10 ms·

If Linux ever really gained mainstream appeal (say 40-60% adoption) it would be ruined by many of the pressures which ruined most mainstream operating systems.

If Linux ever really gained mainstream appeal (say 40-60% adoption) it would be ruined by many of the pressures which ruined most mainstream operating systems. I think we’re far better off with Linux at 1% or so.

nickjj 5y ago
> it would be ruined by many of the pressures which ruined most mainstream operating systems I think Linux is different than other operating systems because if something goes mainstream that you don't like you have tons of viable options. With each component of the OS being tweakable you can choose opinions that others have made or forge your own path. For example if you don't like whatever the latest window manager is you can pretty easily replace it with i3, bspwm or any other window manager that you prefer. Want a different desktop environment? Great, there's plenty of them. Prefer the ethos or core values of one distro over another? Sounds good, I'm sure you'll find something you like.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  This same quality may be part of why it has never gained significant traction though, the proliferation of components and resulting fragmentation have made it a difficult target for application developers. Oh, sure, FOSS applications work fine... because they're open source and rely on unpaid third parties to integrate them into whatever absurdly interdependent ecosystem (a.k.a "distro") you happen to be using. Well, for some definitions of "fine", since they're often out of date, sometimes altered, or otherwise not packaged at all. It also makes troubleshooting a lot more difficult, since any efforts to find solutions will invariably land me in posts primarily about some other combination of components and it's up to me to sort out their relevance to my issue.
  - tapia 5y ago
    I think that's why we have flatpack now.
    - hkt 5y ago
      Also snap. And AppImage. Distros have failed conceptually under the stress of too much software, some more than others. I'd say Debian has fared worst and Arch best.
    - curt15 5y ago
      Canonical is trying really hard to promote its snap format as an alternative. Firefox will be shipped as a snap in Ubuntu 21.10.

nickjj 5y ago

> it would be ruined by many of the pressures which ruined most mainstream operating systems I think Linux is different than other operating systems because if something goes mainstream that you don't like you have tons of viable options. With each component of the OS being tweakable you can choose opinions that others have made or forge your own path. For example if you don't like whatever the latest window manager is you can pretty easily replace it with i3, bspwm or any other window manager that you prefer. Want a different desktop environment? Great, there's plenty of them. Prefer the ethos or core values of one distro over another? Sounds good, I'm sure you'll find something you like.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
This same quality may be part of why it has never gained significant traction though, the proliferation of components and resulting fragmentation have made it a difficult target for application developers. Oh, sure, FOSS applications work fine... because they're open source and rely on unpaid third parties to integrate them into whatever absurdly interdependent ecosystem (a.k.a "distro") you happen to be using. Well, for some definitions of "fine", since they're often out of date, sometimes altered, or otherwise not packaged at all. It also makes troubleshooting a lot more difficult, since any efforts to find solutions will invariably land me in posts primarily about some other combination of components and it's up to me to sort out their relevance to my issue.
- tapia 5y ago
  I think that's why we have flatpack now.
  - hkt 5y ago
    Also snap. And AppImage. Distros have failed conceptually under the stress of too much software, some more than others. I'd say Debian has fared worst and Arch best.
  - curt15 5y ago
    Canonical is trying really hard to promote its snap format as an alternative. Firefox will be shipped as a snap in Ubuntu 21.10.