[HN Gopher] Toybox: All-in-one Linux command line
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       Toybox: All-in-one Linux command line
        
       Author : welovebunnies
       Score  : 18 points
       Date   : 2025-10-05 19:09 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | opan wrote:
       | IIRC this was made to solve a licensing issue with busybox
       | (toybox being more permissive) and be included with Android. As a
       | fan of copyleft, initially the idea annoyed me, but I eventually
       | came to the conclusion that if it was the only way to include
       | better tools in a particular OS out of the box, it was probably
       | fine.
       | 
       | I recall busybox being often used for gpl enforcement, so I
       | wonder now how widespread toybox is by various companies hoping
       | to avoid that. Do modern Smart TVs and such use it?
        
         | GalaxyNova wrote:
         | I believe most smart TVs use Android as the base, so I would
         | think yes.
        
           | ChocolateGod wrote:
           | I think Samsung still use Tizen (still Linux, seems to use
           | Toybox) and LG uses WebOS (Linux again, not sure if it uses
           | Toybox).
        
             | 6SixTy wrote:
             | Just looked through my TV, webOS uses Busybox.
        
         | dgl wrote:
         | The license page and linked blog posts mentions this:
         | https://landley.net/toybox/license.html
         | 
         | I like the 0BSD license (see my https://xn--gba.st), AWS also
         | uses the semantically equivalent MIT-0 license for code
         | samples, etc.
        
       | andai wrote:
       | See also, for Windows: w64devkit, and the included busybox-w32
       | 
       | https://github.com/skeeto/w64devkit
       | 
       | https://frippery.org/busybox/
        
         | tredre3 wrote:
         | Although I love and use w64devkit myself, it seems like you
         | should point people towards the original busybox rather than
         | take two detours through an unrelated toolkit using an
         | unofficial port of it?
        
       | neilv wrote:
       | BusyBox got its name from a collection of toys in one
       | assembly/container:
       | 
       | https://www.google.com/search?udm=2&q=fisher+price+busy+box
        
         | Denatonium wrote:
         | I wonder if Toybox got its name from the Soundgarden song of
         | the same name or if it was chosen due to the similarity of
         | Busybox's collection of toys.
        
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       (page generated 2025-10-05 23:00 UTC)