FSF-Approved Hyperbola GNU/Linux Switching Out The Linux Kernel For Hard Fork Of OpenBSD

[starshipeleven]

...plus... "Java"? What Java? Are you crazy?

tl:dr yes

It's linked in the original post on their site https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?func=...&item_id=57217 and it seems they seem to think gettext ( C application that parses source code and pulls up strings for translation) needs Java and C# to be compiled for some reason, and they maintain this belief even after a project developer explained that the java files shipped by the application is documentation or examples, and are in binary form in the source tree already.

[k1e0x]

Project Trident moves from BSD to Void Linux, now this.

I don't blame them and I agree with the premise of Linux.. but I don't think they should fork.. that is a awful lot of work.. and depending on their use case FreeBSD might be a better option.. but.. if they want to do it I'm sure they have their reasons. All the best to em.

[starshipeleven]

Fishing for the anti-systemd, anti-linux and anti-rust trolls

It's not even a bad thing.

[Guest]

Considering how awful the init system is in OpenBSD, and that the default distribution downloads blobs without consent, this choice is questionable. I wouldn't say that OpenBSD makes much sense as a desktop operating system these days, even if I can set up X11 just the way I like it and install Firefox.

[Volta]

Never heard of it and probably never will again.

[muvlon]

Unless I'm mistaken, a kernel cannot have any dependency because of obvious reasons,

You are mistaken. What are the obivous reasons you are thinking of? Of course a kernel can have dependencies.

What a kernel can't have is dependencies that expect a regular userland API such as POSIX beneath them. Dependencies that provide datastructures and algorithms or things like cryptographic primitives are fine though.

For example, check out the Cargo.toml of Redox OS' kernel - it pulls in a bunch of dependencies just like a normal Cargo project does. Obviously the devs have been careful to not pull in anything that uses the standard library (which depends on an OS running beneath it), but otherwise it's a pretty normal process.

Now, Linux does not pull in any external non-build dependencies, and they have good reasons for that. But those reasons are not that it's technically impossible.

[starshipeleven]

You are mistaken. What are the obivous reasons you are thinking of? Of course a kernel can have dependencies.

Yeah nevermind, I'm dumb. Arduino projects can use all libraries they want too even if the end result is a single blob application running on bare metal.

I was implicitly assuming libraries loaded at runtime from OS folders.

[aht0]

Considering how awful the init system is in OpenBSD, and that the default distribution downloads blobs without consent, this choice is questionable. I wouldn't say that OpenBSD makes much sense as a desktop operating system these days, even if I can set up X11 just the way I like it and install Firefox.

Doing hard fork, they'd be able to simply swap out init against something else (not that RC is 'awful' in anything but subjective sense for someone). OpenRC or S6 maybe. Or runit.

Hardware-support-wise they wouldn't lose or win much compared to linux-libre. Well, excepting Nvidia support, since OpenBSD does not have Nouveau port.

They'd be bogged down most noticeably in file system support, unless they port themselves something over from other BSD's. OpenBSD only has traditional FFS.

Forking NetBSD would help them bit more, it has ZFS and Nouveau ports.

Edit: their side has following tidbits

a completely new OS derived from several BSD implementations.

Reasons for this include:

• Linux kernel forcing adaption of DRM, including HDCP.
• Linux kernel proposed usage of Rust (which contains freedom flaws and a centralized code repository that is more prone to cyber attack and generally requires internet access to use.)
• Linux kernel being written without security and in mind. (KSPP is basically a dead project and Grsec is no longer free software)
• Many GNU userspace and core utils are all forcing adaption of features without build time options to disable them. E.g. (PulseAudio / SystemD / Rust / Java as forced dependencies

The latter I can get. You want one small chunk of something but have to take kitchensink..

kernel and userspace including new code written under GPLv3 and LGPLv3 to replace GPL-incompatible parts and non-free ones.

They plan to replace GPL-incompatible parts with software written under GPL/LGPL?? Is it just me finding it does not make any sense???

[Luke_Wolf]

I'mma laugh so hard if Theo rewrites OpenBSD in Rust just to spite these idiots.

[hotaru]

I'mma laugh so hard if Theo rewrites OpenBSD in Rust just to spite these idiots.

he wouldn't even need to do the rewrite. a single message to a mailing list saying that he's considering it would be enough.