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> Does the Linux ecosystem really need yet another desktop environment? I think it's a recent trend that as established Linux distributions have largely gone b
by sho_hn 5y ago
> Does the Linux ecosystem really need yet another desktop environment?
I think it's a recent trend that as established Linux distributions have largely gone beyond their phase of trying to differentiate through changing the desktop, now sticking much closer to an upstream default Plasma or Gnome, the idea of "we need our own HMI to differentiate our integrated product offering" is coming more from the folks doing hardware. A lot of these products are boutique offerings that need higher margins to compensate for lower volume, likely driving the thinking toward software as value-add.
e.g. Purism with Phosh for the Librem, System76 doing this, etc.
- southerntofu 5y ago> "we need our own HMI to differentiate our integrated product offering" I don't think it's so much about differentiating. It's about funneling resources towards innovation. Some distros have become pretty conservative over time. Don't get me wrong, i like that my distro doesn't just apply thousands of random patches introducing subtle bugs. But at the same time, System76's PopOS appears to be among the few spiritual descendants of Mandriva's user-friendliness: if these few corporations who have a few bucks to spare are not investing in bettering the desktop experience, who will? I'm personally unconvinced by current desktop environments: they're either too complex/opinionated and ridden with bugs (GNOME/KDE) or too minimal and not packaged with user-friendly apps (i3/openbox). Those that aim for the sweet spot in the middle usually don't have enough resources to iron out all the bugs (MATE/Cinnamon/Budgie/LxQt...), and rustc compiler is pretty good at ironing out all the bugs you write before they end up in a "usable" binary.