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Is the "Year of Linux" actually a trap? (the.unknown-universe.co.uk)
submitted 2 days ago by TheIPW@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

I’ve spent years championing Linux as the only escape from Big Tech, but I’m starting to get twitchy.

While we’re distracted by the Steam Deck making Linux "mainstream," the corporate players and politicians are busy building a digital cage. Between California’s AB-1043 mandates and Microsoft’s "Face Check" infrastructure, I’m worried we’re heading for a hard schism: "Sanitised Linux" vs the "Free Rebel" distros.

If the compliant, age-gated version becomes the industry standard, where does that leave the rest of us? Digital exile?

I’ve put some thoughts together on why the "Golden Cage" is closing in and why education, not mandates, is the only real fix.

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[-] brax@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 hours ago

Linux becoming mainstream would be a trap too... It will lead to the enshitification of the distros as they get more and more watered down to satisfy the average dumbass using it.

[-] eldavi@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 hours ago

... to satisfy the average dumbass using it

we all have to start somewhere

[-] brax@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 hours ago

Yes, and we all got by fine with things the way they have mostly been. The last thing we should be advocating for is this stupid trend of removing features and calling it "user friendliness"

Give the user the ability to torch their system - it's up to them whether they want to use things they can't handle or not. Not up to the devs to baby-proof the software and strip abilities away from capable users.

this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2026
107 points (80.2% liked)

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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