Where to go now since Linux is mainstream
I can't even feel superior to everyone when theirs so many arch installers!! I use real arch btw. I thought "I guess I should go to Gentoo" but then wait, CHROMEOS IS A GENTOO INSTALLER!
I feel like we only have two options now
- Ascend to BSD-land
- Ironically supporting Windows Unironically
edit: I have decided to replace my debian laptop with BSD
581
Comments328
TempelOS?
Upgrade to CathedralOS time
BazaarOS will be functional way before CathedralOS gets off the ground.
This is the only correct answer.
Unless OP is a chicken who can't hack it!? Temple has everything I need and nothing I don't.
... I just noticed... that says "TempelOS".
Its the German localised version:)
plan9
If it was so good then where is plan10 though
Because it's so good there is no need for plan10
holy ORZ
Planx
This is the actual only correct answer. Plan9 is unix but better and with an animal pet like Linux.
And it’s from outer space!
no it's from bell labs
bell labs is pretty close to far beyond alien civilization technology though...
yeah especially now that they're finnish
Inferno would also be acceptable
Or revive an open source implementation of IRIX, port it for x86_64, and populate it with https://nekoware.me/.
... Or AROS (e.g. Icaros). Or is that maybe a regression, and only sense of superiority had from it, is from novelty and nostalgia...?
[oh, someone else mentioned plan9 too... *pastes reply*]
Very honourable.
Yus.
9front.
The best OS I cant wrap my head around.
NixOS is the new Arch. I'm surprised nobody here has said they use it yet.
Ive noticed this, arch almost just works but my nixOS friends are always complaining about something
Yessss...
Come to Gentooooo.
Come.
Muahahahhahaha. *Lightning & Thunder!*
Gentoo is easy and almost user-friendly.
Specially coming from Arch it should be a breeze.
Plan9 sounds like a more exclusive deal.
As someone who installed Gentoo from nothing but a Stage 1 iso and kernel tarball back in 2003, this is crazy to read. I was able to squeeze so much performance out of a 300mhz embedded board back then though compared to most distros... after the 6hr kernel build.
Stage 1 and 2 are no longer available (I mean technically you could, but it's not suggested). Stage 3 was super easy, even with kernel from source.
It takes time, sure, but it can compile on background. I got 16 threads on my CPU, so leaving 12 for emerge, I can still use the PC.
I get that people joke about 'days of compiling', and maybe it's real for a huge mass of packages, but even if, it doesn't stop me from working.
Remember, the days of compiling was back when we were running this on 300-500Mhz single core CPUs with 5400RPM spinning rust and RAM amounts in the hundreds of MB.
The embedded system I was putting this on was a 300Mhz single core low power AMD processor with 256MB and a laptop 4200RPM 4GB drive. And yeah, it probably took over a day to compile everything... but it ran much faster than a stock kernel as I could customize the system to only have what it needed and leverage the on-chip ssl and video acceleration support. I used it for a NAS and home server for years.
I know, but that's so long ago, yet the jokes are here anyway.
Which is shame, as it seems to be scaring away potential users.
Less prone to randomly biting your head off anyway.
More tame.
Takes more petting though, to get it to settle.
Really?
I never tried Arch, so I can't compare.
Apart from initramfs from install, which took more time, it felt like everything else just worked. Including installing Steam.
Yes. Gentoo really is like that compared to arch.
Oh.
That^ made it seem to me like you had.
I just read a lot of Wiki.
But when I discovered how cool it is to compile stuff, I went straight to Gentoo, assuming it's mostly the same apart from packaging.
NixOS user here; please do not recommend NixOS.
I don't use NixOS btw.
i use nixos, i dont recomend nixos.
I use nixos and I do recommend it cause it's cool. You will waste a lot of time, pulling hair trying to fix your config and regret all your life choices but guess what, it's cool.
I thought the whole point of Nix was that it makes system management simple with the declarative config.
Simple? lol. It is easy if it works, a single command to replicate an entire system. But without an extensive upto date documentation like arch and having to learn a new programming language, it can be quite difficult for someone new.
After about a thousand commits in my config I no longer know how to do stuff the normal way. A few days ago I spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to run python with modules without resorting to shell.nix
As someone who used NixOS as a daily driver for a few months, I also agree with not recommending NixOS.
I didn't - I was just commenting on how its users are the new Arch users. It isn't a compliment.
As a NixOS user...yeah don't recommend it. Don't get me wrong I absolutely adore NixOS but suggesting people switch to it when their current distro works perfectly fine for them is a disservice.
