quiana
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Hello, my name is Quiana. I am new to tech. I understand that open source means that software can be modified, but my question is why would someone want to change an operating system?
Open Source.. why?
- Thread starter quiana
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The ability to customize it or even improve it. Plus open source usually means free to the public. Not to mention that many open source applications and/or operating systems have huge followings of people who work to make it better whereas a closed source, like Microsoft or Apple, only has their own people who have access to the code.
Software Dev Expert
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What Trotter said. Anyone can contribute to an open source codebase ??
Yael-S.
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There are several areas where open source systems are better than proprietary systems such as windows or macOS. Here are some examples:
1. Stability: One of the most important parts of an operating system is the file system. But windows and macOS don't have a file system that is reliable-competitive with OpenZFS or most other file systems developed for Unix-like systems. It has also been shown many times that popular open source software has fewer bugs on average than popular proprietary software, which means that popular open source software is more stable.
2. Security: Proprietary software cannot be audited by security specialists and is therefore inherently unsafe. Furthermore, the fact that porprietary software has more bugs also means that it has an additional security risk.
3. Functionality: open source software evolves much faster than proprietary software and therefore also offers more functionality and more advanced tech. Certain apps and software exist for BSD and/or Linux, but not for Windows and macOS.
4. Freedom of choice: proprietary software always prevents your choice to change things or often prevents you from doing many things that are easily possible in open source software. For example, think of the many windows managers and desktop environments that exist for Linux and BSD, but are missing in windows and macOS.
5. Ease of use: updating and installing software or apps is often much easier in open source systems than in windows/macOS.
6. Privacy: Apple and Microsoft have an extensive history of abusing their users' privacy, something you don't see with most BSD and Linux systems.
7. Performance: There are always differences in performance between different operating systems. Here are some examples:
https://redbyte.eu/en/blog/postgresql-benchmark-freebsd-centos-ubuntu-debian-opensuse/
https://adventurist.me/posts/00307
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV61mVYsFM8
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=netperf-bsd-linux&num=3
https://long-zhou.github.io/2012/12/21/epoll-vs-kqueue.html
https://www.phoronix.com/review/linux_games_bsd
https://itecnotes.com/server/linux-netbsd-web-server-performance/
https://senioradmin.de/BenchmarkBSDLinux.html
https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/performance-of-linux-vs-freebsd-nfs-clients.14072/
https://docs.pritunl.com/docs/freebsd-linux-benchmark
https://klarasystems.com/articles/virtualization-showdown-freebsd-bhyve-linux-kvm/
If there is a large or significant performance difference in something that is important to you, you should choose the open source system that gives the highest performance there.
8. Support: Open source systems such as Linux and BSD often offer longer and better hardware support than proprietary systems such as windows and macOS.
1. Stability: One of the most important parts of an operating system is the file system. But windows and macOS don't have a file system that is reliable-competitive with OpenZFS or most other file systems developed for Unix-like systems. It has also been shown many times that popular open source software has fewer bugs on average than popular proprietary software, which means that popular open source software is more stable.
2. Security: Proprietary software cannot be audited by security specialists and is therefore inherently unsafe. Furthermore, the fact that porprietary software has more bugs also means that it has an additional security risk.
3. Functionality: open source software evolves much faster than proprietary software and therefore also offers more functionality and more advanced tech. Certain apps and software exist for BSD and/or Linux, but not for Windows and macOS.
4. Freedom of choice: proprietary software always prevents your choice to change things or often prevents you from doing many things that are easily possible in open source software. For example, think of the many windows managers and desktop environments that exist for Linux and BSD, but are missing in windows and macOS.
5. Ease of use: updating and installing software or apps is often much easier in open source systems than in windows/macOS.
6. Privacy: Apple and Microsoft have an extensive history of abusing their users' privacy, something you don't see with most BSD and Linux systems.
7. Performance: There are always differences in performance between different operating systems. Here are some examples:
https://adventurist.me/posts/00307
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV61mVYsFM8
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=netperf-bsd-linux&num=3
https://long-zhou.github.io/2012/12/21/epoll-vs-kqueue.html
https://www.phoronix.com/review/linux_games_bsd
https://itecnotes.com/server/linux-netbsd-web-server-performance/
https://senioradmin.de/BenchmarkBSDLinux.html
https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/performance-of-linux-vs-freebsd-nfs-clients.14072/
https://docs.pritunl.com/docs/freebsd-linux-benchmark
https://klarasystems.com/articles/virtualization-showdown-freebsd-bhyve-linux-kvm/
If there is a large or significant performance difference in something that is important to you, you should choose the open source system that gives the highest performance there.
8. Support: Open source systems such as Linux and BSD often offer longer and better hardware support than proprietary systems such as windows and macOS.
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