Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

If it was only for that, they could use/improve busybox, which has the same license as the kernel (GPLv2).

Perhaps it is also so they can be used in closed source systems (I have uutils installed on my Windows system which works nicely).





Busybox is frankly a horrible user experience, and will never be a good one. Its niche is to be as small as possible, as a single static executable, while providing most tools you need to get the job done in an embedded system. Bells and whistles like a shell that's nice to use, or a vi implementation with working undo/redo, or extensive built-in documentation in the form of --help output, are non-features which would make busybox worse for its primary use case.



Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: