this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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Linux

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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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[–] Bravebellows@sh.itjust.works 32 points 18 hours ago

If it's not POSIX, it's POS

[–] beeng@discuss.tchncs.de 30 points 18 hours ago

Achemm....

GNU Linux

[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 26 points 18 hours ago (10 children)

I remember a podcast I used to listen to a long time ago that argued that MS should just make a fork of the Linux kernel and just make the gui work like Windows. Better security and stability, and huge increase in user base with all the normal Linux users seeing it as viable alternative. I thought it was a brilliant idea. Well except Microsoft would likely have figured a way to kill Linux from the inside.

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

That is the literal opposite of what the world needs.

Windows isn't a bad OS from a purely technical perspective. If Windows were released as FOSS, I would switch to Windows without hesitation.

[–] GaMEChld@lemmy.world 15 points 15 hours ago (6 children)

Are you sure it's not bad from a technical perspective? I saw a story from a former programmer talking about how changes would be made the to the interface in the new settings app that's trying to replace control panel and the shit was like a horror story.

[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Mostly because Microsoft tries to maintain backwards compatibility to ridiculous extents, and their customers grew accustomed to it so they kinda rely on it, no ?

[–] towelie@lemm.ee 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Surely it's less work to maintain security patches for a few prior versions of windows than it is to indefinitely maintain backwards compatibility

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[–] AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

You could keep the kernel tho while changing the gui

[–] MoogleMaestro@lemmy.zip 5 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

The windows kernel isn't all that great, particularly in the realm of memory security or scheduling.

You know, to each their own. Question is really whether windows maintaining a closed source kernel even makes sense from a maintenance burden perspective when it really doesn't give them much money in return. (Most of their money in 2025 comes from cloud services, not operating systems)

[–] ubergeek@lemmy.today 2 points 9 hours ago

Rumors (Yes, just rumors, I know) have it that MS is working on a shim to be able to just use the Linux kernel under the hood. That's what spawned WSL. It is a side effect of the work to get the shim between the Win64 userland and Linux kernel. The shim will probably be a temporary thing, until all the ABIs are done.

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[–] towelie@lemm.ee 6 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

The full Microsoft XP source code was leaked and is available for anyone on GitHub; not the same, I know, but it's atleast NT based. I've just always wondered why a community never formed to fork it

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[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 7 points 16 hours ago (2 children)
[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

yeah I know, far from production-ready though

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[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 4 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I had forgotten about this!! I’ll have to start up a VM this morning to check it out.

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[–] gnuhaut@lemmy.ml 60 points 21 hours ago (4 children)

Oh it's infamous racist Bryan Lunduke. Is there no rule against posting that guy?

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 12 points 20 hours ago (6 children)
[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 6 points 12 hours ago

Just check his video titles.

Even without it, that snark face he uses for the thumbnails are a very big tell.

I don't have a list of specific instances on hand. But he was kind of a contrarian voice for a while that I listened to over a decade ago, but in 2016 went in the more anti-woke (anti-CRT in terms of the time) and very reactionary culture war turn.

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[–] Classy@sh.itjust.works 185 points 1 day ago (1 children)

10/10 roast in the comments

[–] Jumuta@sh.itjust.works 27 points 17 hours ago (5 children)
[–] kuberoot@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 11 hours ago

One could argue that "based" covers this kind of inspiration 😉

[–] RmDebArc_5@sh.itjust.works 14 points 15 hours ago

Yes, it was made without any Unix code

[–] MouldyCat@feddit.uk 2 points 13 hours ago

artistic licence innit - based being the opposite of cringe.

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[–] endofline@lemmy.ca 6 points 15 hours ago

It's based on BSD like Mach kernel

[–] DFX4509B_2@lemmy.org 55 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (4 children)

No it's not, it's based on BSD, or more specifically Darwin, which is derived from BSD, so Unix-like, but not Linux.

Although, oddly, macOS is a certified UNIX OS so it can rightfully sit at the table with the SysV distros such as AIX, HP-UX, or Solaris, but it's nothing like those OSes in its nature.

[–] PanArab@lemm.ee 19 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

Not just Unix-like but actually ancestrally Unix as well as being certified as Unix

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[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 46 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] dan@upvote.au 28 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I saw this exact same comic a while back but it was for Fish Linux.

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[–] ThiefUserPermissions@lemmy.myserv.one 42 points 1 day ago (5 children)

The video claims ada lovelace did not write the first computer program but it would kind of depend how you define what that is. If you check wikipedia it states:

“During 1842–1849, Ada Lovelace translated the memoir of Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea about Charles Babbage's newest proposed machine: the Analytical Engine; she supplemented the memoir with notes that specified in detail a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers with the engine, recognized by most of historians as the world's first published computer program.”

From : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_programming_languages

This would indicate its not a cut and dry as the youtuber suggests and also I would assume he is not a historian(no clue who he is) so its unclear why his opinion or definition of computer program should usurp that of most historians who would recognise a term may change over time and be less well defined initially when inspiring a new technology?

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