NixOS makes the hard things easy, and the easy things hard. It's incredibly frustrating trying to get something that should be insanely easy to work on NixOS. A good example of which is Neovim with Lazyvim. on every other distro it's not a big deal, it should be easy to install right? on NixOS you'll be pulling your hair out trying to get the meson tree-sitter crap to work correctly. Or you'll find stuff that has been specifically re-packaged or put into a flake to work for NixOS. ok that's fine, that'll work on SOME peoples configurations but if yours is ever so slightly more unique it won't. And then you start to wonder and question if your configuration is wrong but the thing is with NixOS there's no right or wrong with the configuration. Some people will suggest you use flakes, some people will say don't bother. Some will say you should put every single thing in modules, some will say don't bother.
So the problem is with NixOS is that when you start using it and understanding it going to another distro feels like you're somehow reverting. BUT there's the potential issue of getting stuck in the rabbit hole that is constant NixOS configuration adjustments to try and get that most perfect and smooth config out of your system. Currently I'm on Arch because I'm taking a "vacation" from NixOS. I have some important projects that are due soon and I just needed to get into a distro that will allow me to focus on them. In a couple weeks time however I know I'll be back on NixOS.
Bout to do a complete 360 on the GPL
systemd anyone?
ducks for cover
MacOS is based on FreeBSD, with the kernel APIs almost fully compatible and the userland just taken from FreeBSD. Your turn.
We're up to 4% again 5% is back on the menu which will make 2026 also the year of the Linux desktop.
Write your own OS running on RISC-V.
Im forking RISC-V to the GPL and writing a new OS ontop of it
Lol - well fork about and you might update consequences
Haiku.
https://www.haiku-os.org/ is the most fun I‘ve had with an OS in along time.
What's the elevator pitch for it, seems cool
If you are nostalgic for BeOS, then the elevator pitch is, “It’s Be, only on modern hardware and more software support.”
If you are unfamiliar with BeOS, the pitch is: “Imagine an extremely lightweight desktop is with all of the things you would expect in a modern environment with none of the legacy. In an alternative universe, BeOS would have become OSX.”
There are so many things that Be did right from the very beginning that other OSs have adopted, but never as cleanly as Be did it.
For example, its file system. Most people don’t really notice or care about the file system, they all have directorys and hold files, maybe with permissions. BeFS does that as well, of course, but so much more. The entire file system acts as a database, so you can easily perform fast queries on it. You can also create virtual directories that are the result of those queries.
You want a “folder” that contains every markdown file created after 2020 between 20 and 1000kb in size? Bam, instantly done and live updated whenever something accesses it. The files aren’t actually copied there, just appear there to normal tools, almost like soft links.
BeFS also supports a resource fork system that it calls attributes. These can also be queried using the same database like tools as the rest of the system. File typing is done this way, every file gets a MIME type attribute and there is a daemon that sniffs them when a new file is downloaded or copied over.
Even more, this allows some crazy things like plain text files that have font, color and other formatting elements because all that is stored as an attribute.
Or their contact information app, which stores every person as a zero length file with details as attributes. You can create a virtual folder of all your contacts that meet a certain criteria and have other applications use that folder for whatever.
Or the email app which stores each email as a file, and adds the basic metadata like to, from, subject, read, etc as attributes. Then you can have different virtual folders based on those. This also means that the basic file system browser is the default way to view email, because it supports all the attribute viewing, queries and such you would need. Or you can do it all from the command line using either basic cli tools or some slightly specialized ones.
Combining attributes and virtual directories makes for a fantastic media library system, all built into the os for free. Imagine a directory that contains “Every metal song I have, from 1989 to 1993, that I haven’t played in three weeks” or whatever else you want.
Back when people used files and all applications were local first, this was probably much more exciting, but it’s still pretty cool.
The file system thing is really cool, are their downsides of implementing it like that? Curious why Linux would not implement something like that
I think there are a couple of reasons. First, the Linux kernel doesn’t support resource forks at all. They aren’t part of POSIX nor do they really fit the unix file philosophy. Second, most of the cool things that BeFS enables are very end user desktop oriented, and Linux leaves that desktop environments, not the kernel. BeOS was designed as a fully integrated desktop os, not a multiuser server os. Finally, I expect that they are a security headache, as they present this whole other place that malware could be stored. Imagine an innocent looking plain text file that has an evil payload sitting in an attribute.
The resource fork isn't gonna be really meaningful to essentially all Linux software, but there have been ways to access filesystems that do have resource forks. IIRC, there was some client to mount some Apple file server protocol, exposed the resource forks as a file with a different name and the data fork as just a regular file.
