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I don't think fragmentation is something that can be solved, because it's a cultural value.
by canadaduane 5y ago
I don't think fragmentation is something that can be solved, because it's a cultural value.
- rvz 5y agoI see. That also explains why lots of software companies cannot define 'Linux support' and cannot support the latest version of 'every' Linux distro, 100% of the time. A fundamental issue in the Linux desktop ecosystem and a line has to be drawn which guarantees a complaining user on an exotic distro or a fork of another one. As for Windows, and Mac they are supported on the latest versions 100% of the time.
- canadaduane 5y agoYes, I think you're right. Another way to look at it, is through the "long now" lens--like, what software will survive maybe 100 or 1000 years from today? I think companies and closed-source software will die in that length of time, while open source will persist. That doesn't help us now though. Another observation: Linux does eventually settle on standards, but the "maturation timeline" is so much longer than Mac/Windows (10 years?) that nothing "cool" (from a commercial perspective) happens on desktop Linux. But it does eventually work out--like the systemd standard that has emerged in the past decade, or Wayland (probably still 2 years away), or pipewire audio (also probably a year away). Linux enables a complementary but different type of 'support': bleeding-edge homebrew experimentation (see the many raving custom keyboard fans and their software, for example), and wrap-everything products (such as Steam using Linux inside for their latest gaming console).