https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy
"...This style was based on the use of tools: using programs separately or in combination to get a job done, rather than doing it by hand, by monolithic self-sufficient subsystems, or by special-purpose, one-time programs."
If you're into kernel hacking, you may consider supporting the HyperbolaBSD project, which seems much more promising than hurd.
More information: roadmap
https://wiki.hyperbola.info/doku.php?id=en:manual:contrib:hyperbola_roadmap
That is true. There are linux distros around with musl/busybox (alpine) and some distros without systemd. But i would really appreciate a fsf-conform distro with a fsf-conform BSD-kernel and the bsd userland - it's just a nice addition to the existing oss-os world. It is not about "this OR that" - why not have both?
p.s. both runit and openrc are close enough to the unix philosophy
p.s.s. yes, macos derived from openBSD and is using a sytemd-like init, but - as said - macos mainly targets end-user system... it's o'right for that - i think power users prefer os-designs closer to the unix philosophy.
BSD based systems (with the according userland) have a very clean and more minimalistic code base. In the last years Gnu/Linux systems drifted away from the ideals of the unix-style (e.g. systemd...). For an end-user-system this may be ok, but the general design of the bsd-systems is better imho.
why not curl? it also supports gopher 😉