GlyphI'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.
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.
Joe Brockmeier@glyph I don’t necessarily disagree (or 100% agree) but the odds of this seem… small.
Our problems really aren’t technical - they’re social and political. The same problems that keep us from solving other political and social problems: we just can’t seem to put things aside for the common good or organize for such things without personal interests, tribalism, and greed getting in the way.
skippy@jzb @glyph Social means community. Which community is most likely to achieve what you envision? We don’t need to consolidate all the efforts of all possible contributors. We just need enough effort from a large enough group rowing in the same direction. User friendliness has long been a Linux issue. Sign me up to help!