How many daily drivable desktop operating system( familie)s are there?

Not talking about all the Linux distros or different versions of Windows obviously. And my definition of "desktop" would be "able to connect to WiFi and launch a modern web browser", since that would cover 90% of most people's use cases.

I know of:
Windows
MacOS
GNU/Linux
GNU/Hurd
BSD
HaikuOS

What others are there?

31 points · 23 comments · view on lemmy.world

23 Comments

PetteriPano@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 205d (2 replies)

MorphOS. My own PowerPC hardware is starting to be a bit dated for todays web, but the odyssey browser is modern enough for the interwebs.

HeerlijkeDrop@thebrainbin.org · 2 pts · 205d (1 reply)

What PowerPC computer do you use?

PetteriPano@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 205d

I run it on my maxed out most-recent 15" PowerBook G4.

This thing was a screamer back in 2005, but the web got very heavy.

Overspark@piefed.social · 9 pts · 205d (2 replies)

TempleOS?

Your definition is very broad though, a device like a Nintendo Switch would be covered, even though that's clearly not a desktop 😁.

everett@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 205d (1 reply)

I'd interpret their requirements as "desktop with WiFi and modern browser."

Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 205d

enter Diogenes, holding a nintendo DS

Pirtatogna@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 205d

One could argue that MacOS is basically BSD, but I guess that can be somewhat debatable.

Una@europe.pub · 7 pts · 205d

There is Redox OS Unix like OS built in Rust. Never used it just know it exists.

Natanael@slrpnk.net · 6 pts · 205d (1 reply)

https://www.kolibrios.org/en

Absolutely tiny yet has a lot of functionality

Jolteon@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 204d

Does that one actually support a fully modern web browser?

Ephera@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 205d

Not entirely sure, if ReactOS would count. Its documentation has a section on WiFi and one of the screenshots on their webpage shows Firefox, but that looks to be a rather old version of Firefox, so no idea if modern versions of it work, too, well, and how well the whole WiFi business works, too.

Well, and one could argue that it's part of the Windows family.

https://reactos.org/

callyral@pawb.social · 5 pts · 205d

Technically, Alpine Linux is Linux, sans GNU. Perhaps it can be called musl/Linux or busybox/Linux.

PetteriPano@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 205d

Serenity was getting close, but I think that whole operating system took a bit of a back seat ride when they started with the gigantic task that a modern browser is. Hence Ladybird.

Bullerfar@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 204d

openSUSE TumbleweedOS on every pc at my home. Glad my daughters will be raised with linux, and not MacOS or Windows.

BozeKnoflook@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 205d (1 reply)

QNX could qualify, but it's not as easily available as most other OS.

Solaris is nearly dead for new development, but it's still receiving updates (last release was 16 days ago) and can run GNOME and a browser.

PetteriPano@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 205d

OpenSolaris still lives on as OpenIndiana.

We ran SunOS on both desktops and servers when I was at uni.

prettybunnys@piefed.social · 3 pts · 205d

http://9front.org/

well, modern web browser probably fails the task but … it can be done.

neidu3@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 205d (1 reply)

Just for the record, MacOS is a descendant of FreeBSD. At least it was for quite a while.

hexagonwin@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 205d

It's not. They just copied (literally) a few userspace tools from BSD back in the days, and rebased them to FreeBSD some time later.

zout@fedia.io · 1 pts · 205d (3 replies)

Android?

LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 205d (2 replies)

Android is Linux. iPhone is iOS/MacOS. So I think those are covered depending on how you define "family"

Zak@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 205d

In this context, I think two operating systems are in the same family if software for one can be recompiled for another with minimal changes without heavyweight compatibility libraries.

In that sense, I would put BSD and traditional desktop Linux distributions in the same family even though they don't share low-level code, and I would exclude Android even though it uses the Linux kernel.

zout@fedia.io · 0 pts · 205d

Isn't MacOs based on BSD in the same vein?