- Joined
- Jul 18, 2019
But they don't. MacOS doesn't utilize any GNU software nowadays as far as I know and it never utilized the gnu coreutils. They did ship gcc and the autotools back in the day but they replaced that with clang almost 20 years ago.
The Linux Thread - The Autist's OS of Choice
- Thread starter tehpope
- Start date
-
Want to keep track of this thread?
Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
Create account
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2018
Not Linux, but I'm currently using Win 10 LTSC as my daily driver. No issues so far. Easy to get (archive.org has it) and easy to crack (simply run a .bat from github). Only real problem I had was no image viewer by default, which I fixed by installing infraview, but somewhere along the way the stock win 10 one appeared, so that's nice.
However, Win 10 LTSC is on borrowed time. I think support ends in 2028 or something like that.
I haven't used real linux for a couple years and am a noob when it comes to this stuff. The two Linux distros I see recommended repeatedly on the wider internet for desktop use is Linux Mint, or Ubuntu with KDE Plasma. For gaming, if you have the right hardware, Steam OS or Bazzite are the ways to go, though they make it clear that desktop is more of an added bonus instead of something you can daily drive.
Sake Ojone
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2024
Ironically Fedora, it's basically in the middle of Mint and Arch both in stability (Mint is super stable, Arch requires more maintenance) and "difficulty" (Mint can be used as is out of the box, Arch requires you to choose what software you want to run on your own). Fedora is semi-rolling and requires some post-install setup, but it's updated frequently (sometimes they push new technologies when they're not completely ready but you can avoid those) and has a lot of developers looking at it so things tend to work as intended.
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2019
About four years ago I switched from Windows to Pop_OS and haven't looked back. Been gaming in it with no issues. I do have AMD/ATI chips but they have an nVidia version you can install. I was a complete Linux noob when I installed it and have been daily driving Pop since.
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2025
That's my bad for assuming they would be using the Gnu utils if they were using bash.
Linux distributions are not technically interchangeable, but as long as the distribution is popular troubleshooting and learning are easy. You could go on distrowatch and randomly choose one of the popular distributions and do well, I recommend MX Linux because it's a popular distribution that is lightweight by default, but even Arch and Fedora are good choices even though they will break more often than the Debian based distributions.
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2019
They don't even use bash anymore. MacOS switched to zsh by default sometime around 2019 with Catalina. I think you can still run bash but you'll get a warning since it's deprecated in favor of zsh running in bash-compatibility mode.
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2025
And the worst part is, they replaced GNU Chess.
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2024
I don't know if I would really consider them microkernels.
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2021
My understanding is that bash had a license change (to GPLv3) starting with 4.0, which apparently is unacceptable to Apple and how it packages software. So they either had to switch shells or stay on a version of bash that's way out of date. The latter isn't a workable option, as the computing world continues to change as years and decades pass. zsh has a free license and a bash compatibility mode, so that's what they went with.
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2020
Seconding MX Linux. Extremely user friendly, extremely intuitive, has tons of graphical interfaces to help you install new stuff and manage your computer, and still does all that while having all of Debian's packages. Flatpak is the easiest way to get anything that's missing, which can also be accessed through the gui MX Package Installer. It is essentially just better Mint. If you're willing to get your hands a little dirtier, you can try something like Artix or another "build your own" distro. Just read the friendly manual and you'll be good to go.
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
MX Linux still irks me with how it's a "cooperative venture" with "proudly anti-fascist" antiX that shows you a hideous tankie when you open up their webpage. I wouldn't feel right using a distro that's so openly politically charged.
Linux Mint is all you need.
Linux Mint is all you need.
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2023
Oh yeah that's a red flag. You can expect at any moment they kick out their biggest maintainers just because he said something off color.
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2025
Of course Linux Mint is officially partnered with the "Global Crew of Activists" Mozilla, so if these sorts of associations bother you then Mint is not the choice for you.
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
If you want to go with that reach you might as well talk about what Microsoft's stance on ideological BS is, but in both cases you're missing the point that there's a stark difference between having those sorts of associations buried away on your homepage and them being presented in the very first words you read on it.
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2025
According to you MX Linux is too political because they're friendly with another distribution that calls themselves "proudly anti-fascist" and displays a tutorial video featuring an ugly person on their front page. As far as I can find, the only other political statement AntiX has ever made was on a Mastodon account where they made a single post saying that there was genocidal influence on Twitter https://mastodon.social/@antix@mastodon.sdf.org. MX Linux does not call themselves an anti-fascist distribution, and have a portion of their "about us" called "our positions" where they say nothing political. If you consider this MX Linux being too political, I have no idea how you can call Mint's partnership with Mozilla a "reach", and it simply seems like you're looking for reasons hate MX Linux.
HootersMcBoobies
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2019
Apple (and most companies) have been anti-GPL for a while. The original post is gone, but here's an archive of someone who measured the amount of GPL programs per OSX release:
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2020
I would honestly rather shoulder the political slant rather than use systemd. Of the "easy"/"new user" distros, the only ones with that going for them are probably Devuan or MX Linux. Of course, for users with more technical inclinations I'd always suggest Gentoo above all, or if they're on a shitbox or otherwise don't like compiling, Void, CoC be damned. If not that, Artix. Point still stands: systemd creep is far and away worse than some random political bloviating.
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2025
I will point out that this isn't entirely accurate as some programs are not listed on this website, such as the GPL2 Apple Chess https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/Chess. Something very weird is that I can't seem to find license files in any of these repos, so I'm not sure if Apple is actually following the terms of the GPL and other licenses that they're using, also the "Download source code" button for Apple chess leads you to the Apple OS webpage which doesn't seem to host the Chess code at all, so that might be a problem.
I would like to clarify that I don't believe MX Linux or Linux Mint are political projects, and as a private person I only care whether the project is political if I don't consider the project to be trustworthy, like Librewolf which is run by an insane person.
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2023
Is there any mainstream distro that does not come preloaded with Firefox? No matter what you're going to need a browser and the only other browsers are closed source, based on Chromium with has a hostile license, or so far behind supporting HTML7 or whatever number were on that they are effectively broken for users.