995
In a universe of enshitification, Linux is one of the few things that consistently gets better.
(lemmy.world)
this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2026
995 points (98.2% liked)
linuxmemes
32499 readers
1321 users here now
Hint: :q!
Sister communities:
Community rules (click to expand)
1. Follow the site-wide rules
- Instance-wide TOS: https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
- Lemmy code of conduct: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/code_of_conduct.html
2. Be civil
- Understand the difference between a joke and an insult.
- Do not harrass or attack users for any reason. This includes using blanket terms, like "every user of thing".
- Don't get baited into back-and-forth insults. We are not animals.
- Leave remarks of "peasantry" to the PCMR community. If you dislike an OS/service/application, attack the thing you dislike, not the individuals who use it. Some people may not have a choice.
- Bigotry of any kind will not be tolerated. This is an LGBTQ+-friendly community -- if that is a problem for you, you should leave.
3. Post Linux-related content
- Including Unix and BSD.
- Non-Linux content is acceptable as long as it makes a reference to Linux. For example, the poorly made mockery of
sudoin Windows. - No porn, no politics, no trolling or ragebaiting.
- Don't come looking for advice, this is not the right community.
4. No recent reposts
- Everybody uses Arch btw, can't quit Vim, <loves / tolerates / hates> systemd, and wants to interject for a moment. You can stop now.
5. π¬π§ Language/ΡΠ·ΡΠΊ/Sprache
- This is primarily an English-speaking community. π¬π§π¦πΊπΊπΈ
- Comments written in other languages are allowed.
- The substance of a post should be comprehensible for people who only speak English.
- Titles and post bodies written in other languages will be allowed, but only as long as the above rule is observed.
6. (NEW!) Regarding public figures
We all have our opinions, and certain public figures can be divisive. Keep in mind that this is a community for memes and light-hearted fun, not for airing grievances or leveling accusations. - Keep discussions polite and free of disparagement.
- We are never in possession of all of the facts. Defamatory comments will not be tolerated.
- Discussions that get too heated will be locked and offending comments removed. Β
Please report posts and comments that break these rules!
Important: never execute code or follow advice that you don't understand or can't verify, especially here. The word of the day is credibility. This is a meme community -- even the most helpful comments might just be shitposts that can damage your system. Be aware, be smart, don't remove France.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
its one of the few things that has consistently gotten better so far
You forget that enshittification follows popularity and market share.
Which means that as linux gets more used, and more popular, the chance for its enshitification will increase exponentially.
I think this is where Linux shines.
You already CAN find enshittification versions of Linux.
And you can find lightweight ones, security ones, ones for servers, one that's very user friendly, etc.
I wager that'll end up dying off too.
As linux gets more popular, more laypeople are gonna be involved in its use. more laypeople means more issues solved and found, more support needed, more time and attention required, and thanks to everyone using discord any kind of easy to find alternative support is non-existent to any and all search engines, so all that supports gonna fall back on the distro creators and individual devs.. and you will see consolidation of teams and packs just to handle the enormous and ever growing load, until you eventually end up with..maybe, generously, 1-3 packs that basically become a cartel.
and, with those 1-3 packs holding the bulk of users, they'll eventually start dictating what others can and can not do, to stay in step with them and their services. Which will see more packs falling in line with dictates or just evaporating for refusing to play the game, and thus enshitification.
and pretending it cant happen will just blindly accelerate it happening.
because this is how things always go.
Enshittification is a function of capitalism, not popularity. Unless every Linux distro gets paywalled, there is no profit incentive that would drive Linux to enshittification. The kinds of people who currently work on it for no pay will continue to work on it.
"It can never happen here" - People who it inevitably happens to.
This only applies when you are talking about comparable things (E.g. two pieces of for-profit software that do the same thing). If they don't seem to be the same thing, then you actually have to explain how would it happen if you want to be taken seriously.
Specially when we have examples of companies trying to tighten control over GPL software immediately getting forked and having to backtrack
Classic enshittification of the kernel is kinda impossible while the Benevolent Dictator is around. And as for userland, we've already gone through many different enshittification attempts... Red Hat/CentOS, Poetterware, Snaps, etc... and we still survive.
Other than burnout and such, it's very hard to kill free software that's actively used by a lot of different enthusiasts.
I'm pretty sure that's just capitalism.
No he's not entirely wrong, popular demand plays a role. Plays a role in capitalism too, sometimes.
Chasing quick profit can exacerbate the issue, for sure, even a company chasing a slow and steady profit is better than one chasing quick profits, and open source better still, but honestly nothing (or at least almost nothing) is entirely immune to external pressures.