this post was submitted on 24 May 2024
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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You used a bunch of words but you aren't saying much new.
Again, those differences are meaningful. It makes sense to have a different name for it. You can lump it and MacOS and Android as a singular family of OSs, but they're clearly different products with different branding and different functionality.
You're also ignoring how much all of those "succesful Linux" non-Linux systems are tied to hadware, which is ultimately the issue. The terminal isn't as much of a dealbreaker as the Linux community makes it out to be (and neither is the UX not being identical to Windows, BTW). The problem is the lack of hardware support and the finicky configurations, terminal or no terminal. Steam OS, all the flavors of Android and Chrome OS are all customized to the hardware they ship with and work well with it. In all cases the hardware is locked and it doesn't need much readjusting, and when it does it's often through a live support update system.
And yes, I have thought of ChromeOS as Linux, don't be patronizing. I am saying it's not the same as the desktop-focused Linux distros that are trying to support modular PC hardware in the way Windows does. Because it isn't.