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/filesystems/hfsplus.html
Linux does support HFS+, which has resource forks, as the hfsplus driver, so I imagine that it provides access one way or another.
searches
https://superuser.com/questions/363602/how-to-access-resource-fork-of-hfs-filesystem-on-linux
Also, pretty esoteric, but NTFS, the current Windows file system, also has a resource fork, though it's not typically used.
searches
Ah, the WP article that OP, @[email protected] linked to describes it.
It's been a few years since I used a Mac, but even then resource forks weren't something you'd see outside of really old apps or some strange legacy use case, everything just used extended attributes or "sidecar" files (e.g. .DS_Store files in the case of Finder)
Unlike Windows or Linux, macOS takes care to preserve xattrs when transferring the files, e.g. their archiver tool automatically converts them to sidecar AppleDouble files and stores them in a
__MACOSfolder alongside the base file in the archive, and reapplies them on extraction.If course nothing else does that, so if you've extracted a zip file or whatever and found that folder afterwards, that's what you're looking at.
TIL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_fork But yeah good insights
Considering how the mainstream OSes dropped the ball on file metadata super hard without even approaching what you describe, exchanging files between Haiku and those OSes gotta be a pain.
Oh it absolutely is. Bringing files into Be is fine. The file type sniffer runs in the background and adds whatever metadata it can in a lightweight quick way. IIRC there are addons for specific file types like media files that add nice things like author, runtime, etc.
Sending them out is a pain though. All the metadata is usually lost and from what I recall even emailing a file from one Be machine to another could be difficult. IIRC you could zip them and the metadata would make it, but raw files and tgz would lose it.
do you know how many of the features you’re describing work on haiku?
All of these features work on Haiku OS.
thanks <3
It's the open source version of BeOS, the original alternative OS for PowerPC Macs.
The excellent answer by @[email protected] already presented the cool features of the file system. There are a bunch of other interesting features found throughout the OS.
Pervasive multithreading and multitasking makes Haiku very reactive and fast, even under load. Back when BeOS came out, the killer demo was playing several videos simultaneously without stutter. This is of course less impressive today, but you can fell this all over the OS when using it.
Window management has two really cool features called Stack and Tile. Enabling you to stick windows together, so they move as one. On top of that you can put several windows from different applications together into one tabbed window bar . It's super cool and unique.
The biggest difference when using it compared to the big desktop operating systems today is that it gets out of your way and just lets you do things. Using it will make you realize how cumbersome the current desktop has become. Of course there are some security downsides, as there's no pervasive sandboxing, rights management, and so on.
Running on real hardware can be difficult because of a lack of drivers. I highly recommend trying it in a VM (VirtualBox, qemy, UTM) first. The increasing number of ports (mostly FOSS stuff you know from Linux) make this operating system actually practically usable. The ports don't take advantage of the Haiku specific features, but are great overall. Especially the KDE apps are a good fit.
Some people say it's ready to be a daily driver even it's still in beta, others say it's what Linux used to be .
Wow, now I want to try it on one of the old machines I have laying around.
If nothing else try it in a virtual machine for sure. Peripheral support can be spotty. One of the bigger hitches for me was getting a relatively up to date browser binary installed. I hear it's getting better. I ran BeOS on a Pentium II back in the day. It was awesome.
If you're not on TempleOS, you were never really serious about feeling superior
The closest we have come to god
GNU Guix with the GNU Hurd kernel? A full GNU/GNU system, or GNU + GNU.
well GNU/GNU is just GNU :o
I like GNU^2
Technically
GNU/GNU = 1
damn guess im going back to 2nd grade
When I divide them I get
NaN...getting a stack overflow trying to expand GNU
Yeah I prefer flattening the logic to a good ole while loop. That way I have a memory leak instead
There's always LFS.
But if you really wanna bail on tux, Haiku, Plan 9, or ReactOs
Abandon technology and become a farmer.
Run exclusively self made programs
Need a calculator? Program one and compile it
Well, within reason
As it turns out programming a calculator can be quite complex: https://chadnauseam.com/coding/random/calculator-app
probably quicker and easier to just write whatever calculation you need in python
There's no perceptible delay on my laptop here, and I use maxima on my phone and my computers. And a CAS gives you a lot more power to do other things.
First you need to create a compiler
Lol new license, you way read my source code but you may not run it/use it/ do literally anything with it
&
Got an old wild idea resurfaced from that...
An OS "entirely" in Haskell.
... calculator: ghci.
... window manager: xmonad. ... (and... a rewrite of X11 protocol in Haskell, sufficient to run xmonad).
