Post B4212KWM7gNM69ePGi by glyph@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by glyph@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #B4212JbdWZ0PGF76rQ by glyph@mastodon.social
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I'm mad about linux distros again today and I think I am realizing why this is so hard for me to write about systemically: I have a software engineer brain and so I try to model the various problems as technical problems. And there are numerous technical problems to think about (platform interfaces, ABI boundaries, release management, etc) but the core problem is a social one, which requires a social solution.
(DIR) Post #B4212Jo2mQvjsiv1CS by glyph@mastodon.social
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In short, all the volunteer-based distributions need to have a gigantic conference where they all come together and *agree to stop working on about 99% of them*, to pool efforts to make a real Linux platform. A lot of people will need to put their egos aside and decide to acquiesce to solutions they believe to be technically inferior, in order to be able to address the diffusion of labor into pointlessly recreating basically the same toolchain a thousand times.
(DIR) Post #B4212KEzAGTtEHWXC4 by glyph@mastodon.social
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This is a big problem because labor is not fungible and the reason that a lot of these people got involved in distro development *in the first place* is that those sorts of problems and systems are interesting and engaging for them to work on. They all want to have control over a packaging tool, or a build farm, or whatever. The redundancy is a huge problem and a huge waste but it's also the engine that powers the whole thing, to some extent.
(DIR) Post #B4212KWM7gNM69ePGi by glyph@mastodon.social
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Fixing the problem involves driving a truck through that load-bearing "to some extent". Doing a big ugly multi-party negotiation to figure out how we can EOL Qt, to replace it with Gtk everywhere, and get all the Gtk devs on board with being *extremely* nice to the Qt people as we sunset their work. (Did you feel a little thrill because I picked Gtk instead of Qt? Well, I flipped a coin. Imagine I said Qt wins instead of Gtk. You're gonna be that mad about *big* parts of this, no matter what.)
(DIR) Post #B42fMNL5LoQknTUa0m by miss_rodent@girlcock.club
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@glyph ... Why is the redundancy a problem? I've generally considered it a feature of the linux ecosystem that Serious Projects™ like debian share an ecological niche with shit like that Hannah Montana distro that briefly went viral probably a decade ago.
(DIR) Post #B42fMNs3NEnmRiuuOm by glyph@mastodon.social
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@miss_rodent Multiple distros means multiple platforms. Multiple platforms means multiple dev targets. Multiple dev targets means that developing for "Linux" is, at minimum, *many dozens of times more expensive* than developing for macOS, or Windows, or the web.
(DIR) Post #B42fMOKleTlpsmLq9g by glyph@mastodon.social
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@miss_rodent The important thing is to get the "paying end-user / cost to target platform" ratio down below a threshold that resembles macOS. An actually profitable platform like iOS or Windows is unrealistic, but macOS is a minority with enough users for devs to care about without bankrupting themselves and at least build a lifestyle brand around.
(DIR) Post #B42fMOcUaZwslkdzma by miss_rodent@girlcock.club
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@glyph Honestly, that also seems fine to my perspective? People still develop for 'linux' in various capacities. It makes it dificult to compete on a commercial/industry level... but also, that is not why I'm in this ecosystem in the first place - I'm mainly in the linux ecosystem because fuck the capitalistic software model completely? Finding a way or people to better survive & eat within this ecosystem I think is a worthwhile goal - but not one worth the cost of consolidation
(DIR) Post #B42fMOpbnoRNQQmTE8 by glyph@mastodon.social
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@miss_rodent the consolidation is going to happen anyway. I am suggesting a way it could happen with democratic involvement of volunteers. which I realize is a bit of a pipe dream.realistically, everyone will just pivot what it means to make "linux desktop" software to mean "works on SteamOS" and then Valve gets to write the specs that everyone else follows, and the viability of a desktop Linux distro will be scored according to the accuracy of its SteamOS emulation
(DIR) Post #B42fMP2N2MeI40kf7Q by miss_rodent@girlcock.club
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@glyph Honestly, I think that is a reason to move further in the other direction, and become more diverse and hostile to corporate interests. I think consolidating and trying to act more like the commercial-capitalist OSes is an ethical and social failure; the diversity and chaotic aspect of the ecosystem are a functional pillar of the community.
(DIR) Post #B42fMPFqEHQMjn3Q7E by freya@chaosfem.tw
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@miss_rodent @glyph and the more diverse and messy things get, the less time and energy will be put into making accessibility actually good, because it'll be reinvented a thousand times
(DIR) Post #B42fMPTfOsU1QfWSfI by miss_rodent@girlcock.club
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@freya @glyph It's not like the corporate consolidated model has made accessibility a major priority either? In my own case, linux & BSDs have been more accessible than the proprietary OSes since I switched in the 00's.I've known folks with other disabilities who prefer(ed) linux's accessibility options, but, that seems to vary quite a bit by person & disability. It's definitely not great as-is, but, won't necessarily get worse or stop improving from more diversity and options existing.
(DIR) Post #B42fMSEBAusRxVIdRQ by miss_rodent@girlcock.club
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@freya @glyph To Clarify: My own case mainly being that my paws don't work very well - and have only gotten worse over time, I routinely can't use a mouse effectively, so being able to do basically everything from a command line, customize keyboard shortcuts & remap the keyboard easily, change settings in a text file instead of needing to navigate menus, etc. are all significant accessibility concerns on my end.