[dylukes]

What do you think is running on your favorite game consoles (that aren't Xbox)? I'll give you a hint, it isn't Linux.

Nintendo is using a custom OS but with a huge chunk of user space borrowed from FreeBSD. Sony on the other hand just went and forked FreeBSD outright.

You might also want to look into what OS are being used for server environments. A lot more BSD there than you might have initially guessed.

[pjmlp]

And thanks to the BSD license, the project is getting zero back from Sony, while those Playstation profits get a big higher thanks to less R&D costs spent on OS code.

Same applies to clang/LLVM port to the Playstation, regarding everything that would expose console implementation details without an NDA.

[prmoustache]

It is probably for another product but there is at least one Sony email address, and a number email addresses from different corporate entities, on the FreeBSD contributors list. All 3 majors BSD OSes also list donators (can be financially or hardware).

So saying corps that use BSD code never give anything back because of license is not true. And an awful lot don't do any more or even hide their use of gpl licensed code anyway.

[xxs]

> your favorite game consoles

unless it's a steamDeck, ofc. No love for consoles, though.

[dylukes]

If I'm in the mood for being a little glib... where do you think that Linux distribution that SteamOS is based on got its user-space (or more seriously, its drivers?)

Also: the SteamDeck is by any reasonable standard a console. It just happens to run a windowed environment out of the box. Don't be that guy. If you want to pump Valve, focus instead on their contributions to the Wine project.

[miki123211]

> but with a huge chunk of user space borrowed from FreeBSD

Any sources on this, and on what parts were borrowed specifically?

I was under the impression that Nintendo did away with most of the Unix layers we know and love and went all-in on custom code and APIs, is that not the case?

[monocasa]

The network stack is taken from BSD, but then again so was the network stack on Windows 2000/XP.