this post was submitted on 26 Dec 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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submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

The distro family trees are like different pantheons.

Distros are like individual gods. Community developers are priests and end-users are the commoners who pray for blessings, good fortune, and happy lives. Priests direct the prayers of commoners to their respective gods.

There is the Debian pantheon, ancient gods of peace and stillness.

The Arch pantheon, progressive gods that bring revolution along with a bit of chaos.

The Red Hat pantheon, gods tha- wtf am I writing?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 48 minutes ago

Arch or arch devs never told me to kill anyone because they're not a white, straight and cis male using arch.

Therefore it's not a real religion, as every religion needs to have murders without reason.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

Don't be silly, the Linux community has never told me to hate someone just because they're differen... Oh.

And besides, there's no arcane practices or secret knowledg... Oh.

Carry on.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

If this is your take after your annual Xmas Magic Mushrooms trip, you need to take more shrooms

[–] [email protected] 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

The great Umberto Eco once wrote some wonderful musings about the similarities between different then popular personal computer operating systems and different branches of Christianity. I see that's now 30 years ago this year so now might be a good time for a repost, English translations and Italian original can be found here: https://www.simongrant.org/web/eco.html

[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

It's too good not to be posted here :

The fact is that the world is divided between users of the Macintosh computer and users of MS-DOS compatible computers. I am firmly of the opinion that the Macintosh is Catholic and that DOS is Protestant. Indeed, the Macintosh is counterreformist and has been influenced by the “ratio studiorum” of the Jesuits. It is cheerful, friendly, conciliatory, it tells the faithful how they must proceed step by step to reach – if not the Kingdom of Heaven – the moment in which their document is printed. It is catechistic: the essence of revelation is dealt with via simple formulae and sumptuous icons. Everyone has a right to salvation.

DOS is Protestant, or even Calvinistic. It allows free interpretation of scripture, demands difficult personal decisions, imposes a subtle hermeneutics upon the user, and takes for granted the idea that not all can reach salvation. To make the system work you need to interpret the program yourself: a long way from the baroque community of revelers, the user is closed within the loneliness of his own inner torment.

You may object that, with the passage to Windows, the DOS universe has come to resemble more closely the counterreformist tolerance of the Macintosh. It's true: Windows represents an Anglican-style schism, big ceremonies in the cathedral, but there is always the possibility of a return to DOS to change things in accordance with bizarre decisions.....

And machine code, which lies beneath both systems (or environments, if you prefer)? Ah, that is to do with the Old Testament, and is Talmudic and cabalistic.

Be sure to click the link to a fuller version provided beneath this one. Eco is just excellent.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

What are arch commoners pray?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

We pray for pacman to deliver as he often does.

All hail to pacman!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

No keep going, I like what you're cooking.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago

Linux produces actual results. Linux hate is the religion.

[–] [email protected] 68 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I like how you realized part way through that you were typing out nonsense, and decided to post it anyway lol

Also: how high are you right now?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Idk why but I love this post haha

[–] [email protected] -1 points 23 hours ago

I already knew it basically was a religion, haha

Unconditional belief in OpenSuSE supremacy, Gut für Alle!

[–] [email protected] 40 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The one true way is TempleOS.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It is too bad his mental health overtook him, with proper medicine that guy could have been such a much more amazing computer science dude. Although maybe the meds would have taken away his inner insight. It amazing that singled handedly he built his own OS. It is a wacky system, but still amazing

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Dude sounds like he could've been the Phillip K. Dick of computing.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It is an incredible solo-effort, with largely simplistic features.

As a usable OS, it's a fever-dream curiosity.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Yeah, I meant amazing that he created all that while struggling with schizophrenia, I can only imageline the accomplishments if he was well.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

Monotheism finds a way.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Forks for the fork throne!

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 days ago (2 children)

We do willingly summon daemons to inhabit our magic crystals.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Can we change systemctl start to systemctl summon pls??

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago

The Red Hat pantheon, gods tha- wtf am I writing?

scripture

amen

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

No but there is an ideological basis for free software though it is firmly based on practical experiences dealing with the consequences of close source devices.

Red Hat and Ubuntu are business. Debian and Arch are communities. Some of the smaller distros are basically that one guy in Nebraska.

People promote them for various reasons. An IBM employee will have different reasons to the supporter types who latch on to a distro and mascot like it was a football team. Now football, there is a religion. Its all ritual, nothing they do has any practical use, people congregate once a week and in some parts of the world it turns violent.

When the deb users start committing genocide on the rpm users I'll call it a religion. Until then its just a bunch of anime convention fans arguing about their favourite isekai.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago (2 children)

!unix_[email protected]

this pretty much... i think. I still don't fully grasp unix surrealism

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Some evenings, when a piece of code I wrote compiles on the first try and it all seems so straightforward and simple, I feel blessed by the Spirit of the Machine.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

With Linux you're either in hell or in heaven. With Windows you're in purgatory. /S

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

The Arch pantheon, progressive gods that bring revolution along with a bit of chaos.

That's Fedora, really, Arch did cool packaging and bailed

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Linux from scratch is atheist?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 hours ago

No, mormon.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

LFS is a weird fundamentalist sect.

Faith without works is dead

[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Linux Distro from Scratch, LDS. 😜

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I mean, this place is filled with a bunch of missionaries asking if yove heard the good word of Linux on every Microsoft Windows post lol

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

God willing, everyone converts to linux soon

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

i support getting high in church

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Linus is God's god.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

All hail Saint Linus, the prophet of the only true kernel!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

And saint IGNUcius of the church of emacs. May we recite our confession of faith:

There is no system but GNU, and Linux is one of its kernels.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Well, it might seem that way sometimes. But in the end, what's different to religion is that this is all rooted in facts. Facts which are quite abstract, so not everyone gets them and even those who do get them sometimes wonder whether it's important or not sometimes. The thing is, Linux is at its core a neutral, open and free operating system, and it's basically the only one which is advanced or mature enough to be a real competitor to let's say Windows or MacOS. Of course it's more than a competitor on the server, it's basically the only relevant server operating system (Windows Server has a niche in application servers within a MS intranet domain, or to control Windows clients via policies, that's about it, and MacOS server is already long dead I think). Of course, some of Linux' success is because those same companies also contribute a lot to the development of Linux, because they need it for themselves as well. But that's just one more thing which makes Linux a very unique thing. It's like a neutral baseline for an operating system. Like a very capable OS core that everyone works on, even the competition works on it, because they also rely on it.

That it's open source and transparent and that anyone can use it or improve it or change it or whatever makes it special, because it's not a commercial black-box product where you just consume it as-is and have zero rights whatsoever to do or change anything about it. That's actually incredibly special in today's commercialized landscape. Its open nature also means it can never die, only grow. And because it's a proven good system which is also so very different compared to established desktop OSses, it can happen that its users or fans can seem somewhat religious towards it. But, again, compared to religion, religion is based on pure belief (otherwise it would be called fact). There's nothing religious about Linux or open source software. It's simply a special operating system, and not in a bad way at all. And closely related to it is, of course, the whole free/open source software movement. Which every user, even those of closed operating systems, can and do benefit from.

And since today's commercial software continues growing more and more user hostile (ads, spying, bloat, dark patterns, high prices/software rental models), it's getting increasingly important to have at least the option of a true alternative. Even users who absolutely hate Linux and open source software should be glad that alternatives do exist, so that once the food they are being fed by Microsoft and so on doesn't taste good anymore, they at least have an option to switch to something else entirely.

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