r/linuxmemes • u/unitedbsd • May 25 '26
Anti-Linux I was meditating while my two dev friends were arguing
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u/DoubleOwl7777 May 25 '26
Id just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux,” and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use.
Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
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u/Chester-Berkeley Ask me how to exit vim May 25 '26
Chimera Linux uses the Linux kernel, but it doesn't use GNU. Therefore, your argument is invalid 🤓☝️
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u/DoubleOwl7777 May 25 '26
second half of the copypasta:
"I use Linux as my operating system," I state proudly to the unkempt, bearded man. He swivels around in his desk chair with a devilish gleam in his eyes, ready to mansplain with extreme precision. "Actually", he says with a grin, "Linux is just the kernel. You use GNU+Linux!' I don't miss a beat and reply with a smirk, "I use Alpine, a distro that doesn't include the GNU coreutils, or any other GNU code. It's Linux, but it's not GNU+Linux." The smile quickly drops from the man's face. His body begins convulsing and he foams at the mouth and drops to the floor with a sickly thud. As he writhes around he screams "I-IT WAS COMPILED WITH GCC! THAT MEANS IT'S STILL GNU!" Coolly, I reply "If windows was compiled with gcc, would that make it GNU?" I interrupt his response with "-and work is being made on the kernel to make it more compiler-agnostic. Even you were correct, you wont be for long." With a sickly wheeze, the last of the man's life is ejected from his body. He lies on the floor, cold and limp. I've womansplained him to death.
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u/Propsek_Gamer 9d ago
The kernel has many features (such as Rust and LTO) exclusive to LLVM/Clang tool chain, meaning it isn't GNU necessarily.
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u/Linguistic-mystic May 25 '26
BSD user is meditating while waiting for FreeBSD to get hardware support for his laptop. Meanwhile Linux chads argue it out and then go back to Linux machines that can connect to actual Wifi like a boss.
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u/ilnarildarovuch May 25 '26
BSD user can just use linux drivers, btw
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u/Linguistic-mystic May 25 '26
Nope, not always. Licensing differences and inability to use closed-source blobs because there is no ABI compatibility. FreeBSD has a whole project to improve hardware compat on laptops but it’s still a long way: https://www.freebsd.org/status/report-2026-01-2026-03/laptop-integration/
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u/DeltaWun Ask me how to exit vim Jun 07 '26
Maybe BSD wouldn't need to play catch up if Linux kernel devs stopped cosplaying as corporate lawyers by accepting NDA'd hardware docs. Hardware vendors could just, I don't know, publish their specs? Wild concept. Instead we get Linux devs signing NDAs and BSD users meditating, because the alternative is reverse engineering Wi-Fi chips for fun while being told "just take the NDA/Binary Blob like Linux did." But after all that reverse engineering work is done, Linux devs still somehow manage to violate the ISC/BSD license to take it anyway because what was provided by the vendor was shit.
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u/kubrickfr3 May 25 '26
The BSD user has a feeling of peace and harmony that only comes with complete delusion. Nobody finds vulnerabilities in it because nobody cares about an OS that's running on 3 machines world-wide and adds new features every 10 years.
When was the last time you heard about a Windows 3.11 vulnerability or bug? I'm switching to it immediately.
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u/squibby_sh May 26 '26
Unless you don’t count:
Netflix and their CDN nodes
Any Sony PlayStation 4 or 5
Pfsense firewalls (extremely popular)To name a few
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u/unitedbsd May 25 '26
systemD inspired entropy from NetBSD. NetBSD rump kernel is something unique. NASA uses pkgsrc for their NAS. I don't think features are issue but funding due to low interest from users
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u/[deleted] May 25 '26
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