Ask HN: If Unix gets more popular would you use it instead of Linux? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: If Unix gets more popular would you use it instead of Linux?

9 pointscatstor18 comments

In a hypoethical scenario Unix Operating Systems get as much popular and supported in both hardware and software as Linux is currently is. Would you use it instead of Linux as your daily driver?

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I already do ... I used FreeBSD on desktops/laptops since 20 years.

Details:

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2018/09/07/my-freebsd-story/

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2020/09/07/quare-freebsd/

I use macOS which is a UNIX (certified as such: https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/certificates/1223p.pdf) and it may already be very popular at least on laptops ;)

Why do you classify the BSDs as Unix and not Linux as a Unix? Linux has about as much right to be called a Unix as the BSDs do, as those BSDs have had to be stripped of pretty much all Unix code in order to comply with the AT&T v. BSDi court case from 35 years ago[0].

Further, the BSDs were more popular than Linux at a point in time. There's a very good reason why Linux won the platform wars, and a very large part of that reason is because of the GPL - a difference with the BSDs which wont be going away.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIX_System_Laboratories%2C_In....

[EDIT: Typo. Added citation.]

MacOS 26 Tahoe is Unix certified[0]. It already is more popular than Linux.

[0]: https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/

How much difference in hardware and software availability is there between Linux and the various Unix versions? I often see mentions of a user abandoning Windows for Linux, but what percentage of users actually abandon one OS for another? Considering how long Unix has been around, even before Linux, is it likely to get significantly "more popular"?

If there was another good daily driver that also was built around systemd (or perhaps kubernetes) and a broad range of well integrated Wayland desktops, maybe perhaps possibly. Those two define the basics of my userland are my must have.

Apparently yes, given that I’ve been using macOS for about fifteen years now. And given that the topic seems to imply desktop/laptop use, isn’t macOS already the more popular OS?

FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD are UNIX-likes, and not POSIX-certified.

Mhm.. probably not FreeBSD is nice but it's too much behind Linux for: performance, drivers support, Wayland, Docker

docker uses linux specific namespace api. Freebsd has since 1999 an more powerful docker alterntive: jails.

Linux is Unix, or at least Unix like enough that it can be called Unix. Anyway, no, I use 9Front

Give me a bash shell, g++, perl, the shell tools, and a web browser, and I'm good.

I use macOS. Among other things... :-)

i dont think ur definition of unix passes muster?

I mean...macOS can certainly be considered a Unix, and it is more popular than Linux as a desktop daily driver.

For now. 20XX is the year of the Linux desktop.

laughably ironic HP-UX officially dies in another month

Termux

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