Is Linux Being Left Behind?

I am a Linux nerd diehard. I truly believe that. I have the hat to prove it, so I think that it has to be true. And if you want the hat, of course you can go to my store, but that's not really how you're supposed to start a video, Matt, but we're going to do it anyway. So what I want to talk about today is something that goes contrary to the Linux nerddom that I cherish and champion. I want to talk about a feeling of disillusionment I have with Linux itself. And it's weird because Linux has done nothing wrong other than be ******* awesome for the last 10 years. I've had a wonderful time learning about Linux, exploring distros, exploring applications, learning from the community, and interacting with the community. Overall, it's just been a time. And I will continue to have a good time with Linux. I'm not making a video like, I'm going back to Windows. And if I somehow have made that the title of this video, know that I'm lying. I didn't do that. I'm sure I didn't, because it wouldn't be true. I'm not going back to Windows. I'm not going to Mac, even though I do have a Macintosh. You guys can't see it. It's off screen, but there's a Macintosh here. But I have Linux all around me, and it will continue to be my main daily driver. There's nothing actually physically wrong with Linux at all. So my complaints that I'm going to express to you today are all in my head. So just keep that in mind. So my argument or my thoughts here, and forgive me if this is more rambly than normal, I'm kind of going off the cuff of my head, you know, whatever, is that Linux feels like it's being left behind. Now, the thing is, and this is going to be where the topic of this video gets messy, is that the reason why Linux feels like it's being left behind is because other operating systems are doing things. Now, Linux, I think feels like it's at a point where it has hit the stable part of its lifecycle, right? It is very usable, has a lot of applications, it doesn't break as often as it used to. And when it does break, usually it's very much user error. I know when I break Linux, or when, excuse me, when Linux breaks for me, it's usually because my dumb ass did something wrong, not because Linux itself actually broke. Whereas that wasn't always the case before. A lot of times stuff broke because developers broke it. Like when Pipewire first came out, audio was broken all the time. Now, obviously, audio has a long and storied tradition of being absolute garbage on Linux. But let's knock on some wood here. If you can hear me, audio is actually pretty good these days on Linux. Pipewire, you don't hear a lot of people complaining about Pipewire anymore. It just kind of works, which is great. Now, doesn't mean that there's not still problems and bugs and whatever. But for the most part, it's stable and very usable. Wayland is kind of the same thing, right? Wayland for a long time was the premier video topic for this channel where like, I think 12 videos or something like that were like, Wayland's not ready yet. Don't switch to Wayland. Why are they switching to Wayland? All this stuff, right? It's just like, I made a very good living, or at least a small YouTuber living, on making content complaining about Wayland for several years in a row. I can't do that anymore because Wayland, pretty good for the most part. Now, is it good for everybody? No. If you have an older NVIDIA card or maybe even a newer NVIDIA card, you're probably still having some problems. But for the vast majority of people, I feel like Wayland's finally gotten to a point where it is not something you can actively complain about all the time like I once did. Now, do I still have some issues with it? Yeah, I still have some issues. Like right now, for whatever reason, I look like I'm in stop motion. I don't know why. My computer's been completely messing up. But the point I'm trying to make is that stuff is very stable these days, and it doesn't really matter what distro you're on. I'm on NixOS, which isn't a real distro, but I was on OpenSUSE before. I know people on Fedora and Bluefin and Ubuntu and Linux Mint and even Arch. The vast majority of them will tell you that their experience is very, very stable unless they do something to make it not stable. And that is a crazy place to be considering not too long ago, Linux wasn't that way. So the question then comes into my head, and it shouldn't really, because it's a capitalistic kind of mind frame. You always have to be searching for what's next. And that's the question. What's next? What's going to push Linux into the next 10 years? And I don't know the answer to that question because for everyone else, it's artificial intelligence. Microsoft is putting AI everywhere. There's like little birds flying around windows dropping little AI ---- snacks all over the place, and you can't escape it. That's a great metaphor, by the way. This is the best thing ever. All right. So, you know, and Apple's doing the same thing with their artificial intelligence, even their Apple intelligence, whatever they're calling, even though they're using Google as a back end or they're going to, right? They're doing all this stuff with AI, this AI, that and Linux is not going to do that. Okay, Linux is going to be the thing that runs AI in the background, for sure. But as the Linux desktop isn't going to adopt AI, at least not in the same ways as the other two main operating systems. And that leads me back to the initial premise of the video is it feels like Linux is going to be left behind because that's the future. Whether you like AI or you don't like AI. And I'm split somewhere down the middle. I find AI very fascinating. I find it