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  • pmk@lemmy.sdf.org
    6·
    3 days ago

    Dilemma: Fedora has introduced and worked on a lot of things that make “Year of Linux on the Desktop” more likely. Even if UNIX purists disagree with the direction, Fedora is what Ubuntu used to be back in the day. Linux for humans.

    At the same time, it’s possible due to corporate backing. American corporate backing even. A part of me thinks that if we can’t get there as a community without corporate influence, then it’s all for nothing. I want the community model to not just be an ethical alternative, but that this model of cooperation also produces the best results.

    (PS. I’m open for having my view changed, maybe I’m thinking about this the wrong way.)

    • twinnie@feddit.uk
      4·
      3 days ago

      I don’t think it’s ever going to happen without corporate backing. Maybe community run efforts can afford to have a few volunteers do some coding in their spare time, but volunteers don’t generally want to work on the boring stuff like the polish that users expect nowadays, and they’re never going to be able to run things like R&D, focus groups, etc, to get ahead of Fortune 500 companies. All they can do is see what works and copy, that’s basically all the community developed stuff has ever done.

      Look at ChromeOS, it’s already got more users than Linux. If the Year of Linux ever happens it’ll look more like the Year of Chrome

    • notanapple@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      Currently most cooperate linux companies are not in the business of selling linux desktop itself. Rather its linux for servers, administration, embedded things (like cars), and other enterprisey stuff. So at least at the moment they are not looking to profit of linux desktop users directly which has saved us from enshittiffication attempts.

      But even if they in the future attempt to do something fishy, that most users dont agree with, I think by the virtue of how stuff works on linux it will be very easy for people to move to something else or a fork, and still get 95-99% of the same experience. This in turn will force companies to think twice before doing something like this.

      A good example here is canonical/Ubuntu who has made questionable decisions in the past and each time they had to take it back. Even now, Snap due to its use of a centralized store is almost universally shunned by the linux community and is only supported maintained by canonical. While Flatpak is supported by the wider linux community with people from different projects contributing to it (though I sometimes worry about everyone centralizing on Flathub to the point where they are actively discourage other projects from launching/maintaining their own stores/repos).

      This is why we need to build and champion tech that is resistant to control and enshittiffication. Then we dont have to worry too much about who is developing it.