Aboriginal Linux | Hacker News Reader

Aboriginal Linux

landley.net

92 pointsswatson74141 comments

From their NEWS page: https://landley.net/aboriginal/news.html

    News
    
    April 30, 2017
    
    -- End of Line --
    
    Development of Aboriginal Linux has ended, replaced by mkroot.

From mkroot page:

  https://github.com/landley/mkroot

  This project was merged into toybox in 2020. See the "mkroot" directory in
  https://github.com/landley/toybox

https://github.com/landley/toybox

A tiny Linux image along the lines of the Docker hosted base.

It isn't trying to be a Docker or Alpine, it's just a tiny runnable image. I find it interesting and useful for running an x8_64 Linux under QEMU on my Kindle Fire tablet. Tiny things, test CLI tools.

The project's author, Rob Landley, was maintainer for BusyBox for about a year, but disagreed with BusyBox originator Bruce Parens over GPL 3.0 licensing.

Landley's current idea of a multi-tool binary for Linux userland, ToyBox, is the basis for this tiny runnable system image.

https://landley.net/toybox/

Toybox also forms much of Android's implementation of POSIX.2.

It's Perens [1] although your spelling/typo is kind of more awesome in the context. Not sure if he's into Lisp, too.

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Perens

Why was uClibc chosen over musl?

uClibc is unmaintained according to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UClibc

So is Aboriginal: https://github.com/landley/aboriginal/commit/cfb7977cc32a80b...

uclibc was spun off by someone else as uclibc-ng with a release just last month. Wikipedia mentions it, but unfortunately squashed the two together haphazardly.

Aboriginal Linux is older than Musl

First, why not. You could also ask why musl was created at all since uclibc predates it by 11 years.

Second, because this project was started during those 11 years, it dates back to 2007 at least: https://github.com/landley/aboriginal/releases/tag/0.3.0

The successor project uses musl: https://github.com/landley/toybox/tree/master/mkroot

Article title & h1: Ab Origine - Latin, "From the beginning"

Though it makes sense, quite a jarring use of the word to Antipodeans, who mostly would say it relates to the native people of Australia.

yeah that was my shocked first thought.

AbOrigin would be a better name

Although the self hosting thing doesn’t make it an origin in my book. More of a quine? The first Linux release would be the original. As for aboriginal I don’t think the metaphor even works.

Primal Linux. Primordial Linux. Prehistoric Linux. Neanderthal Linux

Grug Brained Linux.

Abiogenux?

"Antipodeans" is more jarring to me what a weird way to describe people. Seems to be mainly Australia and New Zealand but people in Spain would also be Antipodeans to Aus and NZ.

Going to start calling people in the Northern Hemisphere "podians".

Commits are from years ago.

But still, very cool to have a tiny system that can get far enough to rebuild itself.

Not sure where the use case is today, docker has small images and so do other VM based images. Maybe for a mid-level custom build, special NAS or something?

I think it doesn't need to have a use case. It's low level enough that it's like asking what the use case is for cat. IE, it's a tool or even merely a component, or possibly a reference environment, not a product. (sure it's also kind of a product, it's obviously not litterally equivalent to cat, I'm just saying there is more than one way to look at it)

Someone may or may not use it in anger for something some time, but things like this need to already exist before other people can come along later and stick the existing lego blocks together.

Why no RISC-V? I thought there'd be enough chips around... Virtualisation should be possible to?

It is old. I think toybox has a mkroot tool now.

Indeed. https://github.com/landley/toybox would be a better link to discuss.

It's an interesting project. I wasn't aware it also built minimal Linux images. It seems like a great base for a new distro, just bring your own package manager. Nix would be a great fit for this.

Presumably when a process dies we may never speak its name again?

Just move it to the Kumanjayi PID list and obfuscate with salt for a year.

Yeah that's not going to go down well with first nations Australians. They're sensitive about cultural appropriation, with some justification. I don't think the argument of the Latin origin would be given much heed. Then again, likely no-one will notice a small software project.

Yeah... I'm not even Australian and this being some sort of indie OS build made by or for indigenous Australians was my first guess at what this was.

I had a similar concern but you stated it way better than I could've. Thanks for doing so

Naming is hard.

If you intend to avoid rustling jimmies anywhere in the world you're in for a hard time with your naming.

I'm not sure it is too jarring - if they had called it Aborigine Linux then there might have been a small outcry.

Yes and no. Aboriginal peoples world 'round have been displaced and slaughtered. The name conjures all meanings of the word, as is the nature of words, consequently there is a distinct and predictable reflex to associate this name with atrocity in a general sense.

Naming is hard. Offense unintended is often perceived as neglect or callousness. Names can change; history cannot.

There are other indigenous cultures which use the name, for example Aboriginal Canadians. I'm not sure why any of the groups would care about the naming of the project though. The naming controversies I'm aware of are about the names used for the indigenous people, not completely external names. It feels weird to assume it would be an issue, unless there's some specific cases you have in mind?

Then why bring it up?

As you have noticed, the word has Latin origins. Who is appropriating whom?

You accuse a conquered people of appropriating language that forced them to assimilate or die?

Who did i accuse?

What an odd thing to say.

I've misunderstood, then. Do elaborate on your question "Who is appropriating whom?"

What is there to elaborate? The term is used in multiple contexts. If you think that there is someone who is more right to exclusively use it for their thing, feel free to tell.

> You accuse a conquered people of appropriating language

Not accusing anyone

The indigenous Australians have different names for themselves than "aboriginal", which is a generic term

Australians did not bother with them (in many ways) and use a Latin origin word

I do not think this is an issue, but hearing from an indigenous Australian would be useful if it were an issue

It sure made me uncomfortable.

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