Glyph@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.
cthos 🐱
Cassandra is only carbon now@cthos @glyph @miss_rodent I can't speak to macOS since I don't own an Apple device and thus don't have access to any of that world (maybe I'll pick up a Neo if I have a few spare bucks so that I can develop for Arcalibre there), but Windows is far from a monolithic platform these days.
It's also notable that I can use Windows to develop for Linux, given Docker and WSL, but it's much harder to use Linux to develop for Windows due to entirely manufactured obstacles.
@cthos @glyph @miss_rodent That is, I incur a significant additional expense developing for Windows as compared to developing for Linux — an expense folks have been kind enough to help with, but an expense nonetheless.
The expense isn't just a proliferation of distros, it's also how easy it is to access and use tools for dealing with that proliferation.
@cthos @glyph @miss_rodent Linux isn't a platform because it's too many different platforms under one name, but Windows isn't a platform because it fails to be a platform at all. Many and zero both fail to be one.