Please stop asking for One Single Linux Desktop or Distro

Who is even asking for that?

Ubuntu tried to be that. look at how shit it is now.

I really hate this, everytime I tell a friend to try linux, all they wanna use is Steam OS because they’ve heard/think this is the premium linux experience or whatever that means.
Like they want an AIO Linux distro, which defy the whole point of it being open source.

so they want the windows of the linux world. fedora/debian/ubuntu that is.

The last thing we need is *another* Microsoft or Apple on our hands. Linux gives power to the people, instead of concentrating it in the hands of a few who get to dictate things for everyone.

Try them ALL

Who is asking for that?

I thought at first this was going to be arguing about folks asking whats best for them but yeah we don’t need a one distro to rule them all.

These are all excellent points. On the other hand, too much choice can lead to analysis paralysis and the insecurity that people feel when they don’t follow the majority. (If you have lots of fragmentation, you probably won’t have a clear majority.) This may cause lots of people to never even try Linux. Arguing that people shouldn’t be this way is beside the point, because they are and most are never going to change.

Especially when it comes to individual software packages, I have often thought that pooled effort would achieve much better outcomes than fragmented efforts. On the other hand, wanting to follow your own preferences and have autonomy seems to be what many FOSS programmers find motivating. If you see Brodie Robertson’s videos on how just a few parties can’t even agree on basic Wayland protocols after many *years* of intense discussion, it becomes clear why there is so much fragmentation and therefore duplicated efforts. In this context, the least bad option may sometimes be for one party, such as Valve, to cut Gordian knots and dictate what decisions will be made: “Having considered all proposed solutions for a placement protocol for multiple windows per app, and considering the significant costs of stagnation and the need to phase out XWayland, we have decided to use a global coordinate system. This decision is final. Even if this was not your preference, we request you support and cooperation. Thank you.”

@thelinuxexperiment you are not supposed to change the oil AFTER your engine breaks...

A great real-talk video. 🤗 I think it will take some time before Linux is widely accepted. But the first steps have already been taken. I like the many possibilities it offers, even if it can be difficult for some beginners to find the right one. Thanks for the video!

it is like the standard Pizza that everyone likes and eats. at the end there would be a Pizza with just dough and people would be even more displeased

@thelinuxexperiment@tilvids.com good points! Regarding pooling resources on distros, I'm sure a better situation than the one we currently have would be to have less than 900 or so distros. Just 1 would be the worst, sure, but maybe 10 independent and another 50 dependent distros would satisfy all of your points AND be more efficient and result in better distros.

I want messy, I want different, I want crazy, weird, interesting projects! That's our Linux :)

While on desktop I agree, on mobile devices I disagree. The Linux phones community has already more operating systems than devices natively supporting Linux and the software is the most critical part right now. It would be nice if new companies would not want to make another new OS, but just joining one of the existing projects. We have Mobian, PureOS, PostmarketOS and as DE Phosh and Plasma. There are even more, but those are the main systems that should be pushed to a stable release state before splitting even further. I have the feeling new companies just want an own brand for their phones OS. If you read carefully, I do not say there shouldn't be any alternative, but to get the phone market share out of 0.01-0.02% market share (depending on country), the bare minimum is that basic stuff as camera API and app convergence of basic apps have to work. Once that is done for at least one system, I don't mind how many mobile distros coming next. The situation on phone market is 100 times worse than the desktop situation currently, without working together it will take "forever" to get any stable OS and DE. That's the only reason to my view here.

A hint for Linux market share. Ignore statcounter, it probably counts more and more bots. That would explain a lot of strange behaviors recently. Watch the India data base for the last 24 months or France the last 3 months. Statcounter also does not show the total number of data points, which makes it very hard to verify if the Linux market share shrinks by desktop users or by bots. Are browser AI agents and alike destroying the data? I am following statcounter for over a year now and also looked at older data, but the last three months are very weird in many directions. So just take that data with more care than previously. Steam hardware survey is much more accurate, but since it only asks for gaming devices the value is lower than the total market share.

I really love your enthusiasm for linux and its diversity in ecosystem. :D

I did skip the sponsor segment, sorry. :-)
I use different distros and different desktops on my laptop and desktop, (I also have a couple of pis) because I use them differently. I'm not a tweaker, I don't spend a lot of time changing how my systems work or look. I'm not a power user, or Linux expert, but I've been using Linux since the 90's as a regular user, largely because of the freedom it offers. Freedom of choice, freedom from one-size fits all, and lately to increasing extent, freedom from unwanted ads and AI.

@thelinuxexperiment
I 100% agree with everything said. Choice matters.

@thelinuxexperiment Boycott AWS - you too, Gnome!

Don’t make me think! I want everything to be the same!

I’ve used Linux since the 90s and this seems to be a video about something that’s not really a thing. I’ve seen more people discuss Hannah Montana Linux than proposing a single distro.

In 20+ years of Linuxing, I’ve never heard anyone ask for one distro. I think the overlap of ‘people who want fewer choices’ and ‘people who are interested in Linux’ is very, very small.

I agree with Nick on this, Linux is interesting and awesome because there are so many choices for users to choose; upstream work is still shared and can be used to improve Linux as a whole. That will affect the quality of other distros going forward too.

To refer to all distros we should plurarize Linux. The Linee! The Linuses! The Linus! The Linuxen!

It’s amazing because you already can switch distros or just stick with one! Wow! Everyone already wins!

I keep hearing people wanting steamOS, but it’s just gonna be another distro. I think it’ll be good, it might have decent support and be moderately stable, but you can have that experience like already, in a few different places. Not perfect, but the option is a few bugs or constantly having to battle Microsoft trying to spy on everything.

Everything will be nix 😜