Ideal free- and open operating system

[techmarks]

FreeBSD

it's very free, just don't claim you came up with it, and after that you are pretty much free to to do anything with it.

commecial, non-commercial, closed or open source, it runs just about any Linux software, so far I like this OS best (and I've tried a few, I've not tried OpenSolaris yet)

[stream303]

gNewSense is 'certified' by FSF. Maybe try that.

I'm running that right now on my PC desktop:
http://www.gnewsense.org/static/homepage/

Even if you don't plan to run it permanently, you may find it useful to actually identify how many proprietary / restricted things are running in your distro's userland or kernel.

For me, I plan to keep it on my desktop, and it actually got me to do my own research about what the difference between ideal, free, and open really means. One might find them mutually-exclusive.

(general notes to everyone and not to anyone in particular - if they even care about my .02 cents......)

What I find sad about those that would bash the FSF, is not recognizing the fact that the very systems they may be writing their criticisms with is compiled with the GNU GCC compiler. Even the BSD's use GCC as their system compiler! So thank the GPL for helping to keep the bsd's alive.

No matter what you think of the man or his way of expressing it, be sure to do your own research about the topic. Don't idolize or daemonize him; think on your own.

http://www.fsf.org/

Here I found what the difference between free and open really means, and I dropped a lot of baggage I was just regurgitating from others about the subject over the years. It is more than just code, although that started the whole ball of wax.

This thread title is fantastic - I've been juggling those three words internally in a moral battle since about '95.

[Canis familiaris]

FreeBSD

Totally FREE, you can do the *cough* what you want to do with type free.

I will try it next.

[stream303]

Don't get me wrong - I run many things. FreeBSD is one of my favs, although I ran Slackware first - really helped out. OpenBSD is also very admirable. I like it's in-your-face honesty. You always know where you stand. Even got NetBSD to boot on one of my old-world Macs many years back.

I think that the bsd-native compiler PCC (I think) is coming along, but still to this day, the bsd kernel and userland is compiled with a GNU compiler, which I always found odd.

I also like seeing the new BSD-devoted magazines hitting the shelves these days too. Nabbed the latest 7.0 from it, and am pleased to see a PPC port!

However, gNewSense got me thinking....

[wolfen69]

i'll never understand why people choose to run a restrictive OS such as gnewsense, when, in their everyday life they use and do "non-free" things all the time. do they have a job? yes? then they are answering to the man. do they pay a cable bill? phone bill? are they buying those jeans that were advertised on tv? yes? then they are helping a multi-million dollar company expand and grow, so they can advertise more.

my point is, that people that use "free" OS's are more or less hypocrites. when they can totally release themselves of the shackles of society, then using a "free OS" makes sense. what are these people trying to prove? they're not saving money or helping the planet by using gnash instead of flash. they are only limiting themselves for some stupid self serving righteousness. i guess it make them feel good inside, knowing they are not a slave to the man. but yet they are. foolishness and blind arrogance is more like it. it proves absolutely nothing if the rest of their lives are not free.

[saulgoode]

my point is, that people that use "free" OS's are more or less hypocrites. when they can totally release themselves of the shackles of society, then using a "free OS" makes sense.
[snip]
... it proves absolutely nothing if the rest of their lives are not free.

I see. Rather like:

since one can't ever ensure a 100% healthy diet, there is no reason to avoid unhealthy food...

Or:

since one can never hope to avoid using petroleum products, he may as well drive a gas guzzling SUV...

Or:

since it is impossible to be kind to everyone, there is no reason to be kind to anyone.

Yeah. That makes sense.

[mazz72]

i'll never understand why people choose to run a restrictive OS such as gnewsense, when, in their everyday life they use and do "non-free" things all the time. do they have a job? yes? then they are answering to the man. do they pay a cable bill? phone bill? are they buying those jeans that were advertised on tv? yes? then they are helping a multi-million dollar company expand and grow, so they can advertise more.

my point is, that people that use "free" OS's are more or less hypocrites. when they can totally release themselves of the shackles of society, then using a "free OS" makes sense. what are these people trying to prove? they're not saving money or helping the planet by using gnash instead of flash. they are only limiting themselves for some stupid self serving righteousness. i guess it make them feel good inside, knowing they are not a slave to the man. but yet they are. foolishness and blind arrogance is more like it. it proves absolutely nothing if the rest of their lives are not free.

I'm with you. Use whatever OS you want, but don't think you're changing the world or something, 'cause you're not. Personally, I can't imagine myself using an OS that doesn't support mp3. I guess it's probably a nice feeling for a little bit to know you're not using anything proprietary on your system, but after a while, I think the impracticality of it would just get annoying. I've got stuff to do. I can't be bothered with that.

[howlingmadhowie]

Hi,

Which is the most ideal*, free- and open operating system out there?

* Ideal [dfn.] conforming to an ultimate standard of perfection or excellence.

you can find a list of totally free operating systems here:

http://www.gnu.org/links/links.html#...xDistributions

[mazz72]

since it is impossible to be kind to everyone, there is no reason to be kind to anyone.

Actually, I'd love to have this on a bumper sticker.

[kellemes]

i'll never understand why people choose to run a restrictive OS such as gnewsense, when, in their everyday life they use and do "non-free" things all the time. do they have a job? yes? then they are answering to the man. do they pay a cable bill? phone bill? are they buying those jeans that were advertised on tv? yes? then they are helping a multi-million dollar company expand and grow, so they can advertise more.

my point is, that people that use "free" OS's are more or less hypocrites. when they can totally release themselves of the shackles of society, then using a "free OS" makes sense. what are these people trying to prove? they're not saving money or helping the planet by using gnash instead of flash. they are only limiting themselves for some stupid self serving righteousness. i guess it make them feel good inside, knowing they are not a slave to the man. but yet they are. foolishness and blind arrogance is more like it. it proves absolutely nothing if the rest of their lives are not free.

+1

For me an os is no more than that. It should run my hardware, if it does that.. it's a fine product. If I can get it for free it's even better. But never I'll be using an os because of some philosophy, it's not philosophy that runs my system.
Funny though.. I'm a Debian user for a long long time