All of that is true for most other operating systems, some of which are even more customizable than some of today’s Linux distributions. My question was “why Linux?”, not “why not Windows?”.
Question is a not relevant to the discussion, and might be an (possibly unintentional?) attempt at derailing the conversation. @bearboiblake@pawb.social answered the question more than adequately. Their point still holds: If needed, there are many ways to run Windows apps under other operating systems (including Linux). Choosing an OS between Linux - and it’s various flavors, FreeBSD etc is outside the scope of the original discussion.
Oh – in that case, because Linux is vastly more popular than any other alternative free operating system or system distribution, has infinitely more support options and software available than alternatives, and a much larger community/install base, meaning that if you have a problem or want some tool, it’s far more likely to be available for Linux than any other free alternative.
Windows is more popular than Linux, so is macOS. Now is that a reason or not?
notice the word free
False.
ok lol
Which tool does (e.g.) FreeBSD lack for you?
Well, Docker is the archetypal example, though I’m sure there are plenty of others. I’ve never particularly cared to get into BSD, because I have no incentive to do so.
You just said “False”. How tf am I meant to engage with that in any kind of productive way? It’s like saying “no u”.
Last warning before mute.
Why would I care if you block me? It would be your loss, really – I’m a very cool, nice, fun, friendly guy, you’d be missing out on some potentially great comments.
You should.
Why? Genuinely asking, I’ve never looked into it because I have no real incentive to try it. I’ve used NetBSD on a server before, and it was fine, but like, what reason would I have to move away from Linux? It works completely perfectly for all of my use cases.
Please, by all means, don’t care. I, for one, care about whether strangers on the internet try to dunning-kruger me. Life’s too short for that.
I’ve used NetBSD on a server before, and it was fine, but like, what reason would I have to move away from Linux?
The same reason why weirdos want Windows users to move away from Windows, I guess. It is lovely to have options, and (given the continuing enshittification of much of Linux, with systemd spreading through the whole ecosystem like a virus, less customizability, more security fails, …) BSD is quite an appalling option. It runs (almost) all Linux software, is notably more mature (it existed long before Linux and quite a few companies relied and worked on it for decades, making it enterprise-ready by design), has a very nice community (and me) and it runs on old hardware much longer than Linux does; ironically, that’s what Linux users think they do better than Windows. Heh.
And the BSDs (I, personally, use OpenBSD on a few servers, only recently started trying NetBSD on a spare laptop) are only a subset of your free alternatives, with Solaris (illumos) and (e.g.) Haiku being two others. There will always be one system that does exactly what you want and how you want it.
If you use a Windows “translation layer” for your software anyway, why would you choose Linux as the host platform in the first place?
There are so many reasons. Here’s just a few off the top of my head:
All of that is true for most other operating systems, some of which are even more customizable than some of today’s Linux distributions. My question was “why Linux?”, not “why not Windows?”.
Question is a not relevant to the discussion, and might be an (possibly unintentional?) attempt at derailing the conversation. @bearboiblake@pawb.social answered the question more than adequately. Their point still holds: If needed, there are many ways to run Windows apps under other operating systems (including Linux). Choosing an OS between Linux - and it’s various flavors, FreeBSD etc is outside the scope of the original discussion.
Oh – in that case, because Linux is vastly more popular than any other alternative free operating system or system distribution, has infinitely more support options and software available than alternatives, and a much larger community/install base, meaning that if you have a problem or want some tool, it’s far more likely to be available for Linux than any other free alternative.
Windows is more popular than Linux, so is macOS. Now is that a reason or not?
False.
Which tool does (e.g.) FreeBSD lack for you?
notice the word free
ok lol
Well, Docker is the archetypal example, though I’m sure there are plenty of others. I’ve never particularly cared to get into BSD, because I have no incentive to do so.
Please don’t troll. Last warning before mute.
You should. It can’t hurt to know alternatives, you know.
You just said “False”. How tf am I meant to engage with that in any kind of productive way? It’s like saying “no u”.
Why would I care if you block me? It would be your loss, really – I’m a very cool, nice, fun, friendly guy, you’d be missing out on some potentially great comments.
Why? Genuinely asking, I’ve never looked into it because I have no real incentive to try it. I’ve used NetBSD on a server before, and it was fine, but like, what reason would I have to move away from Linux? It works completely perfectly for all of my use cases.
Please, by all means, don’t care. I, for one, care about whether strangers on the internet try to dunning-kruger me. Life’s too short for that.
The same reason why weirdos want Windows users to move away from Windows, I guess. It is lovely to have options, and (given the continuing enshittification of much of Linux, with systemd spreading through the whole ecosystem like a virus, less customizability, more security fails, …) BSD is quite an appalling option. It runs (almost) all Linux software, is notably more mature (it existed long before Linux and quite a few companies relied and worked on it for decades, making it enterprise-ready by design), has a very nice community (and me) and it runs on old hardware much longer than Linux does; ironically, that’s what Linux users think they do better than Windows. Heh.
And the BSDs (I, personally, use OpenBSD on a few servers, only recently started trying NetBSD on a spare laptop) are only a subset of your free alternatives, with Solaris (illumos) and (e.g.) Haiku being two others. There will always be one system that does exactly what you want and how you want it.