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Comment by tombert | Hacker News Reader

Didn't Linus even say that if he had known about BSD he wouldn't have bothered with Linux? I could totally see an alternate universe where BSD took over the world.

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It's arguable that the main reason Linux took off where BSD didn't was the fights and copyright arguments around BSD at the time.

Had they not existed, or BSD been obviously free and clear, Linux might have been a footnote.

A combination IMO of lingering issues around the AT&T lawsuit and various community issues within the BSDs.

Yep, the copyrighted Socket code legal issue has stalled the BSD world for a considerable time. It's reasonable to conclude many users thought it was a deadend for BSD distros, and when Linux emerged as the most promising thing from all (free as in freedom, open to any contribution, not plagued by a closed governance like GNU hurd) they all emigrated en masses to the effort.

bcantrill has opined that, had Linus gone off to pursue ice sculpture instead, at least one of the BSDs would have figured out a way forward. (Though others suggest that Windows would just have won.) I tend to agree with Bryan though.

https://bitmason.blogspot.com/2020/04/podcast-if-linux-didnt...

I recall either Linus or a major Linux contributor (Alan Cox?) saying that if he had had a math coprocessor, he would have likely just ran BSD.

I don't think even 386BSD existed when Linus started Linux.

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