non-unixlike

Linux-based

Sorry, friend, but you’ll have to pick one. Linux is Unix-like.

Sort of. Like everyone else, I’m not quite sure what you’re looking for. However, some free operating system/distributions that are different in various ways:

• Haiku. Already mentioned, it’s the least like what you’d expect from Linux. It’s a clone of BeOS, an also-ran from the 90’s. Actively developed.
• Redox OS, a micro kernel written in Rust. Very early, probably rough around the edges.
• 9front. Bravely carrying the Plan9 torch, probably the most actively developed Plan9-ish variant.
• Chimera Linux. The Linux kernel, but without Poetteringware (no systemd, no pulseaudio), and using the BSD userspace instead of GNU. Not to be confused with Chimera, a Linux distribution targeting the gaming crowd.
• MINIX3. One of the most famous micro kernels, and famously related to Linux by the fact that its inventor and maintainer is a professor who Linus Torvalds studied under, before Linus went and created Linux.
• BSD (Free…, Open…, there are, like, a half dozen variations. Not Linux; derived from a Unix. Also not GNU userspace - I think they’ve got a sysv userspace?

These are all open source and free, and actively developed. Some are young; some are old and perpetually never finished; some are stubbornly standing still. Most are probably usable as daily drivers, with some constraints.

Where the Linux kernel leads the pack, by a mile, is the vast amount of hardware or supports, and except for the Linux kernel distributions like Chimera Linux (the only one in my list that uses the Linux kernel), hardware support is likely where you’ll find the most challenges.

Of these, the first three are the only ones that don’t use X11 or Wayland, much less the Linux kernel. The last three use X. None use the GNU user space.

There are a bunch of other projects, several based on the L4 microkernel, but these are the ones I think you could boot onto from a USB stick and actually use. 9Front might have the steepest initial learning curve; Haiku is probably the most new-user friendly. MINIX and 9Front are the most geeky.

No because Linux is a Unix-like kernel, so by definition the answer is no.

What exactly do you mean by a “non-unixlike OS”? Like, do you just want an OS that does not require any knowledge of Unix from the start?

If you’d list a few “unixlike” features you’d like to avoid I’m sure we’d be able to find something that fits you.

It’s Unix all the way down I’m afraid

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EG-tech/digipres-posters/master/OS_kernel_timeline.jpg

Wot

I assume you mean things that you’d never guess were linux or unix-like just by looking at the UI as it’s visible to normal users. Car infotainment systems and “smart” TVs (e.g. Roku) come to mind.

I don’t get the quesion either. First of all, Linux is technically the name of a kernel. So you can have that with many different userlands. And if we’re not talking about that: Linux itself is unix-like. So anything based on it would end up being unix-like as well. At least to a degree… We can hide that with a shiny UI like on Android, or the Steam Deck. Maybe you’re looking for (exotic) open-source operating systems that aren’t based on Linux and don’t feel like that? Haiku, Inferno, ReactOS, KolibriOS … We also have the BSDs, Darwin/MacOS, Solaris (on the unix-like side), Windows, DOS, a buch of real-time operating systems and some more exotic projects… But I think the way your question is phrased, such a thing cannot exist. By definition.

Define what you mean by non-unix like? Android is Unix like, it hides it from the user but the NDK is still a Unix like API, all devices have a POSIX shell /system/bin/sh installed which can be accessed via a terminal emulator app or using adb. The filesystem structure is different than most systems but there’s still a /dev, /etc, /bin, and /proc. Not to mention one of the most unixy designs being the fork() call which android uses as the basis of all app processes. What I mean is Android has a parent process containing all the basic stuff an app needs called zygote which is then forked to become an app processes when an app is launched and then the rest of the app stuff is loaded into that new process, an exec to fully replace the parent is not done. That’s a very unixy design decision that isn’t usually available on other systems.

Technically speaking if we’re going by the hides it from the user perspective then the steam deck qualifies to the same extent. It’s hidden until a power user doesn’t want it to be

Now that others got all the technicalities out of the way, maybe ChromeOS/ChromiumOS would be something along the lines of what you’re looking for? not that anyone should choose to daily-drive it.