> Again, we're really sorry it's come to this, but all of the Linux
infrastructure and a lot of its maintainers are in the US and we can't
ignore the requirements of US law.
So the kernel running on my desktop is controlled by the US?
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https://lore.kernel.org/all/e7d548a7fc835f9f3c9cb2e5ed97dfdfa164813f.camel@HansenPartnership.com/
@skyblond That's why I'm looking into the world of alternative kernels for a few years. I'm familiar with FreeBSD. Recently I've started a new project completely based on OpenBSD — the server runs this OS and I've installed it on my PC alongside GNU/Linux to dual-boot into it when working on the project. GNU Guix is also an interesting OS because it officially supports the Hurd kernel, as well as Debian GNU/Hurd.
@skyblond Yeah, FreeBSD is the most robust and beginner-friendly among the listed ones. Just be cautious with ZFS: some sources say that it requires ECC RAM to prevent data corruption, I don't know. UFS is enough for most cases. And be cautious with partitioning if you're going to dual-boot: look at my other comment how OpenBSD's installer broke my partitions (fortunately I had backups).
@skyblond A not too late DISCLAIMER: OpenBSD's installer is very dangerous. It broke my Linux partitions. Fortunately I had made a backup right before that. Be very cautious if you try to install OpenBSD on the same drive as any other OS.
@causa_arcana Thanks for that. I'm planning to run it in a vm first, or boot up with a USB drive. So should be fine I guess?
@skyblond In case of VM you use virtual drives, so there are no risks.
With USB you're safe until you run any program that may change your disks: the installer, fdisk, parted, disklabel, etc. But those programs are extremely dangerous to your data. When you run your GNU/Linux, your partitions are mounted, so nothing can access them directly. But when booting from USB your GNU/Linux partitions are not mounted, so any program with root privileges may change them.
Always do backups before any partitioning. And better use something like Gparted from GNU/Linux live USBs/CDs, because it is more intuitive.
@causa_arcana Thanks! Today I start looking into FreeBSD. Although most of my servers are running Linux and will likely keep running Linux in the future until Linux starts causing real security and privacy issues.
Anyway, I'm still feeling happy about BSD. At least we're not fully hijacked by the Linux kernel.