The reasons people use Linux are for qualities other than the ones affected by AI use. AI use has implications for code quality, correctness, and security. But none of those are why people use Linux. People use Linux over BSD or other Unixes because Linux supports the most hardware, has the biggest software ecosystem, and being a monolithic kernel is much easier to get up and running with lots of hardware without needing to install separate drivers. Those qualities still need to be addressed by BSDs or whatever alternatives before people will start migrating from Linux.
I say this as someone who regularly uses and enjoys an OpenBSD machine. I couldn’t use it as my main machine because it just doesn’t have the same software availability and plug-and-use hardware support as Linux. Porting software to a new target is not a trivial task for most users. I package a few things for the AUR and that’s much easier as the software already supports x86_64 Linux; I just have to write a script to install it. I think OpenBSD is a nice OS but I highly doubt Linux users will migrate any time soon. Think about how many people were clinging onto X11 because Wayland didn’t support their super specific workflow. And a migration to an entirely different OS would be worse.
i usually use freebsd (haven’t tried openbsd yet…) and its linux binary compat is almost perfect, it surprisingly just works for most things although there are some rough edges as a desktop.
How’s the firmware support/availability? For things like graphics tablets, graphics drivers, etc?
I don’t think OpenBSD has binary compat with Linux but most Linux software should just need a recompile for BSDs—I’m discouraged from porting given that when it’s not a simple recompile I’d have much less idea what to do.
i don’t have a wacom tablet to test, sorry. generally all seems to work, graphics driver seem to be ported over from linux and synced to latest periodically. it might be better because i never have the latest hardware…
indeed most things should just work after recompiling, but with freebsd’s great linux compat you can just run docker containers for example.
The reasons people use Linux are for qualities other than the ones affected by AI use. AI use has implications for code quality, correctness, and security. But none of those are why people use Linux. People use Linux over BSD or other Unixes because Linux supports the most hardware, has the biggest software ecosystem, and being a monolithic kernel is much easier to get up and running with lots of hardware without needing to install separate drivers. Those qualities still need to be addressed by BSDs or whatever alternatives before people will start migrating from Linux.
I say this as someone who regularly uses and enjoys an OpenBSD machine. I couldn’t use it as my main machine because it just doesn’t have the same software availability and plug-and-use hardware support as Linux. Porting software to a new target is not a trivial task for most users. I package a few things for the AUR and that’s much easier as the software already supports x86_64 Linux; I just have to write a script to install it. I think OpenBSD is a nice OS but I highly doubt Linux users will migrate any time soon. Think about how many people were clinging onto X11 because Wayland didn’t support their super specific workflow. And a migration to an entirely different OS would be worse.
i usually use freebsd (haven’t tried openbsd yet…) and its linux binary compat is almost perfect, it surprisingly just works for most things although there are some rough edges as a desktop.
How’s the firmware support/availability? For things like graphics tablets, graphics drivers, etc?
I don’t think OpenBSD has binary compat with Linux but most Linux software should just need a recompile for BSDs—I’m discouraged from porting given that when it’s not a simple recompile I’d have much less idea what to do.
i don’t have a wacom tablet to test, sorry. generally all seems to work, graphics driver seem to be ported over from linux and synced to latest periodically. it might be better because i never have the latest hardware…
indeed most things should just work after recompiling, but with freebsd’s great linux compat you can just run docker containers for example.