... text editor: yi
... ... and a Haskell shell... would surely be named hash.
I already have irc bots made from the tutorial to make an irc bot in Haskell... that could be converted to an irc client.
... doubtless many more Haskell tools to populate the rest of the purposes.
... Haskell tools to interface with the web could be interesting...
At first I thought you meant merely compiling everything by hand [(with make)], like LFS (and then thought LFS without following LFS... and then thought make life easy, start with just a kernel and busybox (or toybox)).
But yeah... that'd be the real kudos.
I've made a small start towards that, having written my own text editor. (And, I suppose, in a way, my own irc client, "diis".)
But that's a long way from writing my own kernel and userland and other advanced accoutrements.
Maybe instead of writing own kernel, could just fork one. ... Maybe Ironclad... or even Hurd.
Since you already did the hard part and now have a text editor, you just need to make it run on bare metal, and then go the Emacs way of having everything else run in the editor.
Plan9, then you can smugly say Unix systems are sooo legacy.
Haiku OS
I remember the BeOS guys doing a demo at my LUG before they release the BeBox (or whatever their computer was called). That OS was so ahead of it's time. There were about 200 of us just gasping at how good it was and what it could do. Actually using BeOS on a PowerPC ended up being an on ramp for me to Linux. By the time Haiku came out, life was too busy and I was too entrenched in Linux. Maybe now that I'm retired I'll take a look at it.
My college roommate got an install CD of the first version that ran on x86, maybe 3.0? I tried it on my computer and became an instant convert. It was so astoundingly much faster and stable than Windows was on the same hardware, had a decent free IDE, and could play MP3s without skipping while compiling, browsing the internet, and spinning a GL Teapot all at once on a Pentium 75 with 16MB of RAM. Nothing else even came close for a desktop experience. I bought a copy for myself and every version that came out.
I’ve been daily driving Linux for a long time now, but I still look back and wonder what could have been. There are still things to this day that BeOS did better and faster in the ‘90s on single core sub GHz machines with spinning rust than Linux, MacOS or Windows can on top end modern hardware.
Open source Windows obviously. https://reactos.org/
All these recent Windows to Linux converts, whining about how Linux should be more like Windows, should be going to ReactOS. They want open source Windows, not open source Unix.
If ReactOS were usable they probably would
Back to LFS.
im building my own linux, with hookers and no C code
Ah, a Rust heretic
reject Monke
become Crab
I did that once. It instantly made my beard double the length.
It shrunk the hairs on top and pushed it through the skull into the neck region.
So now I am bald and neck bearded. Thank whatever deity you believe for I was already married.
Especially in the neck area, I assume
only*
Haiku. It's a reimplementation of BeOS.
Alternatively, you could use ReactOS and make it look as windows-like as possible, and then go and post on Windows support forums with solutions to problems that work for ReactOS but not for actual Windows, and then play dumb while calling them dumb when it doesn't work for them.
I use arch btw.
You get an ARM or RISCV machine to run Linux on obviously. Then you shit on the plebs with their legacy systems.
You also need PostmarketOS on your phone of course.
I feel seen.
Obviously, you need to get BSD on a computer without any proprietary firmware.
Hm im debating putting a laptop I mostly use for SSH on bsd. Might be fun
https://www.ponyos.org/
The only correct answer.
someone said that templeos is the only correct answer
i am getting conflicting information, which one is correct?
Depends on how much schizophrenia you want in your OS. If you want minimal amounts......stick with TempleOS
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who knows about this
Everyone saying nixos the next arch but we are all traumatized so we dont even recommend it /hj. But actually dont use it, youre gonna give up or spend hundreds of hours crafting the perfect deployable system which youre never gonna deploy on anything other than your single laptop that has nixos.
The first person in real life that I met who used nixos was so proud to show off his configs. I let him, and was suitably impressed. I then returned home and decided to play dark souls 2 on my lovely little manjaro.
It is not just about deploying, which to be honest is great. I can build software for my Raspberry Potato on my desktop and remote deploy the config using one line in the terminal.
It is also for when I decide to tinker with my system by changing stuff like audio latency and clock rates for real time audio, USB HID overrides and so on. Normally I would be scared to break something, or worse, fix something without knowing what did it and thus learning nothing from my efforts.
The best part is having a system that you can approach almost scientifically, making it unbreakable in the sense that you can immediately revert to a true former state, both as a build and a config using GRUB and Git, respectively.
Imma be honest I never understood NixOS for laptop/workstations, these systems are highly volatile so setting up deployable builds sounds lke a nightmare. For Servers/Deployments it makes bunch more sense.
