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by cesarb 1417 days ago
> The more common explanation was that Linux got a head start by a few years by being a clean-sheet implementation

My favorite theory for why Linux got a head start is in this (long) comment I found some time ago here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21420338

Some excerpts:

"With Linux, I just booted from a Linux boot floppy with my Linux install CD in the CD-ROM drive, and ran the installation. With BSD...it could not find the drive because I had an IDE CD-ROM and it only supported SCSI."

"It insisted on being given a disk upon which it could completely repartition. [...] Linux, on the other hand, was happy to come second after my existing DOS/Windows."

"By the time the BSD people realized they really should be supporting IDE CD-ROM and get along with prior DOS/Windows on the same disk, Linux was way ahead."
1 comments
toyg 1417 days ago
IDE was one of many hardware issues that just took too long to be solved. For a long time, BSDs didn't seriously try to support consumer-grade hardware - be it because of lack of manpower, conservative attitudes, or "commercial" choices. OpenBSD still doesn't support Bluetooth...

On the other side, the Linux community fought hard to get everything to work, creating positive loops: the more hardware it supported, the more people could get it to work on their hobby hardware, the more they'd become familiar with it and push for adoption at work.

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nix23 1417 days ago
>OpenBSD still doesn't support Bluetooth

OpenBSD supported Bluetooth but they threw out the whole stack because of security concerns. I think it's the right decision for OpenBSD.

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toyg 1416 days ago
Exactly, "commercial" choice. Any OS that wants to support consumer-grade hardware, in 2022, must provide Bluetooth; OpenBSD just doesn't care enough about the consumer market to do that.
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nix23 1416 days ago
True they don't care about you, it's like you don't count...who could imagine that!!!

Quel sacrilege!!

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toyg 1416 days ago
Lol, I think this comment illustrates why BSDs will forever lag, better than any technical explanation... and I say that as an OpenBSD user.
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nix23 1416 days ago
>BSDs will forever lag,

Terrible to hear that!

>and I say that as an OpenBSD user.

My condolence that you have to use that terrible anti-consumer system.

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