What would an ENSH*TTIFIED Linux distro look like? [video]
What would an ENSH*TTIFIED Linux distro look like? [video]
Just for fun, I decided to try and imagine what a Linux distro would look like if it got hit by the enshittification stick that seems to affect every digital product of service these days. 👏 SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: Get access to: a Daily Linux News show, a weekly patroncast for more personal thoughts,...
What would it look like? I'd guess Amazon ads in the search bar, proprietary package managers overriding the old open package manager, and popup ads for distribution Pro?
Wait...
Ubuntu was my first distro because ubuntu was linux for outsiders many years ago. Any other distro was only for hardcore people. I don't regret hopping around the linux world.
Same. I started really using Linux with Ubuntu 6.06 and was drawn in by its "Linux for human beings" goals - the Ubuntu homepage of the era really pushed the ideals of community and openness. Canonical sat in the background paying to send you free CDs in the mail. It was such an idealistic thing back then.
And then it all changed around 2010. The color scheme shifted to a shitty MacOS lookalike, the human elements were dropped, the logo was reworked, it got bundled with a paid music store, then Amazon ads in the search, and it's been a roller coaster on a downward spiral ever since. I switched to Debian not long after the initial enshittification in the early 2010s and have not looked back, though I moved most of my systems to Arch a few years back because I like life in the fast rolling release lane and Debian wouldn't support my new GPUs.
I got into linux right before all the snap drama really blew up (it did exist but didn't seem to be quite as hot of a topic). I really liked my experience with Ubuntu, but seeing where Canonical has taken it, I'd never recommend it to anyone. I'd honestly advise newbies to use Debian. It's incredibly stable, has a fantastic and well established community, and has everything an average user would want without adding layers of confusion with things like snap.
Ubuntu
I legit thought that was about to be the joke he was going for at first.
snap instead of deb
Windows, it would look like windows....
Exit codes from processes are damage points that you take against your HP. When your HP runs out, the distro reformats itself to a clean state.
Instead of reformatting it just logs you out and demands buying a Heal Crystal for 350 Linux Diamonds. You can buy Linux Diamonds in packages of 400 for just 9.99 or buy the 800 package to get a 10% discount!
Android?
I know this is a joke but "Enshittification" requires there to be a monopoly that abuses commercial customers along with users. Linux distros can't really have monopolies since the switching costs are so low.
The video actually addresses that by mentioning a company coming in nice at first and then doing EEE to kill off ll competition and leave them the only significant player in the space
it can happen if you have some form vendor lockin, or if you are an oligarch in a cartel. it doesnt need a monopoly strictly speaking.
Real question, how difficult is moving from Red Hat to SUSE?
How hard is it for you to install a different distro? That's how hard.
Updates are available for $14.99 a month.
what if you are sponsoring a dev by means of something like regular donations?
I'm ok with dropping a few bucks if I like them, but monthly is just more bills to worry about. Dropping $20 once is a lot easier than drip feeding it over a year and hoping I remember to manage it. It also comes with the expectations of delivery/trade vs buying the dude lunch.
Ads on terminal
i would have been fine with them if it was only actual announcements like canonical implied it would be. but well as it turns out it wasn't.
Made by Microsoft
Yes, that does exist, and no, it's not for consumers, but if it did, it would look and feel like an enshittified Linux distro.
We have this already. It's called Ubuntu + Gnome
Gnome isn't bad, at all. The team has caused controversy and made mistakes, but gnome's experience is great.
Talking about ubuntu, snaps suck, and it is more "bloated" than what you'd expect, but still, ubuntu isn't half bad. Is mint better for what the ubuntu audience wants? Yes. Does ubuntu still work well? Yes
And ubuntu server rocks
even with all its faults and shitty maintainers, gnome is among the best ux of any de.
Gnome isn't enshitification just because you prefer a different DE ffs
To quote Clem, head of Linux Mint: "At a time where GNOME applications are less and less designed to work anywhere else than in GNOME, a project like XApp is extremely important."
Libaidwata breaks backward compatibility with older gnome versions and amongst other things doesn't allow theming natively, so the Cinnamon team are going to have to fork off and maintain the older code which works so they can continue to have theming and stuff with Gnome apps.
Gnome seem to like doing the opposite of the Linux philosophy which says interoperability should always be a priority so that the code can be shared as freely as possible.
I can't tell whether they are stupid or lazy over at Gnome. It's not enough to strip the DE down to nothing but now even the code that worked with previous, gnome still widely used, is being dumped.
They are a little island unto themselves.
Redhat already did it
$ snips install ...snaps heh
this but unironically
Whatever SCO thought they were doing.
Like Windows.
you know windows 8?
like that
LinuxFX...
fine by me if they can imitate windows, sans all the ads, dark patterns, and shitty business model.
windows is actually a halfway decent os underneath all the enshittification crud.
sans all the ads, dark patterns, and shitty business model.
To me it's enshitification because they grabbed Linux and KDE and added all the unethical spyware on top of it, EDGE browser comes to mind...which last I checked shares you data with 927 advertising companies.. Maybe it's a higher number now..
windows is actually a halfway decent os underneath all the enshittification crud.
even that I would argue is enshitified due to all the spying stuff they put into it.. Microsoft is real life E Corp
I totally enjoyed this video!
Ensh*ttification = Capitalism. Every point, every annoyance, every spy attack, all lock-ins, and so on, is a result of that archaic sponsored belief system..
not Linux but some open-source software with premium features that have menu items with diamond icons or something like that pointing to those features. you cannot hide the menu items and it keeps sending you notifications to subscribe to an annual license.
GNU/ME
Yeah that would be terrible, imagine if you were to run some updates and the package manager went like "Get <name of the distro> Pro! You will get better updates and support"
How about the maintainers blocking a package that's included in the default repository for ideological reasons?
Huh ? Not aware of this one, which distro and package ?
Some distro that uses the Ubuntu repos blocked users from even installing snapd manually without jumping through a bunch of manual hoops. It's one thing to not preinstall it, but that reeked to me of exactly the "we know better than our users" attitude they were accusing Canonical of.
what happened on this one?
Some distro that uses the Ubuntu repos blocked users from even installing snapd manually without jumping through a bunch of manual hoops. It's one thing to not preinstall it, but that reeked to me of exactly the "we know better than our users" attitude they were accusing Canonical of.
Whatever the Steam Deck would be if Valve went full Linux desktop?
Anything with systemd, flatpak and any other type of vendor lock-in.
Might as well use Windows at that point
"Old man yells at cloud"
I solved this by symlinking
/sbin/initto POSIXsh. It may take 7 hours to start up all my services, but by golly, I know and vetted exactly what's running on my box! /s