What is a Unix like operating system I can use for experimental purposes?

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I am seeking for a Unix like operating system (so not just GNU/Linux) which I can use to just mess around with it. It should be extremely light weight, so that I can compile it easily.

It has been a few months since I am using GNU/Linux, but I still don't really get what Linux and Unix is. What I am actually trying to find is a completely vanilla operating system. Now, I get it that Unix has become more like a generic term because the real Unix is not usable today (yes that one, developed in 1969). So if it's Linux, then it should contain the completely default Linux kernel (so no patches and distro customized). But even after that, I need an init system. Idk how I express it. What I am trying to find is a just a pure Unix/Linux operating system. So unlike something like Debian where you got systemd, apt and a whole bunch of other stuff.

I think I am viewing Unix just like Windows. Windows is just one, but Unix is never an operating system or a kernel on its own, but is an idea of an operating system environment. Idk what I really want, but what Unix like operating system do people use for only needing like the most basic functionality of Unix?
 


The only one still around [as far as I am aware ] is FREE BSD, its ancestor was Berkley university Unix which was derived from the original AT&T unix
 
It has it's own way of doing things I've been told by a man that runs it.

www.freebsd.org

The FreeBSD Project

FreeBSD is an operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms.
www.freebsd.org www.freebsd.org
docs.freebsd.org

Frequently Asked Questions for FreeBSD

Frequently Asked Questions for FreeBSD
docs.freebsd.org docs.freebsd.org

The FreeBSD Handbook

docs.freebsd.org

FreeBSD Handbook

A constantly evolving, comprehensive resource for FreeBSD users
docs.freebsd.org docs.freebsd.org

Good luck.
 
If you want something obscure, download Minix. It's free and the author is a rather brilliant chap.

The BSD family is, as other say, available - and pretty awesome.
 
Arch, puppy linux, so many. Linux in general is all about unix-based noodling. FreeDOS is also kind of like that. There's some source code for it too. Linux from scratch is a book you might like, it probably best adheres to what you are looking for.

The way people are describing free bsd makes it sound pretty great.
 
Debian_SuperUser said:
I am seeking for a Unix like operating system (so not just GNU/Linux) which I can use to just mess around with it. It should be extremely light weight, so that I can compile it easily.

It has been a few months since I am using GNU/Linux, but I still don't really get what Linux and Unix is. What I am actually trying to find is a completely vanilla operating system. Now, I get it that Unix has become more like a generic term because the real Unix is not usable today (yes that one, developed in 1969). So if it's Linux, then it should contain the completely default Linux kernel (so no patches and distro customized). But even after that, I need an init system. Idk how I express it. What I am trying to find is a just a pure Unix/Linux operating system. So unlike something like Debian where you got systemd, apt and a whole bunch of other stuff.

I think I am viewing Unix just like Windows. Windows is just one, but Unix is never an operating system or a kernel on its own, but is an idea of an operating system environment. Idk what I really want, but what Unix like operating system do people use for only needing like the most basic functionality of Unix?
Click to expand...
To understand UNIX and it's philosophy, a fairly comprehensive read is here written by, among others, those who created it:

To get that volume of articles, one needs to register, but it's free and worthwhile in my view.

Alpine linux is extremely light weight. It's used a lot in embedded systems, but can be used as a fully featured installation if one installs what they need to create such. One might consider some disadvantages as the fact that it uses musl instead of glibc and it doesn't used GNU utilities which most linux distros use.

If one wants to become more acquainted with what is being used in the mainstream of linux, then, in my view, the choices are largely debian, fedora and arch. Each of those can be made quite lightweight depending on what one installs. They use systemd. Slackware is a major linux distro that doesn't use systemd by default, and is probably the closest in design to the original UNIX operating system.

There are numerous derivatives of debian, fedora and arch, but the advantage of dealing with any of these "basic" distros is that familiarity with them helps enormously if one later uses a derivative.

In relation to systemd, it's probably worth reading this article to understand something about the myths and misunderstandings:

The Biggest Myths

Posts and writings by Lennart Poettering
0pointer.de
In particular of interest is the rebuttal to the myth that systemd is somehow not UNIX like.

In relation to the BSD family, of which there are a few, major ones being FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD. The major issues that I see online is the limitations in drivers for hardware that users complain about, especially newer hardware, the slower development and releases times, and the smaller communities that support them. Each BSD tends to have a focus, FreeBSD being heavily server oriented, though it can be used as a desktop; OpenBSD is security focused and NetBSD focuses more on stability and portability with a quite slow development cycle. I can't say much more about the BSDs after only brief experience, but their man pages tend to be more detailed and less terse than many in linux.
 
osprey said:
To get that volume of articles, one needs to register, but it's free and worthwhile in my view.
Click to expand...
It is probably a worthwhile read, yet i personally do not like that website in generally, and they automate sending me lies repeatedly about my name being in a dissertation/study/etc. because one time i signed up to download a philosophy paper.

It could be worthwhile for someone, but not for me.
 
Vimmer said:
It is probably a worthwhile read, yet i personally do not like that website in generally, and they automate sending me lies repeatedly about my name being in a dissertation/study/etc. because one time i signed up to download a philosophy paper.

