this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Basically the title

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[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 145 points 1 month ago (28 children)

You should go read Microsoft's attempt at excluding Linux/Unix from running on x86 using ACPI!

https://web.archive.org/web/20070202174648/http://www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/3000/PX03020.pdf

[–] Mwa@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Unix also including mac and bsds?

[–] nanook@friendica.eskimo.com 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

@Mwa @wildbus8979 Yes, early on there was AT&T and Berkley, System-V became AT&T's mainstream though there were off-shoots like CB-Unix for PDP11/70's which only had 64k I+D space, and Berkeley had 4.2 and 4.3BSD, and now you have offshoots of those, such as FreeBSD and NETBSD, MacOS is a highly mutilated BSD sitting atop a Mach micro-kernel with the Mac finder sitting on top of the whole mess. The Mach microkernel provides a layer of hardware abstraction that makes it easy to jump between architectures as Mac has often done. What I do not like about MacOS is that they include only drivers necessary for their hardware and forbid the use on Non-Mac's by license. This limits your selection of things like video cards to those they specifically chose to use.

[–] Mwa@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Ohh yeah locked down unix like the one used in game consoles like Playstation and Nintendo switch (these consoles are very very locked down no terminal or anything) and macos (less locked down) as well atleast macos you can install outside of the appstore which I HATED on ios and iPados

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

BSDs mostly, Mac wasn't a Unix based system at the time. It also didn't run on x86.

[–] nanook@friendica.eskimo.com 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

@wildbus8979 @Mwa MacOS was Unix based after Steve Jobs created the Mach/Unix/Mac Finder stack for use on the Next computer, as soon as he returned to Apple, it was adopted there.

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I know. At the time of the ACPI debacle, Mac OS X didn't exist yet, and NeXT was essentially irrelevant because a) it didn't run x86 and b) it only ran on proprietary hardware.

[–] nanook@friendica.eskimo.com 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

@wildbus8979 Actually, because it used a Mach microkernel, it could easily be ported to ANY hardware, that is the whole entire point of Mach. Also it did run on the Mc680x0 family and that was what Mac was based upon at the time, prior to Power PC chips, prior to Intel, prior to M chips, and it is precisely that Mach microkernel that enabled the easy transition from one hardware platform to the next.

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yes but that's completely irrelevant to the original point.

[–] nanook@friendica.eskimo.com 1 points 1 month ago

@wildbus8979 No but completely relevant to your comment. Such is the nature of conversational threads.

[–] Mwa@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago
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