this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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This got me thinking, are there any other non-Unix-based OS's left? Really, for any hardware more sophisticated than say, an ESP? At all?
I honestly can't think of one.
OpenVMS is still semi-maintained. It's DEC's old operating system that Windows NT draws some inspiration from because Microsoft hired a bunch of ex-DEC engineers.
There's also 9front, a fork of Bell Labs' Plan9.
Wegmans' checkout uses Toshiba 4690 OS, which I think is vaguely descended from CP/M.
I think IBM still maintains their i operating system, which used to be called OS/400.
Network equipment like enterprise routers and switches tend to run weird unique things, Cisco equipment runs IOS and Adtran equipment runs AOS.
Oh man a stew of them. Nice
TempleOS?
Eh, TempleOS is the answer to everything, it doesn't count.
I assume it's stuck on version 42 then?
It's no longer maintained, right? So wouldn't count.
It's already been made perfect once. What updates would you make it divinely inspired code?
I wouldn't update a thing. I would pick and choose the parts I like when I like them.
The OS bundled with TI-84 Plus CE Python Edition graphing calculators is a wacky one. It runs primarily on an eZ80 core for backwards-compatibility with earlier graphing calculators while also handling an ARM core for Python functions. Parts of the assembly code can be traced back to the TI-82 calculator ROM from 1993.
Most people wouldn't think a calculator would ever need a security solution, but it even verifies application signatures so students are less likely to load cheating utilities on them.
The HP 49g+/39g+ and their descendants the 50g/39gs run the same operating systems as the older 49g/39g except most of it runs in an emulator so they could replace the old Saturn CPUs with ARM ones. And it still runs way faster than the native version on the older devices somehow.
Plus the entire operating system is written in Reverse Polish Lisp, one of the strangest languages I've ever seen. Very strange devices, but still leagues ahead of any calculator produced since (at least the 49/50, the 39 is very confusing)
My TI-89 got me through college.
Haiku comes to mind
Haiku is pretty unix-like, I wouldn't count it
Fun wiki hole there. Nice.
FreeBSD?
FreeBSD is closer to Unix than Linux is
Fair enough, never took a real look at it.
FreeBSD is actually a "real unix", in the sense that it is derived from the original source. Wikipedia has this nice ancestry tree: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Unix_history-simple.svg