Been using on my laptop/workstation for years now. Works great. Wanna see my configs?
yeah sure, I think like its not worth the hassle in that case. It's probs still fun to work on lol
Lots of devs use Ansible configs to have any new machine or reinstall ready in ten minutes. It's mostly just ‘these apps need to be installed’ and ‘these config files need to be written’, which are a no-brainer to add. The most annoying part is figuring out how to do things with the desktop environment, like install widgets or remap the keyboard.
One benefit of this approach is that I never forget what I fiddled somewhere: I can just look through my config for the particular setting. I have the config for the machine that I set up about ten years ago and which has been chugging along as a server since then — and I won't need to poke around like an amnesiac should I decide to change something.
Notably, this and dotfiles are popular among devs using Mac, since MacOS has nearly all settings available either via config files or the
defaultssystem from the command line. In comparison, Windows is total ass about configuring via the command line, and even Cinnamon gives me some headache by either not reloading or straight up overwriting my settings.The application-level format isn't really designed for end user consumption, but WINE uses a text representation of the Windows registry. I imagine that one could probably put that in a git registry and that there's some way to apply that to a Windows registry. Or maybe a collectiom of .reg files, which are also text.
While i do kinda agree with you that it's debatable on if it's even worth it to invest the time in it, i do think it's neat even for a home setup, but i'd say it depends on what your setup looks like. If you're the type of user who just uses a stock DE with some apps on top of it there's probably not much to be gained, but if you have a highly customized setup, like a minimal arch install for example with a bunch of window managers, custom services and configs and all that, then it's pretty nice to have all that stuff declared, so you can easily replicate it when you reinstall.
Yeah it has surprisingly low boiler plate for a bubch of useful stuff. Have all my systemd services in one file, and all my custom scripts that i package and put into bin in another folder. It allows you to have very exotic setups without hinging all of it on some random script you put in bin in 2020.
But are you truly using nixos, if you don't have a swarm of 10+ machines that do distributed builds?Can you really say that your system is deployable, if you never tested it on an obscure ARM board and a laptop from 2005?
None, go outside and absorb sunlight
That's been automated by the sun-tracking solar power array managed by SolarAssistant running on Home Assistant on the Raspberry Pi. Valuable human time can be dedicated to more productive pursuits.
I've been a fan of the easy to install all-in-one Linux experience of modern distros, being an old guy with a family and a keen awareness of how much I need to maintain some of the non-computer hobbies in my life. Mint has been my jam for a long time.
But just recently I had reason to try out regular old Debian with KDE Plasma, and I think I have found my happy place. I just moved around my hard drives and set up my handful of self-hosted things on this fresh system. It's so nice to occasionally use as a desktop while it is also a rock solid server.
Make your own, coward. No distro so niche as one that has half a user because it's hardly usable.
GNU Hurd?
https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNU-Hurd-In-2026
Wow! That's way closer than I realized!
Just a pure Rust computer. No operating system, just Rust.
Like a literal block of rusted iron? I like it
There is two other paths:
Now you have to move on to obscure open source hardware. Linux phone and/or a RISC-V computer
Start slapping Raspberry Pis on random shit to bring it to life.
+1 for linux phone it needs some VoLTE love.
TempleOS or make your own
How is no-one here saying QubesOS???
looks inside
Linux
Well, yes, but a Linux spicy enough to keep you above the riff-raff for a few more years.
Long time since I've heard anything about qubesos
Well its Linux?
NixOS. And be really annoying about declarative software environments
Do you mean all the tears of people bitching on Gentoo because it is allegedly difficult to install were in vain?
Though on a serious note, I unironically wanted Gentoo/BSD to keep existing so I could move to it. I like FreeBSD (but not its users) or DragonflyBSD but pkg/pkgsrc can't hold a candle to Portage in terms of letting you fine tune your install.
I started using Gentoo many years ago, and took a break from it for a few years. It has some overhead to maintain. Two years or so ago I went back to it and, no joke, it is so much simpler now. Dist-kernel, dracut, refind just sorted everything. I felt like I was cheating. I don't have to write my own custom initramfs for my custom needs? Stuff just solves it? And compilation errors and conflicts even when running a bunch of keyworded packages: gone! What is going on?
