Going Beyond Linux

Going Beyond Linux

Article from Issue 197/2017
Author(s):

We all love Linux, but there are many other free software operating systems out there that are worth exploring.

How many open source operating systems (OSs) can you name? GNU/Linux is obviously the first thing that comes to mind, and if you've been around in the FOSS world for a while you've probably come across (or even tried) one of the BSD flavors as well: FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD. These are all Unix-like OSs, each with their own sets of strengths and benefits, but there's a whole world of other OSs out there. Many of them aren't well known right now and have smaller communities compared with Linux, but some hold plenty of potential and could become big names in a few years.

So over the next few pages, we'll look at what's going on in the "alternative OS" scene. Best of all, because these OSs are all free software and open source, you can try them out after you've read about them. If you have an old PC sitting around doing nothing useful, you can try running these OSs on real hardware – or you can simply install a PC emulator such as VirtualBox or Qemu on your main machine and take them for a spin.

ReactOS

Thanks to Wine, it's possible to run many Windows applications on Linux – at least, predominantly older applications, and often with a few glitches here and there. Wine does an impressive job of intercepting Windows system calls and rewiring them for their Linux equivalents; as a compatibility layer; however, it can only do so much. Instead of using this layer on top of an unrelated OS like Linux, wouldn't it make more sense to basically write a Windows clone from the ground up?

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