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I didn't try it but I think it would be relatively straightforward to compile GNU tools on BSD.

But generally GNU tends to focus on performance and features while BSD focuses on simplicity. GNU having ridiculously complex code to do trivial things is kind of a meme.

And also, most people don't need a ridiculously fast "yes". Usually, when you want a fast stream of bytes, for example to fill up some space, /dev/zero is a better option.

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>GNU having ridiculously complex code to do trivial things is kind of a meme.

One of the reasons is that GNU had to reimlmement UNIX tools as GPL code. How do you reimplement something trivial without it looking as the original to avoid copyright claims? One of the solutions is to implement it as complicated as possible.

For the trivia, GNU "true" is an abomination which even includes a cornercase that returns "false".

Meanwhile, its BSD version essentially sums up to "return 1".

Same for much of the GNU code:

- echo: https://gist.github.com/fogus/1094067

- cat: http://9front.org/img/longcat.png

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