Beyond mainstream operating systems

This post begins with a self-reflection on why I am choosing to not use Windows, MacOS, nor Linux based systems. Then, it progresses to alternatives, if you are not interesting on my experience, feel free to skip.

But why? #

As mentioned before, everything started almost two decades ago, during university, when the professors opened my eye to the computer science world.

Software piracy was part of my daily life. but gradually I was taught about the damage it causes, and that there were free alternatives to most of the things I needed. I learned how complex a system can get, I learned to give value to coding - that was the career I’ve chosen. Then after start working, that seed grew to be a solid tree. Everything I do nowadays is mostly done on open-source software, from snipets I find in the Internet, to IDE, compilers/interpreters, and components.

I still remember a few classes and presentations about different kernel architectures, I even did an experiment on how Windows used to (or did not) handle multithreading in Java. That motivated me to move away from Windows, I was not using my machine as it should be. Debian seemed to be a great idea - specially influenced by Richard Stallman and GNU here. Then, while progressing through the classes, I also start learning about history, and from that I started diging myself other operating systems and trying them as much as I could.

All of that made me believe that plurality is important. We would not have this extraordinary ecosystem if we all stuck to the same things, and that applies to operating systems as well. So, it is my duty to promote and support other options.

Alternatives #

FreeBSD

HaikuOS

KolibriOS

RedoxOS

OpenIndiana

This list is very short and is based in OSes that I want to explore more. Please let me know if have experience with them, or with something completely different.

See you | Bis geschwënn | Até mais | À bientôt | Ciao