Helix 🧬

Thaddäus Tentakel (German).

traktorlesbe

Why a tractor?

Countless FOSS maintainers have lamented that millions of users use their software and nobody donates. (Lib)Curl for example is used in countless applications, basically all of them used by huge corporations, and they get flooded with bug reports for software they don’t even maintain, AI slop merge requests and pennies in donations (excuse the hyperbole).

The lead dev of curl has some funnysad stories to tell: @[email protected] 💔🫶

I did not say I don’t want more Linux users. I just don’t want them all to switch at once and make it unbearable for “community support” to help each other and improve the ecosystem.

When everyone switches to desktop (!) Linux all of a sudden, it will make both the current users’ lives and the new users’ lives worse as the community can’t handle such a huge influx.

Organic growth is fine. You don’t need to market Linux to the masses, as that would only lead to enshittification.

I’d rather have Linux be imperfect and rough around the edges, but with sustainable, positive growth, than have everyone use Linux and flood bug trackers with so much work that maintainers give up and move to less demanding hobbies. Then the companies would take over and well, we know how it ends (see Windows 11).

The more people that use linux the more donations it gets from people

I don’t know if that’s true.

Also if you think linux is so awesome isn’t it nice to other people to share that awesomeness with them?

Sure, but I won’t force it onto them. They can choose to use it.

Do you know what consent is?

Why should I care? Linux has enough users as it is, development is sustainable. I don’t want all users to switch at once because that would flood forums with noobs asking silly questions.

It’s their loss if they don’t use Linux. Why should I encourage them to do so? Just to have some shitty Electron apps more which I don’t use?

It’s much more painful for me that the places I work at don’t use Linux. They won’t be swayed by such an article anyway.