A real alternative to running some kind of FOSS Unix clone

Crossposted from https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/74960425

A great article on Haiku and the overall state of alternative operating systems.

However, the author skipped mentioning that NetBSD has taken an anti-AI stance as well. From developer guidelines:

  1. Do not commit tainted code to the repository. … Code generated by a large language model or similar technology, such as GitHub/Microsoft’s Copilot, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, or Facebook/Meta’s Code Llama, is presumed to be tainted code, and must not be committed without prior written approval by core

The developers’ announcement on Mastodon: https://mastodon.sdf.org/@netbsd/112446618914747900

  • rozodru@piefed.worldEnglish
    6·
    5 days ago

    I like Haiku, i’ve installed it a couple times. An incredibly easy and insanely quick install. If you’re looking for a simple OS to browse the internet and do some light dev work and need it to run on old hardware you honeslty can’t go wrong with it. Out of all the none linux OS’ I was honestly surprised it had Floorp, don’t even have that on any of the BSDs.

    • 503@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      1·
      5 days ago

      I agree. Haiku is a great option if one wants to give their old computer a new lease of life.

      However, anyone trying it out must be aware that it is still in beta, and the OS does behave as such. Performance takes a hit at times. It is not at all optimised for battery usage. Suspend/resume do not work (and as per the developers, it is not a priority). I could go on.

      Having said that, it is a distinct piece of software as well as philosophy, which one must definitely try out at least once.

      Also, none of the newer OSes (besides NetBSD, Puppy Linux derivatives, and maybe Antix Linux) even support the computers that this OS targets. :-)