When Python 3.something hit they did a massive overhaul on emerge's resolution algorythm so it helped a lot when resolving stuff - and now you almost never need to use
revdep.rebuildor things like that, I frankly forgot when it was the last time I used it, probably it has been years. Plus now things like binaries for heavy packages, portage hooks and stuff like that makes things a lot easier for people coming in. I'm really not sure why people still bitch on it or why some people seem to need every package they install available right away... but at least for me it's been great all this years.Yeah! I forgot about revdep-rebuild! Now that you remind me I do remember being worried about having to rebuild modules, forgetting about it, having to boot frlm live and chroot, and what not going back to Gentoo. I had almsot completely forgotten about it because it is so smooth sailing now.
see Linux went mainstream, are you even using the OS if aren't writing your own initramfs??????
Psst, @[email protected], over here... shsh... I'm hiding this suggestion buried down here in the comments...
::: spoiler ... You didn't hear this from me. Alright? Linux's best kept secret [since 2012]. Shshsh. ;D
bedrock
:o
If you want something more challenging, with less cheating, than Gentoo, you could try Exherbo.
Whats wrong with FreeBSD users? My only real experience is kernel dev I had to work with once they seemed chill.
The times I've tried to look into it their fanbase seemed a bit toxic, they are really keen in that you have to read the fucking manual and that every possible question possible about (Free|Open)BSD is already solved in it. And they hold a very weird grudge against Linux because it's more popular.
Probably FreeBSD devs are cool people and it seems this latest years they have been doing great amounts of work on making FreeBSD available and enjoyable for most people bringing the hot stuff, but on the OpenBSD side of things if Linus Freaking Torvalds tells Theo de Raadt is a "difficult person"...
okay yeah if Linus finds you difficult to work with.....
Just earlier, I saw a tui installer for gentoo @ https://lemmy.wtf/post/13625402 , and doubtless many others out there in the wild (even my own from over a decade ago).
And then there are things like CalculateLinux, and RedCoreLinux.
But they're a bit try-hard, and janky, especially RedCoreLinux.
Gone are the days of Toorox or CloverOS, which were much more like just a straight nice plain desktop Gentoo out of the box with an easy installer.
Then there's the likes of DecibelLinux... handy if your thing is audio production. Stage4 Gentoo, fit for discovery of all the audio tools.
Though of course, indeed, Gentoo's not hard to install. Here's the only gentoo install video you will ever need, and it's less than 40 seconds long! Simples.
I was just thinking of that, and HAMMER, when reading the BeOS & BeFS posts above.
GNU Hurd Is Almost There!!!
Year of the HURD desktop will be glorious
I used Hurd a little over a decade ago... And it was fine.
People talk about it like it does not work yet. It does. You can use Hurd.
Linux from Scratch obviously built with Scratch programming language
Arch? So weak. I do everything only using the bios.
Temple OS?
Reject operating system.
Return to abacus.
yeah tech is general went mainstream, we must retreat to the real world
When you die using the abacus, you die in real life.
I very often have visions of an 8-bit future.
A very retro-futurism. An 80's esq cyber-punk future.
"CEEFAX in space". 8-bit. The last human level of computing.
ABACUS! /donvito
When normal BSD becomes too mainstream, you can also run Darwin. Run KDE Plasma and a custom theme to make it look like Windows.
Always gotta stay two steps ahead of the normies
Stick to Linux but run on risc-v.
This just came out. https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNU-Hurd-In-2026
Sit back and enjoy our collective triumph over capitalist technology.
Redox
If you remove the M from BDSM, you've cut out all the Arch users anyway. So yeah, BSD makes sense.
Be sure to tell the FreeBSD guys that you use NetBSD, the only real BSD.
yeah im not some scrub that uses a normie BSD distro. That's like using Ubuntu
Slackware (unironically)
Praying Meta does not release a Slackware based distro
Emacs?
Emacs as an OS (EaaOS). sounds like a good idea to me
http://informatimago.free.fr/i/linux/emacs-on-user-mode-linux.html
Granted, they're using User-Mode Linux on a host Linux.
Debian Hurd?
OS2/Warp
The newest version is ArcaOS.
I bought a laptop in 1995 with OS2/warp on it. An IBM thinkpad 365xd. It was a glorious time.
Honestly, I'd love to try a VM of it. I have not investigated how actually do that though lol
I've no familiarity with the OS myself, but here's OS/2 Warp in Javascript and WebAssembly running in your Web browser.
https://nepx.github.io/halfix-demo/emulator.html?hda=os2&autostart=yes
About a 200MB image.
It is still developed, but still only 32 bit.
https://www.arcanoae.com/arcaos/
Die coolen Kids benutzen MS-DOS 1.0.
What universe are you living in that Linux is mainstream? According to the steam hardware survey (which is the closest thing to a trustworthy census we have for operating system usage) Linux accounts for 3.58%. Congratulations, we're ahead of mac! Windows still has 94.23%. But this is the year of the Linux desktop!
