Mark Shuttleworth brazenly broke onto the Linux scene by unabashed promising to make Linux desktop a mainstream thing. Canonical and Ubuntu have been monstrously successful for their server but not for their primary goal: a consistent, usable, dominant Linux desktop distribution.
Ask any Linux fanatic today what their favorite desktop distro is and they will almost always tell you some variation of Debian, Arch, Mint, RedHat, or (as crazy at it sounds) Windows WSL2 (which is my new daily driver). Some will get snarky and answer “Android”, “Docker”, or “Kubernetes”. If you mention Ubuntu on the desktop to most of these people their face with get all distorted like they are suddenly constipated. Mention “snap” to them and they just may punch you in the face.
People hate Ubuntu desktop Linux so much they are flocking to Windows and Debian. Both of which barely have a GUI installer. Even Debian desktop users will tell you it is “psychotic” to even attempt it, but Ubuntu desktop is really just that bad.
Why the rant now?
Because I have just started using Linux on WSL2 (which is Windows for those who might not know) and it is a perfect balance of usable desktop with powerful Linux tools. Hell, I can even play Overwatch on my new favorite Linux “distro.” MS (and the Linux foundation that is helping them out) have finally done it. Ballmer be damned. Windows is the best Linux desktop distribution by far. But, this didn’t have to be that way.
Mark Shuttleworth’s failures (plural, ‘cuz remember Ubuntu on a phone?) to deliver desktop Linux have almost destroyed the entire Linux desktop movement sending it into even more shards of porcelain penguin pieces.
Snap would not even exist where it nor for fucking Canonical. Now somehow everyone feels they have a right to try a better “desktop” package system.
Even Windows has Chocolatey (which is pretty damn good considering I can now install Windows software, into Windows, from my WSL2 bash command line without a problem).
Some might call this pressured progress to make different options a success, and I suppose it is in a way, but it has not solidified the Linux desktop offerings in the slightest. Ubuntu desktop’s suckiness has emboldened everyone to try better leaving Linux desktop right back where it was before, no fucking standard.
And no standard means it remains impossible for large organizations to get behind a standard Linux desktop distribution they can maintain for their employees which, in turn, leads to no large Linux desktop distro adoption, no critical mass at which point the entire business world rallies behind the one true Linux desktop distro, like they do with other FOSS things like Kubernetes, or (can you believe it) Chromium.
I can’t blame Mark for trying, it’s not his fault, for sure. Trying to get the Linux community to agree on anything is virtually impossible. It’s just not in our DNA. Everyone has massive not-invented-here syndrome and over-engineering mentality. We’d rather be different, smarter, and “right-er” than everyone else rather than help pleebs use a common Desktop Linux. Instead of praising the effort, they deride it and make fun of those getting behind it, because, after all, most Linux users are fucking assholes (including me). This the idea behind the meme “I use Arch, btw.” It’s like a disease with us, a disease that has killed (and will continue to kill) any Linux desktop attempt.
By the way, System75 PopOS just destroyed their attempt at a common desktop as well by announcing they are going to redo the entire fucking desktop environment in Rust. They still have major, critical bugs in their distro that got so fucking bad I had to abandon it and migrate to Windows WSL2 instead. No surprise there. The System76 people are some of the biggest Linux assholes on the planet, with egos that dwarf even Mark Shuttleworth’s. (Ask me about my experience with them in 2013 when I bought, and returned a shitty, overpriced laptop from them.) It takes a clueless but wildly intelligent ego like those of the PopOS desktop team to divert all their main desktop resources to redoing the whole fucking thing in Rust — while two perfectly good desktop environments already exist. Apparently, Gnome and KDE are beneath them. Not even a fork will do. ‘Cuz Rust “safety” (pfffhahahaha, oh sorry, couldn’t help myself).
At least Valve supports their product on Ubuntu desktop. So there’s that. But good luck getting anyone to take it seriously, ever. I certainly don’t and I’ve been a Linux fanatic since 1996.
Related:
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1/comments/1834
#rant #linux #desktop #ubuntu #canonical