The only answer you need...

[sickpig]

the operating system is absolutely brilliant, a model of simplicity and the King of "just works".

Applicable to Debian as well.

[pylkko]

how possible is it to design an operating system without corporate influence/input at all?

Have you tried OpenBSD? They accept corporate donations but the developers very much do their own thing (check out the mailing lists, they're epic) and the operating system is absolutely brilliant, a model of simplicity and the King of "just works".

Actually I have tested it. But that's it and perhaps I would say that it would be the only serious contender to linux for personal computer (i.e laptop) kind of use. But the hardware support is clearly not as broad as on linux. This, of course, may or may not matter depending on the case. I wish there were more

[Head_on_a_Stick]

the operating system is absolutely brilliant, a model of simplicity and the King of "just works".

Applicable to Debian as well.

Erm, no. Don't get me wrong — I love Debian but simple it ain't. Just as an example consider the audio systems: pure ALSA, JACK, JACK2 & PulseAudio are all available; OpenBSD just has sndiod(8). Which is also available in Debian, amusingly: https://packages.debian.org/buster/sndiod

the hardware support is clearly not as broad as on linux

No, it is not. But the hardware that is supported works very well (the backlight keys on my ThinkPad E485 work natively under OpenBSD but not under Linux) and there are far fewer regressions over time because the OpenBSD devs aren't as keen to cram in new features.

[sickpig]

Which is also available in Debian, amusingly: https://packages.debian.org/buster/sndiod

Don't they say if its not available under apt then either it doesn't exist or its not worth having

[stevepusser]

Perhaps the same "they" that are whispering to a certain world leader that he is now immune to COVID after having it for a week, when scientists say we simply don't know enough about it yet to say that for anyone?

"Not invented here" syndrome shows a lack of awareness...

[sickpig]

Now, I know who you are voting for this election

[golinux]

Perhaps the same "they" that are whispering to a certain world leader that he is now immune to COVID after having it for a week, when scientists say we simply don't know enough about it yet to say that for anyone?

OT . . . If said world leader ever had COVID at all. In Orwellian fashion, truth are lies and lies are truth and perhaps this one took the focus off of his debate debacle.

And @sickpig . . . as to voting . . . a choice between Mussolini and The Mummy isn't really a choice. I've been sitting out the circus for a long time . . .

[sickpig]

And @sickpig . . . as to voting . . . a choice between Mussolini and The Mummy isn't really a choice. I've been sitting out the circus for a long time . . .

Inaction is also an action I suppose

[stevepusser]

Perhaps the same "they" that are whispering to a certain world leader that he is now immune to COVID after having it for a week, when scientists say we simply don't know enough about it yet to say that for anyone?

OT . . . If said world leader ever had COVID at all. In Orwellian fashion, truth are lies and lies are truth and perhaps this one took the focus off of his debate debacle.

And @sickpig . . . as to voting . . . a choice between Mussolini and The Mummy isn't really a choice. I've been sitting out the circus for a long time . . .

Veering this thread off the cliff now...I was amazed that the POTUS hadn't caught it yet, and a White House superspreader event seemed inevitable. Shades of "The Masque of the Red Death"! Maybe Poe was channeling Nostradamus with "Red"?

[stevepusser]

And @sickpig . . . as to voting . . . a choice between Mussolini and The Mummy isn't really a choice. I've been sitting out the circus for a long time . . .

Inaction is also an action I suppose

That seems like a vote for Mehssulini...

[golinux]

That seems like a vote for Mehssulini...

That is a false dichotomy saying 2 sides of the same coin are different.

[Deb-fan]

A gag thread which jumped the rails, who'd have seen that coming in a nix forum ...

My 2 cents, tech-corps contribute a massive amount of quality code, expert level person-hours in the bargain. To the kernel and many other areas of gnu/Linux. It was all part of the people who founded open source's plan too and believe nix would be nowhere as good as it is had there not been real commercial potential, if the platform wasn't useful to those corporations and relevant to tech. These entities do much which nobody else could or would otherwise. Users who have absolutely no technical skill, no understanding of the big picture, how any of it all works, how things work together and all such(myself included)use and benefit from awesome software and innovations every day, those evil corporations made possible, take it for granted, as if we're just all simply entitled, not true folks ...

Yeppers those groups are going to devote more focus to areas of best interest, most relevant to xyz-agenda's and/or goals. An obvious one being yeah, ... money and profit potential. People who can't do the work, can't-won't pay for it, maybe not even a single nickle, incessantly sit on the sidelines bytching, whining and spouting whichever conspiracy theory tickles their fancy most. Somebody has to do the technical work, somebody has to pay for that or if they do have some degree of a technical skillset devote the time + effort involved. While yeppers, surely are still plenty of volunteers and developers who create or maintain whatever open source projs and that's awesome too. Gawds only know how many 10's of millions of bucks worth of time, effort and energy ie: Redhat has contributed over the decades. Not meant in an insulting manner towards anyone in particular, just making some observations I think are valid. Shrugs ...

ps, oops not that I've got some great understanding of it all either, a bit due to interest and research. Yep, those corps do make moves, which may not be received by factions of the userbase with open arms, though again .. think many of those people have no clue what they're talking about and/or no right to say anything about any of it, as they could very well have never donated a dime to anything open source, couldn't, haven't contrib'ed anything code-wise etc.

Just saying, think there's some common and rampant misconceptions surrounding gnu/nix in general. If one were to go looking, they'd quickly find interviews from ie: Linus Torvalds where in his characteristic realist, fact oriented way says it was never a let's all hug each other, great zero cost software for all humanity. It was a hey, I created something useful, I let you use it, you find ways to improve it, then I get to use those too. You scratch my back, I yours type of deal. While yeah, there are projects which clearly have more altruistic attitudes in open source. Think Debian would have to be one of the premiere in those ranks ...

[sickpig]

That is a false dichotomy saying 2 sides of the same coin are different.

This seems like a "true fact". Something the democratically elected supremo would say

[stevepusser]

That seems like a vote for Mehssulini...

That is a false dichotomy saying 2 sides of the same coin are different.

Sorry, I guess I went too deep into English-speaking pop culture with the "Meh"ssulini pun. "Meh" is an expression of apathy.