Its a shitpost but I've definitely felt more people migrating over. Like if you go on reddit gaming communities a decade ago no one talked about Linux but not theirs Linux advocates people complain about. Steam deck is now a thing, LTT did a linux challenge, Pewdiepie told people to install Linux. It's if you talk to random people on the street they probably don't know what my bloody valentine is. But if you talk to some Music nerds and tell them yk about this niche artist called mbv they would all laugh at you
Server universe.
Savvy friend group echo-chamber universe.
Android universe.
Embedded and (pseudo(?)-)microcontroller universe.
SBC universe.
All the corporate machines secretly (or sometimes not so secretly) running Linux (Like John Deere tractors, cars, cookers, boats, etc.)... universe.
Steamdeck universe.
Linux focused laptop & workstation manufacturers universe.
PS,
I've heard rumours desktop linux may be passed 5-6% already, and rising fast, thanks to Win11 creating windows refugees and the steamdeck enticing more gamers.
Throw out all higher technology and exclaim how this makes you superior constantly.
This feels spiritually correct
If you want spiritual try templeos
Lisp machine
ReactOS
GNU/HURD is having actual releases and distros nowadays.
Does it run on real hardware yet? if not its time for some PRs
https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNU-Hurd-In-2026
"just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu" - Linus Torvalds , 2035 Will be the year of the HURD Desktop and all will bow to the great GNU/HURD
Go with Plan9, obviously
i mean, there are alternatives...
I considered BSD, but i don't think any of my hardware works well with it, plus i now also have the problem that i got hooked on declarative configuration with nix. I think i'll settle on still using linux, but trying more obscure distros. Atm i'm exploring the idea of daily driving GNU Guix (with a regular kernel and some proprietary software though).
How does Guix stack up to Nix? I rem hearing they don't support prop software by default
Yeah, it's a libre distro by default, but there is a "nonguix" repo that has proprietary software, including regular linux kernels. Depending on your hardware you would probably also need a custom iso with the regular kernel already on it. Nonguix and also systemcrafters have custom iso images that you can use for that. Nix does have a much larger repo, but software availability on guix ain't bad. Guix also has a home manager equivalent, but they don't have that many modules for it yet. There isn't a flakes equivalent, but you can lock your channels to a specific commit very easily. The biggest difference is probably the scheme language, but what made me interested in it is the fact that it also uses GNU Shepherd as its init system, so there's no systemd. You can also still use the nix package manager and home manager on guix if you'd like.
Which BSDs have you tried?
Some may be happier on your hardware than others.
Haven't actually tried installing any of them, i just checked their hardware support list, so i assumed it wouldn't work. I think i looked at freebsd, openbsd, and netbsd.
https://amigaos.net/
It can even run some modern software! Nobody cares! Perfect for a hipster.
Nixos. Or guix
Honorable mention
Plan9
Very honourable.
Yus.
9front.
Linux From Scratch
Haiku.
Have you compiled your own kernel?
Yeah one time I tried to fuck with scheduling to see what happened. Compiling is too easy now they even let you compile with compiler warnings now???? Linus has gone soft
I remember FreeBSD did internet installations back in like 2005 (probably earlier, just didn’t know about it). Boot from floppy, install over 1mbit internet link. Took a bit of time.
Haha. But un-ironically, Rasbian OS (Debian build for Raspberry Pi); because open hardware is the next thing we desperately need more adoption of.
Just live program your system from scratch every time you start your computer
My PC is an electro mechanical pinball table from 1971 (Williams Klondike, btw) running Puppy Linux.
RedoxOS
Redox looks really interesting and I’d like to give it a try, but it has so little hardware support that I don’t have a machine that can run it. Considering their driver model, I’m really curious as to their long term hardware support plan.
QEMU on full system mode is a decent option if you’re not looking for a daily driver.
BSD.
DOS
Wake me when Gentoo is suddenly the hot new thing.
We're a bit of a way off but https://www.redox-os.org/news/ and https://asterinas.github.io/blog.html look interesting
VibeOS 😎
/j
New templeOS just dropped
TempleOS did get forked.
https://github.com/Zeal-Operating-System/ZealOS
Nah, there was actual effort put into TempleOS.
BSD of course
RedoxOS
Nixos. Definitely more complicated, but better, and superior 😎
Never go full BSD!
Haiku OS! Backwards compatible with an OS that was abandoned in the early 2000s and was never popular in the first place! Zero ports! Use it for web browsing or something idduno!
