Debian 9 Stretch Stable Is Released! Check Out The New Features

The argument for lesser rather than more distros has been an ongoing one since at least the turn of the millennium. It runs parallel to the desire of some in the political realm that lesser number of political parties and the ideologies they represent is better i.e. lesser confusion and need to be informed about them for the average Joe or Mary on the street. We live in a world where the opinion of one or a few often matters not to another in a different part of town let alone the world at large. I don’t ever think I’ll get see a future where the number of distros get reduced to be but a handful from the present hundreds even thousands. Many of them do serve specific, niche needs e.g. cloud computing, penetration testing, old, dated hardware, multimedia production, hobbyist, etc. No one distro will ever be the catch-all and end all.

As with the commandline, I encountered a dude on an Arch-related channel on the freenode irc network who argued that there is no place for the obscurity, technical complexity even existential need for anything to do with the CLI in this the new millennium. He says asking any a would-be newcomer coming from the Windows or Mac operating systems to even get to know the commandline is tantamount to demanding someone who just wants to be driving to get to know the internals of e.g. engine combustion. I will say I find that argument misleading. While you do not need to be an expert on engine combustion, the inability to differentiate the brakes from the accelerator or lacking an understanding of highway code, driving regulations and road etiquette I think will be impediment s (not insurmountable), no?

The Linux ecosystem is simply a different one to Windows and Mac OS. The differences between Linux and Windows and Mac is equivalent to the differences between countries say Bolivia and France; the USA and Iran; India & Pakistan. Bar the fact that people regardless of their country of origin, race, language, religion, socioeconomic class, caste and lifestyle preference all bleed red when cut opened, the laws, customs, traditions, mores, values, habits, attitudes are different between countries. Similarly for the OSes, over the years of near independent (bar a few negligible projects at inter-OS cooperation mainly dealing with compatibility) development, all 3 OSes have evolved separately. So learn to live with it. If you can’t or won’t accept the differences or that there is a need for differences, as with the saying if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen, here similarly, don’t like an OS or distro because it forces you out of your comfort zone, then stick to your comfort zone and continue using the OS or distro you enjoy. You have a choice and I’m for choice over the lack of choice anytime, anywhere :).