Not related to the post, but related to the feeling: I miss the dreams of two decades ago. It was like a cause to fight for, a bunch of hackers against a billi

Not related to the post, but related to the feeling: I miss the dreams of two decades ago. It was like a cause to fight for, a bunch of hackers against a billion dollar industry. Actually, we already had support from part of that "billion dollar industry" but there was still a fight against antagonists. Every contribution was a small step, every new version, new improvements, a new program covering a feature we missed from some evil proprietary software... The points where we were ahead like security, stability and performance made every enthusiast user feel like part of great opus, a soldier in a somewhat silent war. Fast forward 20 years, linux is now "the kernel that powers billions of end-users devices". We're still way behind on the desktop, but the "war for the end-user" has a clear leader. Many other markets were also taken entirely or partially: HPC, embedded, auto, entertainment, routers, servers, cloud... The thing matured. If you want to get a contribution in the kernel, you'll have to convince the "billion dollar industry" we seemed to be fighting against in another era. You could say they are on our side now, but I really don't know what difference it makes. Those teens of two decades ago should be proud of what was achieved and, I'm sure, many are. The situation is good, stable, mature. Always a bit better. But the feeling, the enthusiasm, the hope... all that seems gone, and I sorely miss that. I'd love to have that feeling again. The feeling that heavy investments will be made, the feeling that the desktop is a good cause to fight for, that a small circle of hackers are willing to make something BIG. Yes, I miss that.