johnr2

Presumably not on mainline kernel.

At first it was necessary to compile the realtime-lsm module to allow user programs to make use of realtime scheduling. In late 2006 or so (IIRC) rlimits-aware PAM became available which made realtime-lsm redundant.

I've used CONFIG_PREEMPT=y (along with CONFIG_HZ=1000) when compiling mainline kernels all along. My current distro of choice (Void) enables these by default in their 5.4 series kernels. I've never needed PREEMPT_RT for my particular use case.

AFAIK FreeBSD still doesn't allow users to run programs with realtime scheduling privileges (SCHED_FIFO or SCHED_RR), only root.

From the article: "I started using FreeBSD in 2016 as a dual-boot with Linux. The reason was that at the time Linux provided no support for real-time threads and preemptive scheduling"

I've been using real time threads and preemptive scheduling on my Linux audio workstations since 2005. Am I missing something here, or is that date in the article a typo?

How many developers that could evolve into great developers have been stunted because someone denied them the opportunity to become competent?

Nobody is denying anyone. The code is there to read as an example. If an aspiring developer hasn't got the initiative to develop at least a basic level of competence on their own, that's their problem. What happened to self-reliance?

I believe that is anti-community in spirit and non-conductive to solving the issue you claim exists.

You presumably haven't encountered this issue with your own open-source projects, but that doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist.

Computers should work for us. We shouldn't work for computers. Dump .txt for .text.

If my computer expects me to type an extra letter every time I name a file it isn't working for me. The short extensions make for more efficient typing.

I wish Digital Ocean would do something about the amount of abuse from their network.

Yes. After blocking the usual suspects, the great majority of SSH brute force attempts I see in my server logs now come from Digital Ocean IP addresses.

the Left's common enemy is the Right, and vice versa

The common enemy of both is the moderate in the middle who prefers rational discussion to confrontation.

Why are you using legacy BIOS? It has been obsolete for a long time

It's simpler. That's sufficient reason for me.

For those of us who still prefer to use legacy BIOS on current hardware when possible, the article is not obsolete.

I suspect the downvotes were because your comment comes across as unreasonably negative.

I switched to OpenBSD on my desktop and remote server after many years of Linux use. It's now my goto OS for network connected stuff.

One caveat: A power cut during the relinking process that occurs during and after boot can wreck the filesystem. A UPS is advisable. Once the relinking finishes the filesystem is quite robust.

HTTPS-only is about forcing all traffic to be encrypted by banning clear-text traffic

Banning clear text might work for browsers but it would disable ACME clients that rely on plain http to initiate a certificate request from Let's Encrypt.

tripe-filled posts

I enjoyed the article and found it thought provoking. Maybe I have tripe for brains.

Ah, the foundation trilogy. Prepper culture apocalypse fairy tales – but for academians.

It was written in the early 1950's. Did prepper culture exist then to the same extent as it does today?

if we ever rewrite Unix, we can just go with "wd"

Thus confusing anyone who uses the 'wd' hard disk driver.

https://man.openbsd.org/wd

ammonia is way too dangerous

The thought of working in the confines of a ship's engine room with such a hazardous fuel is horrifying. One reason for the widespread use of diesel oil is that it's relatively safe for human operatives.

All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!

s/All/Most

Alpine Linux uses musl libc and busybox, for example.

Any guarantee they won't change the interface and break my version, while they update both of theirs together?

No, I think you can guarantee that the interface will change at some point.

you can trivially disable the persistent journal (I even believe that's the default on Debian)

The persistent journal is enabled by default in Debian testing.

It is very hard to read a long form text in such a narrow column.

It displays at full width in Dillo, which has no JavaScript support. I can't see the article text at all in Firefox with JS blocked by NoScript, however. Strange.

It matters at least somewhat to 90% of the general public and is very important to almost 50%: https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/file...

From the linked web page: "sample size 1006 respondents". Given the UK population of around 68 million that seems a small sample.

I switched my desktop to OpenBSD a couple of years ago after ~18 years on Debian. It takes less time to set up the way I want than recent versions of Debian. I make heavy use of traditional Unix CLI programs and don't use a heavyweight DE, so I guess I'm not a typical desktop user.

I still run a couple of dedicated audio workstations on Linux as I need preemptive scheduling (not available on OpenBSD) and Linux drivers.

Note that the author does not respect gender identity/pronouns

The article is written in the first person throughout and doesn't use any gender specific pronouns that I could see. How is that disrespectful? (My knowledge of German isn't good enough to read the article you linked).

I think startx now only works if you’re root or have given users additional permissions

That was the case for a while but in OpenBSD 6.7 startx works again out of the box, as long as you have certain graphics hardware, eg. radeon.

The "good" tubes are JAN (Joint Army Navy) tubes which were last produced in the 1960s.

s/1960s/1980s

Sylvania was still making them up to 1981, when Philips ECG bought the Sylvania tube factory so they could supply the US military. They continued making JAN tubes until 1988. A lot of these are still available.

A Star Went Supernova in 1987

It didn't go supernova in 1987. It happened around 168,000 years before that, but it took the light from the event that long to reach us. A better title might be "A supernova was observed in 1987".

Link has a paywall

I'm not seeing a paywall in Firefox with NoScript or in Dillo (which has no JavaScript support).

Because of planned obsolescence.

The TL07x series op-amps along with quite a few others have been in continuous production for over 40 years. They are still manufactured by the million. When is the obsolescence you refer to planned for?

Switching from C++ to a language without memory safety issues while being just as fast

Does that actually exist? (I mean in the general case, not just a few carefully chosen benchmarks).

didn't know they were German

Drummer Herman Rarebell's solo album "Herman Ze German" was a good clue :-)

most commercially successful German rock band of all times: Rammstein

s/German/German-singing and you might have a point.