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Comment by sjsdaiuasgdia | Hacker News Reader

Other people's hobbies don't have to align to your priorities.

In other words: https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/043/517/i_d...

I asked out of interest and explained my point of view, imposing neither standards nor priorities. Why are you reacting so hostile to a question?

Isn't it rather your intention to enforce your "standard" for questions and opinions that suit you?

You are asking a question that doesn’t make sense. It seems like to you it does, and to others it sounds like “what does the color blue taste like?” People do stuff for fun. It doesn’t have to be useful. Or it can be useful to them because it isn’t the existing thing. xv6 is great, this is different. It makes different choices and studying the differences can be a good thing. Comparing two different pieces of software written in the same language is sometimes exactly what you want.

The logic of “something similar already exists so don’t bother” is reductive. I am sure 99% of hobbyist software is useless to anyone but the person who wrote it. It still helps people learn and become professionals.

Remember a few weeks ago there was a post here by a high school student detailing building a laptop from scratch. Was that wasted effort because you can just buy a laptop? Was Linux wasted effort? Why does this project offend you so much that you keep commenting on it in such a negative way?

> Comparing two different pieces of software written in the same language is sometimes exactly what you want.

And here we are at my question, which obviously makes sense. So what's the difference to xv6? Why did the author consider it important to implement yet another unix-like system in C? What is the core benefit of this specific kernel? The website doesn't provide an answer.

> that you keep commenting on it in such a negative way?

That is a false accusation. I have not said anything negative about this project.

I think it's a cool project even though I have no interest in downloading and running it, but it's a technological curiosity that might yield some insight of other things.

If you're so hell-bent on knowing what differentiates Fiwix from xv6 why don't you download the projects and compare them? You shouldn't be asking others to do your work for you, or to justify their choices and actions to you.

> You shouldn't be asking others to do your work for you, or to justify their choices and actions to you.

Are you serious? This is HN, so it's reasonable to assume that there are people here (obviously not you) who know the project and can answer questions about it quickly. After all, the project author has even set up a dedicated website and is asking for support for his project. It should be in his and the other project contributors' interest to communicate the advantages of the project to people on their own initiative. I don't consider it my job to analyze the source code to find out for myself. I'm very interested in lean operating systems, especially for embedded SMP systems, but my time is limited.

> Why did the author consider it important to implement yet another unix-like system in C? What is the core benefit of this specific kernel? The website doesn't provide an answer.

The website does answer your questions:

> It is designed and developed mainly as a hobby OS

A hobby is something that someone does for their personal enjoyment; it isn't any more complicated than that.

> It is designed and developed mainly as a hobby OS

That doesn't answer my questions at all; e.g. Linux also started out as a hobby, and yet Linus had a clear position on why he considered his system to be better than e.g. Minix, and why he made certain design decisions. Hobby does not in any way preclude rational, goal-oriented motivation.

> Hobby does not in any way preclude rational, goal-oriented motivation.

And it doesn't imply one, either. Most hobbies are just hobbies, that began as hobbies, and continue to stay hobbies.

Replace programming with any other hobby here -- It would be ridiculous to say, in response to someone showing a hat they they've knit: "Why did you consider it important to knit yet another hat? What is the core benefit of this specific knit hat?"

> It would be ridiculous to say, in response to someone showing a hat they they've knit: "Why did you consider it important to knit yet another hat? What is the core benefit of this specific knit hat?"

Not at all. Knitting has a clearly defined purpose: to make a particular garment with a particular shape and pattern so that you can wear it, give it as a gift or sell it (coincidentally, I have detailed first-hand insider knowledge on this topic). But I don't think we need to continue this discussion because it doesn't bring me any closer to the answers to my questions, and apparently you don't have the answers either.

No, hobbies are done for the enjoyment of the activity itself. That's what the word means. The answer to your questions is likely "there is no advantage" and "because the author thought it was fun"

You are asking questions about things that were never asserted in the first place. "Why did the author consider it important to implement yet another unix-like system in C?" Nobody ever said it was!

If you left it at the initial question this might have been an entirely different thread.

"There are already so many Unix like operating systems of all sizes written in C... If I were to go to such an effort, I would try another language...It is meanwhile more than clear that it can be done in C...so it would actually be more interesting to explore the suitability of other languages for such a task."

Based on your earlier remarks why not say knitters should use different material or needles to make it more interesting? Why do the same pattern over again when so many knitters have probably knit the very same pattern already.

Because the statements above miss the point of what hobby means to most people.

>> and apparently you can't answer the questions either

No one is required to. Not anyone on HN or the hobbyist in question.

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