Well if you hang Free Software's hopes entirely on the Linux kernel, or the Linux kernel doesn't mature to the point where it isn't the hall monitor for everyon

Well if you hang Free Software's hopes entirely on the Linux kernel, or the Linux kernel doesn't mature to the point where it isn't the hall monitor for everyone's code quality, then that might be what happens. Darwin might be knocking. Evolve or die. (And its a bit weird that the Linux kernel is so centralized with a cabal lead mostly by one dude who yells at everyone on the planet about their shitty driver code quality. If you're at all Libertarian or libertarian, that should probably bug you a bit that Free Software picked that as the ideal model.)