The Fragmentation Problem Within Linux - Is It Real Or Fake News?

So we need to talk about the fragmentation problem that exists with free and open- source software and especially with Linux distributions. Is the sheer number of Linux distributions that are available is that a problem? Right? Do we have too many Linux distributions or do we have too many open-source text editors or too many open-source package managers? whatever it happens to be. Too many open- source terminal emulators is having so much available as far as choices. Is that a problem? Now, I can understand why a lot of Linux users think fragmentation is a problem. When I first switched to Linux full-time on the desktop, you know, this was about 18 years ago or so. It was a long time ago, but I remember even back then there were at least a couple hundred Linux distributions out there that I could have chosen from. In the end, I ended up installing Auntu as my very first Linux distribution on the desktop. And you know, over the years, I've tried hundreds of Linux distributions, many hundreds probably, including probably at least a hundred or more that are dead distributions. You know, I played around with various Linux distributions and virtual machines on real hardware on live USB sticks, and I I can understand this this complaint, especially from newer to Linux users, that hey, we've just got too much choice out there. And it's especially confusing to people that are thinking about coming over to Linux from Windows or Mac OS because unlike Windows, like if somebody wants to run Windows, hey, what Windows should I install? Well, you should install Windows 11, right? The current version of Windows, right? And there's only one Windows really that people install on the desktop. Well, it's a little bit different when a new user comes to me, for example, and says, "Hey, I want to install Linux. What Linux should I install?" Well, there's literally a few dozen decent choices for a brand new Linux user, especially new userfriendly distributions for desktop use. You know, I've installed Auntu, Linux Mint, Linux Light, MX Linux, Deepen Linux. I I've installed so many different Linux distributions on people's machines over the years that were, you know, userfriendly distributions. So even when you narrow it down to distributions for like the nont techsavvy kind of people like distributions that you can install on like the elderly's computer, you know, somebody that really doesn't want to pull with computers, they just want something that works. There's so many distributions out there that fit that bill. And then you get into the more niche things and some of the more hardcore distributions again, you know, it just becomes overwhelming and it makes some of these simple questions like what Linux distribution should I use? That makes that question very difficult to answer. And it's not just users that complain about fragmentation. It's also developers. A lot of developers claim that the fragmentation in Linux is a problem because hey, like package managers, I I've got to uh create a deb file for you, RPM. I've got to package it for Arch. I got to put a snap pack, a flat pack, a app image out. You know, it's too much work. There's way too many package formats for the various Linux distros. And that causes some headaches for developers because they have to try to support the entire Linux ecosystem and it's just it's an impossible task. And then it's the same way with like hardware manufacturers like video drivers for example. They've got to support so much technology. You know, you got most distributions still out there using X11, Xorg. Uh unless they're a Gnome DRO, then they're already on Whan. And then you've got companies like AMD and Nvidia and Intel that have to create video drivers for two different display servers. Yeah, again the fragmentation becomes a problem. And you see this kind of thing all the time, especially with drivers where somebody will go to a support form and say, "Hey, the driver for this doesn't work on my machine, my Linux machine." And then somebody else will come back, well, it's working on mine. Well, yeah, because not all Linux are the same, right? There's major differences between the various distributions. Now let's talk about why fragmentation in my opinion is important. It's a good thing and it's a necessary thing for free and open source software. We are never going to live in a world where there's free and open source software and there's not fragmentation. It's just never going to happen. I know people want to say, well, why can't everybody just work on one Linux distribution and make that one Linux distribution good? Well, it's because we have freedom. Free software means I have the freedom to work on the software that I want to work on. Take it in a direction I want to take it. Fork an existing project that maybe does some things I like, some things I don't like. So I'll fork it and I'll go my own direction. That is ultimate freedom. That is the freedom in free and open-source software. And as long as you give people that freedom, there will always be fragmentation. In fact, I would argue that fragmentation is a feature. It's not a bug, right? Fragmentation is actually an important thing because it spurs innovation, right? Because when people see a project, a piece of free and open source software they like, maybe it's a a open-source text editor or terminal emulator, web browser, whatever it happens to be, they see some open source project that they think, hey, I could do that better. You know, what they're doing, it's okay, but I could take that in a totally different direction and I could make something really special out of it. and they have the freedom to do that and in some cases they can push development much further. Sometimes the changes too when you fork something sometimes the fork eventually becomes merged into the earlier project anyway. And again fragmentation I think is a good thing. I think it's a necessary thing. It's a feature. It's not a bug. And there are many examples of this forking and this fragmentation actually being a good thing. There are many of you guys watching this video right now that are using a desktop environment for example a desktop environment maybe you really love that was brought about because of forking because of fragmentation many of the major desktop environments that were on these days are around because of when Gnome 2 died and Gnome moved from Gnome 2 to Gnome 3 all of a sudden we saw half a dozen major desktop environments spring up overnight from people that didn't want to go to Gnome 3. They didn't like that direction. They wanted to go somewhere else. So, you saw Canonicle create Unity. You saw Linux Mint create the Cinnamon desktop, which is very popular these days. You saw Elementary OS create Pantheon. You saw Solless create the Budgie desktop. And, you know, we could go on and on. And there are a lot of users, there's probably millions of users using those desktop environments that love those desktop environments that wouldn't be around without fragmentation. Now, when it comes to package formats, you know, this is one I kind of wish there was a universal package format for Linux. And yeah, we actually do have these. We have snaps, flat packs, and app images, right? And they actually work pretty much on most Linux distributions. There's some distributions that don't support one or more of those, but for the most part, we do have DRO agnostic package managers out there. Unfortunately, we have several of them, right? We have three major ones, and there's more than that out there as well. And that's because of that freedom, right? If I'm a programmer, maybe I'm a student studying programming and I want to create something and you know what, I want to create a package manager because I think that's a neat project. It's just something I want to do for fun, right? And I have the freedom to do that. I can go create my own package format and my own package manager for that format for Linux if I want to. And many cases, this fragmentation that we see starts as it's just a fun project for somebody that's learning programming. You know, some some upand cominging developer, they just want to do something. They need to do something. So, hey, I'll go create a text editor. I'll go create a calculator or whatever it happens to be. That's how most of these projects probably get started is they're just something for educational purposes. I just want to learn, right? And then the same thing with Linux distributions. many of them just start as projects to learn more about Linux and I think that's great right and again I love that we have the freedom to do that so when I see people complain about the fragmentation of Linux and the fragmentation of free and open source software many people often ask hey is fragmentation is it a blessing or a curse well for me it's a blessing right I I really see only upsides and I don't really see any downsides because if you take away the downsides right? Uh, well, there's just too much freedom. Well, if we take away the freedom, then there's no more free and open source software. The minute you take away freedom, we're proprietary software. We're just like Windows and Mac OS. So, fragmentation is necessary. Fragmentation has to be there. I want that fragmentation to be there. But, of course, that's just my thoughts. Again, I've been a longtime Linux user. I've used Linux for more than two decades. I've been a full-time Linux user on the desktop going on about 16 18 years now. And I know my thoughts on this stuff may not be your thoughts. Please share your thoughts in the comments down below. I'd love to hear what you think about this fragmentation problem. Is it really a problem? These guys are