> "snap vs flatpak vs appimages once again shows the fragmentation within the linux desktop ecosystem."
A common misconception about the FOSS ecosystem is that many similar projects is "wasted effort". In reality, diversity is what allows for progress and flexibility. Otherwise you end up with a single package manager which nobody can change AKA mono-culture.
> "Microsoft is going to eat Linux Desktop. WSL to run your server apps and coding environment. "
Only if Microsoft make their OS free, otherwise you're buying windows to run a translation layer of Linux (WSL) on top of it... doesn't make sense to a lot of people...
> A common misconception about the FOSS ecosystem is that many similar projects is "wasted effort".
From a developers and users perspecive, it is a wasted effort. Users still keep wasting time 'choosing' a distro. There's 1 form of Windows and macOS to choose and support. For a software vendor, you need to 'define support'. I can support all Windows and macOS users, but I can only target a certain amount of Linux users on some selected distros which isn't all Linux users.
Perhaps the reason the Linux desktop has failed is because of the lack of a standard desktop or common SDKs other than the Linux kernel itself.
> In reality, diversity is what allows for progress and flexibility. Otherwise you end up with a single package manager which nobody can change AKA mono-culture.
Just look at the tons of distro configurations that a software vendor needs to test for which is why many companies place some Linux distros as under having 'unsupported' status and have to target a select few, unlike Windows and macOS.
> "From a developers and users perspective, it is a wasted effort."
My point is that, the perceived "wasted effort" is actually learning and re-thinking the desktop. Many novel approaches to simpler OS's and package managers have risen, due to the diversity of the FOSS ecosystem.
Just like Darwinian evolution, many projects spawn into existence, only the fittest survive. The projects/distro's that don't survive were not a waste, they serve to prove which ideas work/don't work. Making all projects better off.
> "Just look at the tons of distro configurations that a software vendor needs to test for"
True there's many distros, but there's no reason to support them all, only the biggest. It's similar to translating books into other languages, you would translate a book to [1] Dumi, as it's the least used language on Earth.
Most Vendors only support the top OS's which are probably Windows, MacOS and Ubuntu.
> "Perhaps the reason the Linux desktop has failed is because of the lack of a standard desktop or common SDKs other than the Linux kernel itself."
This is a real point, and is something snap, flatpack etc. are trying to fix. Maybe one day a Linux desktop will unify on a standard...
A common misconception about the FOSS ecosystem is that many similar projects is "wasted effort". In reality, diversity is what allows for progress and flexibility. Otherwise you end up with a single package manager which nobody can change AKA mono-culture.
> "Microsoft is going to eat Linux Desktop. WSL to run your server apps and coding environment. "
Only if Microsoft make their OS free, otherwise you're buying windows to run a translation layer of Linux (WSL) on top of it... doesn't make sense to a lot of people...