Matthew GarrettHaving the core infrastructure for Linux distros be written with a coherent set of design goals instead of being 200 independent projects that can only interoperate via shell scripts parsing and piping output is good, actually
Shiz@mjg59 but anyway, high disagree that there should be a singular "the core infrastructure" to begin with
variety and diversity is one of the things that make Linux appealing and broadly useable, harmonizing towards a monoculture ain't it imo
@shiz nothing stopping someone else solving the same set of problems tbh
@mjg59 I agree, although I think there are some compounding factors that do make it more difficult in the current landscape, forcing such a (set of) undertakings to solve more of these problems At Once
but that's a thought that needs some more stewing instead of being blarfed out unfinished at 2AM :)
Val Packett 🧉@shiz @mjg59 excessive variety and its fanatical zealots were what was holding linux/freedesktop back by decades.
having 300 ways to manage windows, 200 ways to configure system startup and 100 ways to configure the network is nerd masturbation. it does not a competitive real-world-able platform make
@valpackett Linux systems in all kinds of shapes and forms have been "competitive" in the real world since way before systemd came along, even if that were the only metric to care about
regardless, you'll understand I'm not very interested in further engaging in a discussion when the first reply is full of dramatical hyperbole and dismissal
Speaktrap@valpackett @shiz @mjg59 by this way of thinking we should have one human race (possibly white) because variety bad
Demi Marie Obenour@speaktrap @valpackett @shiz @mjg59 Not a good analogy. For one, standardization is not unethical, whereas racism very much is. For another, diverse groups of people do better at getting things done, whereas having tons of different projects that do similar things mean none are as good.
@alwayscurious @valpackett @shiz @mjg59 This is false. While monogameous project grow fast in the longer run they are very toxic for the whole environment.
Like with browsers, when one engine dominates the web developers stop keeping to the W3C standards and just make it work with IE/Chrome. It's pathological.
We also need alternatives in case The Big Project goes bad (like Systemd right now accepting AI pull requests or adopting dangerous California law)
This is why we need competing standards for a healthy platform.
It's slower, but it's good (unless you want to move fast and break things like certain wealthy ketamine lover)
Ludovic :Firefox: :FreeBSD:@valpackett @shiz @mjg59 I suspect most niche X window managers and Wayland compositors will eventually be replaced by WMs for River, which should help quite a bit.
Pierre Equoy@shiz diversity is great until it starts slowing down usability. When the effort of hundreds of people are split to try to fix the same set of issues, I feel like everybody's wasting time.
(Of course, the general answer to this is that no, it's not *exactly* the same issue we're trying to fix, but it's often a little bit of a lie)