How to get rid of Linux

[nasyt]

Here are some Alternatives to Linux:

Plan9

Plan 9 from Bell Labs is a free software distributed operating system. It was developed primarily for research purposes as the successor to Unix.

Plan 9 is an evolution of UNIX design concepts:

• all objects are either files or file systems
• communication is over a network
• private namespaces allow their owners to access local and remote processes transparently

Plan 9 is a distributed OS as it is able to use the network to federate itself onto many computers.

Akaros

Akaros is an upcoming OS for manycore architectures. It is (will be) well suited for High Performance Computing.
Since it incorporates code from Plan 9, it inherits its good networking stack. This will make it a good network OS.

Minix

Minix is a small, microkernel Operating System compatible with UNIX. It is a good, academic replacement for Linux with some Caveats:

• Minix is not available for x86_64 (yet).
• Minix does not support threads.

AROS

AROS (or AROS Research Operating System)is a free multi media centric OS, that implements the AmigaOS 3.1 APIs. One interesting Fact is, that
AROS is an Exokernel OS.

GNU Hurd

GNU Hurd is a Microkernel OS based on Mach. While being build ontop of a Microkernel, GNU Hurd is considered a Kernel or Kernel-like
Software Package itself. It was meant as the kernel of the GNU Operating System.

[mpppp]

An interesting projecy is genode and another is dragonfly's hammerfs.

[nasyt]

An interesting projecy is genode and another is dragonfly's hammerfs.

Yes. Thats true.

Genode could also be used for Desktop or Server needs (maybe). Unfortunally, Applications for Genode need to be linked with the GPL-encumbered runtime-libraries.

[nasyt]

I forgot:

Plan9

Plan 9 from Bell Labs is a free software distributed operating system. It was developed primarily for research purposes as the successor to Unix.

Plan 9 is a distributed OS as it is able to use the network to federate itself onto many computers.

Plan 9 has also a very robust networking stack. I believe it exceeds Linux' TCP/IP impl. by far.

Minix

• Minix does not support threads.

If you run a Unix-Server that uses Fork, then it will work just smoothly.

AROS

AROS (or AROS Research Operating System)is a free multi media centric OS, that implements the AmigaOS 3.1 APIs. One interesting Fact is, that
AROS is an Exokernel OS.

AROS seems to be a Desktop-Centric OS. I don't know how it would perform as a Server OS (and wether it is possible to start without GUI).

GNU Hurd

GNU Hurd is a Microkernel OS based on Mach. While being build ontop of a Microkernel, GNU Hurd is considered a Kernel or Kernel-like
Software Package itself. It was meant as the kernel of the GNU Operating System.

Hurd could need some fixes, for example to

• Fix the Swap server
• Enable SMP in the mach kernel
• Port it to x86_64

I would like to mention another OpenSource OS:

HelenOS

It is another Microkernel OS that has some advantages over Minix and Hurd:

• Unlike Minix, it supports Multithreading
• Unlike Hurd, it supports SMP

The caveat is: It is not POSIX compliant (it is just "POSIX-Similar"). It also has ho Installer and no Application (yet).

[OneTimeShot]

Plan9
Akaros
Minix
AROS
GNU Hurd

...you know that you are getting old when your OS is too mainstream for the youngsters...

[brosis]

need to be linked with the GPL-encumbered runtime-libraries.

Better this cucumber, than EULA cucumber.

[CTown]

...you know that you are getting old when your OS is too mainstream for the youngsters...

Let's not forget that FreeBSD is so disgustingly mainstream now... running the PlayStation 4 and what not! Just ill. I mean, who would want to use an OS used by over 12 people?

[Guest]

Let's not forget that FreeBSD is so disgustingly mainstream now... running the PlayStation 4 and what not! Just ill. I mean, who would want to use an OS used by over 12 people?

Exactly.

*BSD & Linux are way too usable for kids nowadays (just imagine, you booting up a random laptop and having everything run out of the box!).

I would tell people not to feed trolls, but this reply is feeding them :-]

[nasyt]

Sanos

Sanos is a minimalistic x86 32-bit OS kernel for network server appliances running on standard PC hardware, so it is basically a Network Operating System. The kernel implements basic OS things like Booting, memory managemeng, sheduling, file systems dynamic linking and networking.

Since it is Developed under Windows, its executables and dynamically linked libs are .exe and .dll files.

http://www.jbox.dk/sanos/index.htm

[torsionbar28]

There's two problems with all these alternative lifestyle operating systems:

Firstly, so many applications these days are thin client apps that are served by a web server on the internet, and you run them in your web browser. Without a modern web browser that can do HTML5, Java, Flash, etc. your machine is quite limited in what it can do, at least as a desktop. Linux can do all of these, but the other non mainstream OS's, not so much.

Secondly, if you're talking about a server, no corporation is going to use it without a major vendor backing it up with 24/7 support. Without this, it's relegated to home and hobbyist usage only.

Don't get me wrong, they're nifty and neat and fun to tinker with. But that's about the extent of them, at least today. Who knows, maybe in 25 years, they'll be as mainstream as Linux is?

Also, you forgot one:

FreeDOS

FreeDOS is a free DOS-compatible operating system that can be used to play games, run legacy software, or support embedded systems. FreeDOS is basically like the old MS-DOS, but better! For example, FreeDOS lets you access FAT32 file systems and use large disk support (LBA) ? a feature not available in MS-DOS, and only included in Windows 95 and newer.

http://www.freedos.org