Linux

Of all the (generally) free operating systems, Linux, with it’s multiple distributions (called distros), may be the most well known of the free operating systems. The Chrome OS on Chromebook, as well as Android use the Linux kernal. Linux is the leading operating system on servers, and is the only OS used on TOP500 supercomputers.

As per DistroWatch, listed above, Page Hit Ranking of Distros:

1 MX Linux
2 EndeavourOS
3 Manjaro
4 Mint
5 Pop!_OS
6 Ubuntu
7 Debian
8 Garuda
9 Elementary
10 Fedora

FreeBSD

Next up is FreeBSD, descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution.

Much of FreeBSD’s codebase has become an integral part of other operating systems such as Darwin (the basis for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS), TrueNAS (an open-source NAS/SAN operating system), and the system software for the PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 game consoles.

Darwin

Darwin is an open-source Unix-like operating system first released by Apple Inc. in 2000. It is composed of code derived from NeXTSTEP, BSD, Mach, and other free software projects’ code, as well as code developed by Apple.

PureDarwin is a project to create a bootable operating system image from Apple’s released source code for Darwin. Since the cessation of OpenDarwin and the release of bootable images since Darwin 8.x, it has been increasingly difficult to create a full operating system as many components become closed source. In 2015 the project created a preview release based on Darwin 9 with an X11 GUI, followed by a command-line only 17.4 Beta based on Darwin 17.

Lastly, check out 12 Free Alternatives to Windows Operating Systems.

The year 2021 saw a lot of trials for people, with lots of challenges to overcome.

This year, 2022 (not 2222!), we hope to make a lot of new changes, to help our members and people come up with solutions to overcome the challenges they face, this year.

As with the prior year, we plan to step up our efforts in fundraisers, not only for ourselves, but for others we network with. We plan to reach out to local publications–public access, colleges, etc–to add our fundraisers to their “community events,” and to connect them with our vendors, for those who wish to offer their own fundraising activities.