There's always KolibriOS. It's small enough to run from a single floppy disk.
Obvious answer is something like switching to something like BSD, but the less obvious answer is to look into switching to AROS ( AROS Research Operating System, formerly Amiga Research Operating System ).
BSD definitely is a lot more complete compared to AROS, so using AROS will make you superior if you can find a way to keep your workflow as much as possible while making it your daily driver.
Warning: AROS is, as far as I know, not fully open source, but that can be fixed with some reverse engineering that's well above my pay grade.
Not an Amiga person, but...
goes to investigate if Eric Schwartz --- the Amiga, Sabrina Online guy --- has done AROS art
Aaannnddd...sure enough, yes.
https://old.reddit.com/r/sabrinaonline/comments/1065sif/did_you_know_that_eric_williams_schwartz_made_a/
This reminds me, I need to read Sabrina Online.
I love his "A Walk In The Park" and "Plight of The Artist" animations, to the point I have the Walk In The Park background music on my phone and at one point found what I think was the original tracker file for that song.
I only became interested in Amiga around 4 years ago. Didn't really know much about it beforehand. Still don't know a lot, but love it regardless.
How about an Illumos (descendant of opensolaris) distro, such as openindiana
Haiku and ReactOS have been mentioned, but SerenityOS hasn't yet, maybe that is an option too. :D
I suggest going to an English class.
RISCOS of course
LFS only.
Haiku or some port of AmigaOS, sadly forgot its name and I’m too lazy to Qwant it.
https://100r.co/site/uxn.html is a fun one :D
It can run on just about anything.
Oh, that is fun. I didn't know about that one.
* opens about page. * rabbits rabbits rabbits
Slackware Linux.
I had a FreeBSD niri setup that worked quite well for a bit. The jail-based containerd stuff was exciting, but not mature enough for my needs, so I had to leave it behind. Since then I've read lots of news about maturing wifi and ither improvements.
Graphics will always be behind, unforrunatrly; ZFS is starting to show its age too.
One of the more obscure variants of BSD. Alternatively, GNU/Hurd
TempleOS for the nuclear option.
Go back to IBM OS/2 Warp 4! Back when there was still actual choices in desktop computing...
DOS!
If we want to avoid being normie, there are a lot of DOSes out there other than MS-DOS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS
And I'm sure that there are also incompatible-with-MS-DOS DOSes. The Apple II OS was ProDOS.
searches
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disk_operating_systems_called_DOS
A ton I've never heard of on there.
I was going to suggest source mage but it looks like it's dead
OpenBSD is pretty cool.
I'll stick with Slackware for the foreseeable future... But if I jumped ship now, it'd probably be to Haiku. Maybe dual-booted with AROS for shits and giggles. And plan9 on my servers.
@evol Haiku?
Build a cyberdeck.
I really want an 8" Linux tablet with a processor from the 2020's and reasonable battery life.
That and a cellular wifi AP and I'd ditch my phone.
TempleOS?
Linux From Scratch or be doomed to be an eternal noob.
Then it's writing your own kernel. Then your own bootloader. Then your own UEFI.
What about trying Harmony OS?
Just keep a stash of healthy butterflies around, and occasionally get one to flap its wings.
go to windows this community will vouch for me
Is ReactOS still a thing?
It is time to create your own distro with Linux from Scratch or Yocto. It will stay special as long as you don't share the installer or even the repo ;-)
I'm thinking Slackware or maybe make a tails like OS that gives you access to the Usenet instead of the internet?
Redox exists.
BSD ?
LFS, Plan9, Inferno…
There are many options.
i wish, you wish; it hasnt happened yet---- WE MUST CORRUPT WINDOWS USERS; SPREAD THE DAMN GOSPEL
NetBSD
Linux forks.
Elks linux for starters.
Exherbo is like the non-mainstream version of Gentoo.
Or you could do Artix and run it with s6 and musl, writing your own compatibility layers.
And if you really want to be unique, you can install LFS and use it as a daily driver after building the whole thing in rust 🤣
The only place left for you is freeBSD and writing your own tiling window manager
Exherbo
Underrated comment
Well I'm glad someone understands.
Just tell them it's like "Gentoo, but better"
Haiku
Bespoke point-of-contact Assembly.
The penultimate niche: evol Linux. If you make your own distro, you will step up into the heady world of customized Linux. From there, the only way up is to customise the kernel and maybe the hardware.
I would just hop into EUFI shell tbh
UCSD p-system. Or VMS. Or Banyan-Vines.
Run everything off OSX server.
I really hope this is satire..