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Toybox vs BusyBox - Rob Landley, hobbyist

The Linux Foundation · talk · Watch on YouTube

Linux & open-source ecosystemsSoftware practice, open source & careersOperating systems & kernels

What it is

Rob Landley compares Toybox and BusyBox and surveys options for embedded system command-line tools, including GNU. He also tells the story of leaving BusyBox, Toybox becoming Android's command line, and licensing.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it for the toybox intro and for Landley's candid account of software licensing and why he created the 0BSD license.

  • 5 people recommended it
  • 4 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2020, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “You should watch his talk”

    Landley on why enforcing copyleft led him to abandon it

    bsimpson, 2025-12 · Strong recommendation · in “Ghostty is now non-profit”

  2. “Possibly also interesting: Toyboy vs. Busybox”

    Comparison of Toybox and BusyBox

    tlamponi, 2021-09 · Recommendation · in “Toybox: All-in-one Linux command line”

  3. “which I think as a whole is good watch”

    Landley explains how BusyBox licensing was used to get hardware specs

    Ciantic, 2021-09 · Recommendation · in “Toybox: All-in-one Linux command line”

  4. “A great talk on software licensing made by the creator of the 0BSD license”

    Talk on software licensing and the history of 0BSD

    freemint, 2022-03 · Recommendation · in “The Unlicense is an inferior license wrapped in an atrocious name”

  5. “There's a good intro on yt [1]”

    Good intro to Toybox from its author

    coffeebeanHH, 2025-10 · Recommendation · in “Toybox: All-in-one Linux command line”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: toybox, busybox, rob landley, 0bsd, software licensing, embedded linux

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