Out of the following operating systems, which one do you use the most, not at work, but in your free personal time?
Please consider boosting for a larger sample size. Thank you.
#poll #os #computing #fediverse
I overall think the #OpenSource technology world/sphere is about 70% there in development of systems, that everyone can use with a reasonable amount of effort, but the lapse set is affordability and #DisabilityAccessibility (mostly for mobility issues). Likewise it's mostly in the #Hardware not #software nor #OS spheres, (70/10/20 split) which is why not finding much if any chatter on the Hardware problems is so disheartening, because it needs the most work.
> Linux didn't win the way anyone expected. There was no dramatic moment where Ubuntu overtook Windows on the desktop. No press conference. No champagne. Linux won the way open source always wins — gradually, relentlessly, by being better at the things that matter most to the people building the future.
**Linux Won, and Nobody Noticed**
https://www.junauza.com/2026/03/linux-won-and-nobody-noticed.html
I didn't do any Linux distro hopping, I'm only a recent #Mint user. I think Mint is said to work out of the box because you don't need to configure audio, sound, Bluetooth, connectivity by yourself. It will work. Hence, I think people describing Mint as too easy is just an over exaggeration. Because once you need to have relevant apps, programming and softwares, you'll start tinkering and troubleshooting. I have no expertise, but I'd assume as any other easy or hard distro out there.
These are some of the great textbooks to teach #UNIX #OS to #CS undies:
• V6, Lions
• SVR2, Bach
• MINIX3, Tanenbaum
• Xinu, Comer
• xv6 (V6 clone), Cox
But there is a space to create an even smaller, sleeker, simpler, study OS:
• Barebones 32-bit OS that runs on a cheap Cortex-M3 board (STM32 Blue Pill) or RISC-V board (ESP32-C6)
• Keep the code under 10k lines of C (or Ada, Rust, Zig, ...)
• Support only UNIX-like soft-realtime scheduling (no RTOS)
• Support user and kernel modes
• Multiplex the single-core CPU to multiple processes
• Map a handful of interrupts to signals
• Provide a subset of the POSIX API, just enough to run a simple I/O executable (button pushy/LED blinky) in multiple processes, simultaneously
• Single-user (root only) operation
• No security, accounting, etc.
• Shell on a terminal emulator, via a USB-TTL adapter
The goal is to create a smallest, simplest, bona fide OS for the cheapest ($0.99) hardware, so as to steer kids away from Scratch, MicroPython, Processing, and similar other harmful influences, during the early phase of their system #programming education.
To make explicit the implicit premise above, the marvellous Arduino teaches the kids to do the easy thing repeatedly, but a comparative-joke C64 forces the kids to do the right thing persistently.
It is infeasible to teach, in detail, the essentials of an OS (scheduling algorithms, process management, memory management, memory protection, authentication, authorisation, encryption, disc I/O, network I/O, graphics I/O, ...) in just one semester.
In contrast, the kids could master the above mentioned focused curriculum in just one semester, thereby gaining much confidence in system #programming.
