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The Linux ecosystem isn't as splintered as people think it is. Yes, there are technically lot's of distros but most of them are really just derivatives that don

The Linux ecosystem isn't as splintered as people think it is. Yes, there are technically lot's of distros but most of them are really just derivatives that don't add much. The vast majority of Desktop users just use Debian or Debian-based distros like Ubuntu, Linux Mint and so on. So in the end, it is just a matter of whatever pre-installed software you get. It used to be that vanilla Debian was a bit hard to use but I don't think that is true anymore. (Though I still recommend Linux Mint for the absolute "just works" experience.) For 90% of users, they are not going wrong using Debian or one of the popular Debian-based distros. After that is is basically just a matter of specialized needs. Want to make administering your system a hobby and part of your personality? Have some Arch. Need professional support? OpenSuse. Need reproducible builds? Nix/Guix. Need a minimalist distro that runts on potatoes? Puppy Linux and whatever else. Wayland vs X11? Systemd? If you know these words, you are already way too deep in the rabbit hole.

timfsu 3y ago
This is true for the user, but not good enough for developers, who unfortunately need to stay on top of all of this to build functioning software. If users report bugs you can’t repro, you may have to dive into all of these. And that’s the point of the article really, to try and get more app developers onboard.
- mcpackieh 3y ago
  Developers don't need to test in every distro, or even all the most popular distros. All they need to do is test in one distro. It will probably work in most of the rest and linux users expect that if something breaks they'll be the one tweaking things to make it work. Sometimes you'll get bug reports from those users saying "I had to do X on distro Y for reason Z" and you can act on those reports, or not. It doesn't matter. Honestly, linux users don't expect more. There's tons of proprietary software out there supporting linux in this manner and it works out fine. Linux users are easy to please. The hardest people to please are the developers with Windows/Mac backgrounds who mistakenly believe they're expected to test on every distro and rightly balk at that.

timfsu 3y ago

This is true for the user, but not good enough for developers, who unfortunately need to stay on top of all of this to build functioning software. If users report bugs you can’t repro, you may have to dive into all of these. And that’s the point of the article really, to try and get more app developers onboard.

mcpackieh 3y ago
Developers don't need to test in every distro, or even all the most popular distros. All they need to do is test in one distro. It will probably work in most of the rest and linux users expect that if something breaks they'll be the one tweaking things to make it work. Sometimes you'll get bug reports from those users saying "I had to do X on distro Y for reason Z" and you can act on those reports, or not. It doesn't matter. Honestly, linux users don't expect more. There's tons of proprietary software out there supporting linux in this manner and it works out fine. Linux users are easy to please. The hardest people to please are the developers with Windows/Mac backgrounds who mistakenly believe they're expected to test on every distro and rightly balk at that.