If Linux Never Was – imagining an alternate reality without Linux

11 points by parvenu74 5 years ago | 9 comments
  • gshdg 5 years ago
    Nah. If Linux was never invented, this would just be the 20th time in a row someone declared it to be “the year of BSD on the desktop”.
    • eesmith 5 years ago
      And there would have been a Beastie Racer.
    • mariuolo 5 years ago
      If not some version of BSD, we might be using Minix or perhaps Hurd.
      • tetris11 5 years ago
        This, I feel like Linux was just sexier for kernel devs, robbing Hurd of potential support
        • skinnymuch 5 years ago
          I don’t know anything about Hurd besides GNU working on it when Linux came out. What was sexier about Linux? Was Hurd any good?
          • eesmith 5 years ago
            I don't know how "sexier" has anything to do with the topic.

            Linux was available now. Hurd ... was not. Still isn't.

            Hurd is based on a microkernel architecture, which was/is enticing because (quoting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Hurd ), "In theory the microkernel design would allow for all device drivers to be built as servers working in user space" and "According to Hurd developers, the main advantage of microkernel-based design is the ability to extend the system: developing a new module would not require in depth knowledge of the rest of the kernel, and a bug in one module would not crash the entire system."

            There is a long debate about microkernel vs monolithic kernel. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microkernel for one such summary.

      • skinnymuch 5 years ago
        Like everyone else is saying. This is silly. Another open source kernel and OS would’ve taken Linux’s place.

        An easier example is Git. If Git wasn’t made. Or perhaps it was made by an unknown and thus didn’t gain traction, the world would be pretty close to how it is now. Another DVCS like Hg would’ve been widely used or a split of a few. However it would’ve ended up, the world would be, relatively speaking, the same.

        • krzepah 5 years ago
          NooooOooOOoOoooOOOOooooOoooooooo :'(

          We'd be all on win :((((

          Joke aside : BSD would probably at it's place - one thing that we could advocate as being unique to unix is it's viral open license system

          • oehtXRwMkIs 5 years ago
            > unique to unix is it's viral open license system

            GNU is not Unix

          • Proven 5 years ago
            BSD would be what Linux is today, but with less drama and more freedom for users.