IMHO Linux has not lost its way but most of the Distros have.
Back when I discovered Linux and the Linux Desktop I was like a fat kid at the Free Candy Store. I'd read about something find it slightly interesting or think I might be able to use it in the future and add it to my installation.
Back then it was a battle of dependencies and even the order to install them and sorting out something simple could take hours to figure out for this newb.
I'd start with a simple install add X and then grow a monster, packed with applications I'd probably never use or when I needed them I forget they were there or what they did.
Eventually I came to my senses started using Debian with Apt-get, decided that less was more, but I knew I also had the biggest candy store at my disposal if I needed it and life was good.
Now I look at it and most Distros and their default installs are catering to that fat kid at the Free Candy Store and loading up with tons of crap, menus a mile long and you don't have to download it because it is either already there or in the eyes of the Store Owner you shouldn't want it. It becomes a battle between Distros of who includes what as default and who has the latest version in an attempt to prove their superiority.
Now the much maligned, systemd, network-manager (fingers still want to type mangler), pulseaudio (spit), avahi etc. all cater to the ease of Distro stuffing and the shopping mall mall type sameness.
The rest of us who want to be able to pick and choose now have the foundations used to suspend these giant turd Distro defaults forced upon us.
I don't blame Linux, I don't blame the devs, I blame the Distro packagers, marketeers and the target demographic, the stupid (expletive deleted) fat kids.
Clarke _______________________________________________ Dng mailing list [email protected] https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
