the laptops the developers of OpenBSD use (historically, they preferred ThinkPads) you can be assured of success.

Used for awhile a BSD think called BSD desk top, very easy to set up and use, especially if coming over from windows, but that disto went away

 

[The Liturgist]

Used for awhile a BSD think called BSD desk top, very easy to set up and use, especially if coming over from windows, but that disto went away

GhostBSD and OpenIndiana (based on Illumos, the open source fork of Solaris) are your best bets outside of Linux for easy installation since the end of PC BSD and the migration of TrueOS to a Linux kernel. That said, while the OpenBSD installer might be fairly called “confronting”, it is extremely easy once one understands it; indeed, it requires very minimal input compared to most operating systems since the default configuration is extremely sane; likewise the default FreeBSD installer sysconfig (which may have been replaced; they were talking about revamping ore replacing it) makes a number of installation and configuration tasks very easy; I haven’t recently done a new FreeBSD install as I’ve been focusing on OpenBSD lately, but i always found sysconfig to be particularly easy, even thought it is text mode (indeed, perhaps because it is text mode).

 

[YeshuaFan]

GhostBSD and OpenIndiana (based on Illumos, the open source fork of Solaris) are your best bets outside of Linux for easy installation since the end of PC BSD and the migration of TrueOS to a Linux kernel. That said, while the OpenBSD installer might be fairly called “confronting”, it is extremely easy once one understands it; indeed, it requires very minimal input compared to most operating systems since the default configuration is extremely sane; likewise the default FreeBSD installer sysconfig (which may have been replaced; they were talking about revamping ore replacing it) makes a number of installation and configuration tasks very easy; I haven’t recently done a new FreeBSD install as I’ve been focusing on OpenBSD lately, but i always found sysconfig to be particularly easy, even thought it is text mode (indeed, perhaps because it is text mode).

Too bad PC Bsd died off, as that would be the closest Bsd to being ran pretty much linux, the Bsd equivalent to linux Mint

 

[The Liturgist]

Too bad PC Bsd died off, as that would be the closest Bsd to being ran pretty much linux, the Bsd equivalent to linux Mint

Ghost BSD is like PC BSD and is still extant.

 

[YeshuaFan]

Ghost BSD is like PC BSD and is still extant.

Ghost BSD is like PC BSD and is still extant.

Have you ever tried it, or something called dragonfly Bsd?