Get it together Linux users/devs!

This is a rant for Linux users. Take it as an (angry) man letting people know his opinions.

First let's start with unity. (GNU/)Linux users are either united or they're not. The attitude in this community is that if you don't like something about the distro you're using just go ahead and make a new one. Yeah thanks for the advice.

You don't like something about the WM you're using? Make a new one.

And I'm not particularly bothered by the "put it up or make it up" attitude, that's completely fine. What bothers me is how separated the WHOLE community is.

There are thousands of distros, all with their own spin on stuff. Most, if not all of them feel some kind of elitism for the distro they use.

Arch Linux users, their distro is incredibly awesome. In my years with it (a couple) I haven't seen a single political debate over whether one approach to something should be used over another (i.e. Systemd vs. Busybox or something). I mean of course users argue, that's always gonna happen because Linux seems to be infested with angry people all over the place. But for a team to be arguing about what direction to go (i.e. Debian) I find extremely ridiculous.

OK so thousands of distros. Hundreds of window managers, floating, tiling, for christ's sake give it a rest!

This situation where it's everybody against everybody is the exact reason why stuff like OS X is more attractive to users. TBH it's more attractive to me, the only reason I don't use it, although I have been tempted countless times, is because I have a strong resolution to not buy into a commercialism mentality which is exactly what Apple has. New product comes out GO BUY IT!

And in all their super nice hardware and commercialist attitude, they got one thing right, although not exactly in the best way. What they got right was that they made it very easy for developers, develop for the latest version or your software will go unused. They do it through planned obsolescency, but Arch Linux could very well do it just because all the people that use it will only use the latest of the stuff.

They got another thing right. There is no divide in the developers. there is no debate whether to use Qt or GTK+. Everybody has only one option. And I'm not saying the debate is bad, but the sheer amount of time that we spend in these debates is just ridiculous. I'll settle it for you. GTK+ can use C OR C++, so it's better in that sense. Qt is limited to C++ BUT it's got way better cross-platform support. There, that's what the argument should boil down to.

In the end I'm sure somebody will be like "oh if it's so easy why don't you do it?" or "just do the software you want then!".

That's not my point. My point is STOP BEING SO ANGRY AT EACH OTHER!

Windows devs get one choice, a really shitty one but it's one. OS X devs get one choice, perhaps great or perhaps shitty, I dunno, but it's only one choice. Linux devs get hundreds, if not thousands of distros to choose from. They need to package in who knows how many formats. They may need to develop in I dunno how many frameworks for shit to work right.

Linux is sorta Lisp all over again. Cool great, you convinced me, I wanna use Linux, where should I start? Well you've got all of these distros to choose from. At least with Lisp the argument is easier. OK I wanna do Lisp, which one should I start with? Well depends on your program, and if you don't like one you can just install another. With Linux you gotta re-install the entire OS to change it.

Point is, stop fighting. Figure out a distro you like, use it, be nice to each other, don't give somebody shit cause they're newbs or they don't know how to use the CLI or when they don't use the distro YOU like. Let me remind you, we want more casual users. The way we're going we may never have a lot of casual users like OS X or Windows.

I dunno if I got my point across, but at least I said it so now I feel better. Just be nicer. I don't care what you do or how much time you have to waste for it, just be nicer and more united. Please.

That is all.

P.S.: The post title is a play on words, get it?