Linux and BSD doesn't just work. I've been using Plan 9 and when I have to use linux I feel very frustrated when graphical windows doesn't open in a terminal like in plan 9.
But the software you listed are used by many peoples. bc-gh is robust and performant, GNU bc is not actively developed, and benchmark shows that it is clearly slower than bc-gh in most case. But in most distros bc-gh is not available.
Linux and BSD doesn't just work. I've been using Plan 9 and when I have to use linux I feel very frustrated when graphical windows doesn't open in a terminal like in plan 9.