From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.advocacy

On Sun, 30 Nov 2025 17:06:57 +0000, Xavier Jones wrote:

On Sun, 30 Nov 2025 16:26:21 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

I wonder how they’re going to do that. Buy up and shut down all
competing projects? Drive them out of the market by forcing users away
from them? Deny them rights to use Free software? How?

How? You really should bone up on the technical aspects of GNU/Linux.

Back atcha. Linux is all about choice. Learn that. Memorize it. Tattoo it
on your knuckles, or something.

By providing only Wayland the popular distros will essentially prohibit
all the dozens of legacy window managers, some of which date back to the 1990s.

Linux is all about choice. Who says a distro has to be “popular”? Nobody can force users to use a particular distro.
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From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.advocacy

On Sat, 13 Dec 2025 10:11:42 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

Linux is all about choice. Who says a distro has to be “popular”? Nobody can force users to use a particular distro.

Popularity will destroy choice not through "forcing" but through
the phenomenon of "following the leader."

In this global human morass, all things tend to converge to a
single source. We don't have a plethora of video sharing sites,
as we should. There is only YouTube. We don't have a plethora
of social media sites, as we should. There is only Facebook.
The list goes on...

If GNU/Linux becomes more and more popular it will converge
onto a single distro. Any remaining fringe distros will find
it increasingly difficult to acquire "spare parts" for their
fringe software and fringe methodologies.

For GNU/Linux to survive as a variegated community that brims
with options and choice, it must remain very small and very
unpopular. It must be a community of hard-core "techies"
that shun all populist tendencies.

Popularity destroys. The proof is all around us.

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From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.advocacy

On 2025-12-13 5:11 a.m., Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

On Sun, 30 Nov 2025 17:06:57 +0000, Xavier Jones wrote:

On Sun, 30 Nov 2025 16:26:21 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

I wonder how they’re going to do that. Buy up and shut down all
competing projects? Drive them out of the market by forcing users away
from them? Deny them rights to use Free software? How?

How? You really should bone up on the technical aspects of GNU/Linux.

Back atcha. Linux is all about choice. Learn that. Memorize it. Tattoo it
on your knuckles, or something.

The choice between Wayland and X11 (oh wait, they just made that choice
for us by killing off X11, didn't they?), the choice between Flatpak and
Snap, the choice between deb and rpm, the choice between C and Rust, the choice between Q and GTK, etc..

In the end, the only thing that should matter to the user is the choice between usability and compromise. Windows offers you usability,
stability and a wealth of security whereas Linux offers you a generous
dish of compromise. Want to use OPAL hardware encryption? Linux will do
that, if you don't mind sacrificing wake from suspend. Want to play your games? Linux will run them for you if you don't mind constantly tweaking
Steam in the hope of getting 2/3 the FPS you get in Windows. Want to
ensure that you can switch from the discrete GPU to the integrated one?
Linux will do that for you if you don't mind logging off every time you switch. It's a set of compromises to use an operating system that has
now been overtaken by demon-possessed social justice clowns like Joel
Crump who will gladly defame developers as Nazis because they didn't toe
the tline.

By providing only Wayland the popular distros will essentially prohibit
all the dozens of legacy window managers, some of which date back to the
1990s.

Linux is all about choice. Who says a distro has to be “popular”? Nobody can force users to use a particular distro.

There is definitely choice. Windows and MacOS offer you a standard three-course meal whereas Linux gives you a choice of rotting fruits, vegetables and nuts and sour milk.
--
CrudeSausage
John 14:6
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From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.advocacy

On Sat, 13 Dec 2025 11:06:02 +0000, Xavier Jones wrote:

On Sat, 13 Dec 2025 10:11:42 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

Linux is all about choice. Who says a distro has to be “popular”?
Nobody can force users to use a particular distro.

Popularity will destroy choice not through "forcing" but through the phenomenon of "following the leader."

Being yourself a refugee from proprietary platforms, you may take such a “following the leader” mentality as commonplace where you came from. It doesn’t apply in the Open Source world.

There are hundreds of Linux distros to choose from. And switching between
them is actually pretty easy. We call it “distro-hopping”. It’s a phenomenon unique to the Linux world.

Like I said, again: Linux is all about choice. If you don’t understand
that, you don’t understand Linux.
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