I think this is only the beginning. The Linux community is in the midst of an identity crisis. Linux has a well established history of fragmentation. Fragmentat

I think this is only the beginning. The Linux community is in the midst of an identity crisis. Linux has a well established history of fragmentation. Fragmentation represents choice, flexibility, modularity and so forth. It also represents control for the individual user. For a long time, this was considered Linux's biggest strength. It was the anti-Windows. However, in the past few years a unification movement has grown, largely inspired by OSX. I think GNOME has pushed the hardest in this direction, systemd is just the latest battle. The success of Ubuntu has also added fuel to the unification fire as it continues to break away from the old guard and build their own unified experience (Unity). While I think unification has its merits, it will continue to meet significant resistance as long as there is still a large contingent of fragmentists (just made that term up). I think it will come to a head in the near future and the Linux community will break into two sides; the unification side and the fragmentation side. The irony is that the unification side stands as much a chance of fragmentation, since it appears Ubuntu will continue to move away from GNOME. But so is the nature of OSS.