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Hah, I knew somebody was going to post this and almost added a disclaimer. When I say Linux, I'm talking about Linux distributions. Not the bare kernel, not embedded Linux. If I choose to use Linux over macOS or Windows, the #1 reason is that it gives me greater choice. On the desktop, to choose different desktop environments, to customize it to a greater extent than what is possible on other platforms. (That even applies to some extent to the server, I can choose from a greater selection of alternative services and am more flexible than in the Windows Server world, where it is more often a IIS, MSSQL, .NET stack.) If I don't value choice, than frankly there is very little to make me choose Linux over whatever is preinstalled on my Laptop. I used to have fun tinkering with my Linux installation and developing my own tools and workflows etc., but now that I'm older and don't have so much disposable time I prefer something that is good enough out of the box. I'm sure many people can relate. If the greater Linux community still embraced "Linux is about choice", and I could still run stuff in the "mix and match" spirit of ca. 2009, but with a modern kernel and modern apps, then I would immediately switch to desktop Linux. But you can't choose your window decorations, themes, desktop panels independently anymore and get a somewhat matching look and feel. It's only Gnome island, KDE/Plasma island, and hacker-minimalist island. |
Maybe take that as an indication those "spirits" are at odds and can't be reconciled? You can't have a system that's fully stable and predictable but also lets you swap out any component at a moment's notice to some unsupported third party thing. You either pick one or the other. In my opinion Linux has only ever been really worth it for companies willing to employ developers to work on it; you don't get any of that customization for free. At one point Linux companies were experimenting with things like desktop panels but then the market changed, they stopped and the money dried up. That's what happens.