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Linux - Recreating old problems with new tools
Quoting: Linux - Recreating old problems with new tools —
There you go. An essay from your favorite curmudgeon. You think I'm wrong or old-fashioned or something. Now, scroll back up, and read my linked 2009 article on how to gain Linux market share. Yes, read that piece. See what I had to say 16 years back, and tell me I'm wrong. Or actually realize that the very stuff I had talked about back then is what needs to be done to get Linux moving in the right direction. Self-flattery aside, money is the secret sauce. The "magic" that made Google succeed, technology notwithstanding.
For Linux to get any sort of traction, it needs paid stores. Proper stores. Not community goodwill. Hard-cash stores. This sounds brutal, but it's the only thing that matters in the big world. If companies think they can make easy money, they will develop in ADA and FORTRAN for all they care. That sweet store is the entry point. The look and feel of the operating system is the last point. It's not too late to change direction. We've had atomic distros only for a few years now. We should stop before there are 300 of those. And trust me, no one needs another bucket of half-baked, for-developers, dark-themed systems that completely miss what an operating system ought to be. Along the way, there's no reason to antagonize nerds, either. At least for now, Linux actually gives them a controllable platform to do their nerdy stuff. They sure don't need another TPM-loving nonsense. They can have that from Microsoft, Google and Apple, today.
How will this be accomplished? Ah. Well, the deadlock needs to be broken. Someone needs to blink first. Someone needs to yield. Not likely to ever happen. In my view, the Snap Store is probably the best choice at the moment. By best, I mean the least bad, although all Linux stores and store lookalikes are light years away from being useful. Also, I cannot see a reality where the community concedes "defeat". Thus, unless some unforeseen miracle happens, things will stay the same for quite a while. Whatever happens, atomicity isn't the answer. It's merely a boring technical detail, not any better or worse than a dozen other implementations. But it will bring noise and instability into the Linux desktop, and dilute already diluted resources.
Just as Linux was starting to make some small sense, it's self-destruction, once again. Wayland, X11, new package formats, and now, we will have crippled half-functioning read-only systems added into the mix. Whatever happens, there must be no stability at any cost. The neverending tragedy called the Linux desktop.