It could be worthwhile for someone, but not for me.
Click to expand...
Yes, the web site did send me a list of articles by "same" named people, but I turned that off and have had no messages since. I simply knew no other way to access the articles of interest. I keep an email address just for the purpose of such subscriptions so it's separate and conveniently confined for me.
 
The new Unix system that you find on the dark web, has an AI component. It uses math to force the computer to prove 0 + 10 = 10. But won't allow the system to calculate 11 multiples. So it has antivirus.
 
I used to think of GNU/Linux as the modern Unix system V, where as BSD as the older Unix system 4.

Unix kept evolving over time (let alone different companies adding their own tools that provided different features, each of course differently to the other companies), and given its rather modular, you can decide what parts you want to use and create your own.

That's how systems pretty are today; there is & was no classic Unix, it was always a moving target. But I first used it mid 80s, so my view is probably colored by what how it was back then too.
 
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Debian_SuperUser said:
I am seeking for a Unix like operating system (so not just GNU/Linux) which I can use to just mess around with it. It should be extremely light weight, so that I can compile it easily.

It has been a few months since I am using GNU/Linux, but I still don't really get what Linux and Unix is. What I am actually trying to find is a completely vanilla operating system. Now, I get it that Unix has become more like a generic term because the real Unix is not usable today (yes that one, developed in 1969). So if it's Linux, then it should contain the completely default Linux kernel (so no patches and distro customized). But even after that, I need an init system. Idk how I express it. What I am trying to find is a just a pure Unix/Linux operating system. So unlike something like Debian where you got systemd, apt and a whole bunch of other stuff.

I think I am viewing Unix just like Windows. Windows is just one, but Unix is never an operating system or a kernel on its own, but is an idea of an operating system environment. Idk what I really want, but what Unix like operating system do people use for only needing like the most basic functionality of Unix?
Click to expand...
Devuan Linux offer three init choices set ups on install- https://www.devuan.org/ No systemd Debian if you will. I've test ed a few init systems on various Linux Distros on from a PENTIUM 133 systems through to 64 bit systems and notice absolutely no real significant difference in performance at all.
 
Don't believe the X-BSD "Works on everything "matra. That is total garbage.in my experience.
;)
 
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@Brickwizard @Alexzee @osprey

So I am compiling FreeBSD on Ubuntu. I first got the source code using
svn checkout https://svn.freebsd.org/base/release/12.2.0 /usr/src
Click to expand...
After that, I am facing a make issue (intendation related). So I found out that I am supposed to use /usr/bin/make instead of GNU make. I am compiling it on Ubuntu. With this error seems like I am not supposed to compile it directly on a Linux system? So like, do I have to chroot into it or something, or use a container?

edit - oof. I definitely messed something up. Now how do I cleanup all the files I just downloaded? They all got mixed in /usr/src with other important files.
 
Debian_SuperUser said:
So I am compiling FreeBSD on Ubuntu. I first got the source code using
Click to expand...
Are you trying to compile FreeBSD for a reason or are you not aware that they provide iso images which you can use to boot from?
www.freebsd.org

Get FreeBSD

FreeBSD is an operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms.
www.freebsd.org www.freebsd.org
 
f33dm3bits said:
Are you trying to compile FreeBSD for a reason or are you not aware that they provide iso images which you can use to boot from?
www.freebsd.org

Get FreeBSD

FreeBSD is an operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms.
www.freebsd.org www.freebsd.org
Click to expand...
Of course I am aware they have binaries. I just want to compile it for myself.
 
Debian_SuperUser said:
@Brickwizard @Alexzee @osprey

So I am compiling FreeBSD on Ubuntu. I first got the source code using

After that, I am facing a make issue (intendation related). So I found out that I am supposed to use /usr/bin/make instead of GNU make. I am compiling it on Ubuntu. With this error seems like I am not supposed to compile it directly on a Linux system? So like, do I have to chroot into it or something, or use a container?

edit - oof. I definitely messed something up. Now how do I cleanup all the files I just downloaded? They all got mixed in /usr/src with other important files.
Click to expand...
Perhaps have a read here:
forums.freebsd.org

How do I compile the source code?

Hello! I'm a programmer and I tried to tinker around with FreeBSD's source code and try to understand it. I would like to know, How can I test a change I made? I don't know if I got the terminology right (I usually use python), but I believe I need to "compile it" and would like to know how to...
forums.freebsd.org forums.freebsd.org
 
osprey said:
Perhaps have a read here:
forums.freebsd.org

How do I compile the source code?

Hello! I'm a programmer and I tried to tinker around with FreeBSD's source code and try to understand it. I would like to know, How can I test a change I made? I don't know if I got the terminology right (I usually use python), but I believe I need to "compile it" and would like to know how to...
forums.freebsd.org forums.freebsd.org
Click to expand...
Yeah but like, I don't really get how I am supposed to do stuff. Like they say all the stuff is in /usr or something, but I was the one who put stuff there. I am definitely missing some stuff. I tried to see videos, but all of them aren't clear.
 
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