[mdlug] Are Linux Distros Too Bloated?

[LAP]

On Sun, 16 Apr 2023 18:56:51 +0000
Robert James Fulner <fulner at alumni.nmu.edu> wrote:

> 
> I was surprised to learn recently that one of my friends had been
> using Linux Mint as his sole OS for over a year and still didn't know
> how to install programs. 
>

Linux began as a niche OS that catered mostly to technically inclined
individuals.  Distros were first developed to alleviate the extreme work
that was required to install a Linux system "from scratch."

But MS/Apple was always there to serve as the example for serving the
common folks, and it seems that GNU/Linux distros began to emulate
these commercial models.

Have a look at the design philosophy of colord, a long-standing project
of freedesktop.org (sponsored by RedHat/IBM):

https://www.freedesktop.org/software/colord/profiles.html

This design philosophy of catering to the unsophisticated user is
now quite dominant and has resulted in the "bloat" to which I refer.

Such philosophy is not necessarily a bad thing.  GNU/Linux needs to
attract and accommodate more users and this is certainly one way of
doing that.

But, IMO, the problem arises when such a philosophy attempts to exclude
everything else, and this seems to be what is happening.

Currently, there are only THREE GNU/Linux distros: Debian, RedHat, and
ArchLinux.  All of the myriad of others are derived in some way from
these three, and in most ways these three distros converge in their
overall behavior.

GNU/Linux is extremely configurable, but the current state of distros
does not in any way reflect that.  Aside from a very small number of
outliers, the ordinary GNU/Linux distro is highly monolithic and offers
little choice.

Any newcomer to GNU/Linux who would sample this monolithic landscape would
conclude that there is only one way of doing things which is certainly
not the case.

There ought to be DOZENS of truly varied GNU/Linux distros to fit
many different scenarios but sadly there are only THREE (and perhaps
effectively just ONE).

AFAIK, the only democratic force within Linux is Linus Torvalds himself.
In the future, if he should ever relinquish his control for whatever
reason, one can be sure that commercial interests will immediately
step in and destroy all possibility of a free and diverse Linux.

Now I will step down from my soapbox and hope that I have not rattled
too many with my Stallmanesque views.