useful for some things, but I'm also of the opinion where it's probably going to ruin the world in terms of the environment. It may take over the world because it's AI, you know, all the regular usual AI fears, which are completely justified. So everyone else is going to be moving on to this AI future. Linux, the Linux desktop at least, will be where it is right now. Strong, steady, boring. So that's the thing that's in my head. Now, let's discuss mental problems in my brain for just a second, because there's a reason why also prepare for it to get brighter, because I didn't turn my light on. This is how prepared I was. But anyways, let's talk about what's in my head for just a second, because there's a reason why I'm thinking this. There's a part of me, and there always has been, that likes the bright, new, shiny things. And I think a lot of Linux nerds are like this. There's a reason why distro hopping is a thing. And it's not because the distros that we're using are bad. It's because we like and enjoy finding something new. And oftentimes when we go to a new distro, we're finding something new. It's a new package manager or a new way of doing things. Like moving to Nix was a new experience because they do so much stuff that was different. And that fed the little beast in me that enjoys trying something new. That was the entire point of my two-year challenges, was that that beast was taking over my life. I was moving distros way too often, and it wasn't a good experience, and it wasn't healthy. So I wanted to use something long-term. But just because I've kind of slowed down on the distro hopping doesn't mean that that beast in my brain is gone. And that beast likes to advocate for constant change and improvement. There's a reason why I called it capitalistic earlier because it feels that way, right? You're always trying to push towards the future. Try to gain more and more and more features and more shininess. And you're trying to improve your market share by becoming this different thing than what you always were. The problem with that, of course, is that Linux isn't like that. That's not the way Linux has ever been. It has never strove to be the operating system of the most features. It's never strove to be the operating system that takes on the biggest and latest fads. It's just the thing that works. And that's what we like about it. So the little bastard in my brain that constantly wants change and new feature needs to die a painful death. The premise for the video wasn't even really about what I'm going to make the title, is Linux being left behind? Because it's absolutely not. It's more talking about the feeling that some of us Linux users have that feel like that change is necessary. You want to push for new features, new things in your operating system, and it doesn't actually need those things. Instead, Linux has thrived. And I know some people argue, well, it's not thriving in market share, but Linux is doing just fine by going slow and steady, solving the problems as they come along. And maybe they don't necessarily invent new things on Linux. Maybe that's true. But do they need to, right? Linux doesn't need to be on the forefront of innovation. Instead, Linux needs to be the backbone that runs everything else. And that's what it has become. And even on the Linux desktop, you don't see the push forward to constantly innovate on UI or features or anything like that. Instead, it's just slow and steady improvement that has proven over time that it's a real and sustainable thing. And I think that that's just the way that Linux is supposed to be. And those of us, especially like me, who are looking at things like, oh, this is kind of boring now, have to realize that that's just kind of where Linux needs to be. It needs to be slow and steady, and it's never going to be innovative in terms of user-facing features on the desktop. It's just not the way that it's going to be, right? And there's multiple reasons for that, right? That's the way that it is. That's the big reason, probably. But also because Linux doesn't have the resources of Microsoft or Apple in order to fund those innovations. And developers are much more invested in ensuring that the kernel supports the latest hardware and can do the things that need to be done in the enterprise. And the desktop developers need to make sure that Wayland doesn't break. And Xorg is still crutching along for those people who actually still have to have. And all those things, they have to focus on that instead of going out there and figuring out what's the new and next thing. So there's many reasons for it. And most of my brain realizes that. And that's the reason why I'm making this video. This is more of a Matt-stop-complaining type video while he complains, instead of a Linux-you-need-to-do-better kind of video, if that makes any sense. I'm not arguing that Linux needs to change. I'm not arguing that Linux needs to do better. I'm not arguing that Linux needs to add AI in any sort. None of those are my arguments. My arguments are that I need to do better in terms of thinking about what Linux actually is. So that's it for this one. If you have thoughts or comments on any of this rambling nonsense of 20 minutes of Matt just blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah. Comments in the comment section below. And the first person who comments blah-blah-blah-blah-blah back gets banned from my channel. I'm just saying. All right. All right. Anyways, that's it for that one. Follow me on Mastodon Odyssey. Those links will be in the video description. You can support me on Patreon at patreon.com slash TheLinuxCast. 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