@rl_dane @EF

Yes. The #OpenBSD version does not work as-is anywhere else. Basically: either one modifies the code to conditionally-compile out the OpenBSDisms and loses functionality, or one takes the OpenBSDisms out completely and replaces them with sudoisms.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37317970

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36353756

#FreeBSD, #NetBSD, and #Arch Linux have both Smith's and Overbruck's versions; #Debian Linux only the latter; #SmartOS only the former.

@ianthetechie @tubsta @dexter
#doas #sudo

@alanc @Radio_Azureus

I had to write that FGA in part because *everyone* forgot about the SAF. (-:

#Illumos #OmniOS #SmartOS #OpenIndiana #Tribblix #ServiceAccessFacility

@Radio_Azureus

#Illumos (and thus #OmniOS, #SmartOS, #Tribblix, et al.) has #ifconfig as well.

Indeed, some of its tooling, such as for service management, has been stable since the late 1980s; whereas the BSDs went through some churn in this area in the 1990s and early 2000s.

https://illumos.org/man/8/ifconfig

People waxing lyrical about using 'original vi', both nowadays in 2026 and back in 2006, haven't a clue what that is.

There's only one family of operating systems where 'vi' will actually run the original vi program by Joy, Horton, et al.: #Illumos and its derivatives #Tribblix, #OmniOS, and #SmartOS.

*Everyone else* uses one of the ground-up clones.

On #FreeBSD, #OpenBSD, and #NetBSD, it's Bostic's early 1990s #nvi, which was derived from Kirkendall's elvis, a clone written some time around 1990.

On Linux-based operating systems, vi either is Bostic nvi, or is one of the derivatives of STEVIE (the middle-1980s vi clone for the Atari ST that inspired Kirkendall to write elvis in the first place): Moolenaar's VIM or NeoVIM.

On none of those will you get original Joy+Horton vi in base, or indeed packaged/in ports.

Yes, Heirloom vi exists, which is Ritter's 2002 fork of 1985 Joy+Horton vi. But it's not even available in Arch Linux nowadays.

#vi #retrocomputing #ComputerHistory