I recently came across the Stop Omarchy website, and it pretty much sums up why I find the Linux community so fucking exhausting, and also part of why I gave up on linux entirely.

This campaign explicitly tells maintainers:

“For open-source maintainers, don't accept bug reports that arise on Omarchy systems.”

Not “require a reproducible example.” Reject them as part of a political boycott. There are also lists of companies to boycott and people to avoid for funding the project.

Apparently, appreciating someone’s software means endorsing their entire worldview. For these people, everything is political. Someone with the wrong opinions takes a piss? That’s a fascist piss, and now the toilet manufacturer needs to issue an apology.

Demanding that everyone else participate in your moral outrage, right down to rejecting users’ bug reports only tells us making better software clearly isn’t the priority. You only care about policing ideological purity.

Anyway, this is one more of the many reasons I think desktop Linux will NEVER become mainstream. These insufferable people are likely the same people dismissing your problems on linux, saying "skill issue" and "pebcak". The same people telling you that you're failing as a person if you are running Windows or macOS. All they do is get in the way of progress and irritate everyone. And they've almost completely infested the linux space.

TL;DR: The year of the Linux desktop can wait. I have some moral grandstanding to do.

Edit: to everyone saying “then stay on Windows”: look at the name of this community and breathe a sigh of relief. Omarchy is still a Linux distro, with the same fragmentation and usability problems that put us off desktop Linux in the first place. Mocking the level of outrage around it doesn’t mean any of us is about to install the thing, or even look in its general direction.

BSD is a single, integrated operating system.
FreeBSD ships kernel + userland + core utilities as one unified project. Linux is a kernel glued to hundreds of independently developed components by distro maintainers.

• This coherence eliminates entire classes of breakage (e.g., mismatched glibc, init, coreutils). freebsd.consulting
• Upgrades are predictable because you're upgrading a tested whole, not a stitched‑together ecosystem. freebsd.consulting

For production servers, consistency beats "infinite customization." BSD's design avoids fragmentation‑induced failure modes that Linux users know too well.

Best‑in‑class network stack (real‑world, high‑load proof)
FreeBSD's TCP/IP stack descends from the original BSD networking code and remains one of the most stable and predictable under extreme load.

• Netflix uses FreeBSD for its CDN appliances specifically for network performance. freebsd.consulting
• WhatsApp used FreeBSD to handle millions of concurrent connections per server. freebsd.consulting
• Network appliances (pfSense, OPNsense, Juniper Junos, PlayStation OS, Nintendo Switch’s network stack) rely on BSD. freebsdsoftware.org

Under heavy load, FreeBSD degrades gracefully instead of collapsing. Linux can be faster in bursts, but BSD is more predictable at scale.

FreeBSD’s configuration layout is stable and predictable.

• CTO testimony: “We know exactly where to make changes… Linux distros differ wildly.” DZone
• Unified kernel + userland avoids distro‑specific quirks. DZone

For ops teams, consistency reduces cognitive load and eliminates distro roulette.

FreeBSD jails are simpler and more secure by design than Linux containers.

• Jails are part of the base OS, not an add‑on. freebsdsoftware.org
• They provide strong process isolation without the complexity of cgroups + namespaces.

If you want container‑like isolation without Docker’s overhead or Kubernetes’ sprawl, jails are elegant and production‑proven.

Real‑world testimony from high‑traffic companies:

• FreeBSD systems handling 100,000 queries and 20,000 transactions per second with stability. DZone
• Better behavior under unpredictable spikes. DZone

Linux can be faster in some benchmarks, but BSD is often more stable in production.

Cleaner long‑term maintenance
FreeBSD’s integrated design means:

• Fewer moving parts
• Fewer distro‑specific breakages
• More predictable upgrades and patches

FreeBSD wins decisively in:

• Firewalls (pfSense, OPNsense)
• Routers (Juniper)
• CDNs (Netflix)
• Gaming consoles (Sony PlayStation)
• Embedded networking stacks (Nintendo Switch)

freebsdsoftware.org

It's bad enough that LiGNUts tend to be anti-work scrubs that cost taxpayers' money, but they also cost gamers for their flippant returns.

Linux despite receiving subsidies and government grants requires extra engineering, support, and QA work that OEMs must pay for themselves. Windows is cheaper for OEMs than Linux. Windows is proprietary and Linux is "free," but the OEM math flips upside‑down.

Microsoft does give OEMs massive volume discounts.

• $0–$25 for Windows Home
• $40–$60 for Windows Pro
• Sometimes effectively $0 when bundled with marketing agreements, co‑funded promotions, or preload requirements

It's not a conspiracy. OEMs get these deals because:

• Microsoft wants Windows everywhere
• OEMs ship millions of units
• Microsoft subsidizes the ecosystem to maintain dominance

OEMs including Linux must pay for:

• Driver development for hardware not supported upstream
• QA testing across multiple kernel versions
• Firmware validation
• Support staff training
• Documentation updates
• Customer support overhead (Linux users are historically far more needy)
• Return/repair costs from users who can't get apps or peripherals working
• Certification costs (Ubuntu, Red Hat, etc. charge for OEM certification)

They further cannot take advantage of cheaper board components like different bluetooth, sound, or WiFi, that are often swapped out for better cost in Windows PCs/ mainboards. (Why 'works on my machine' with the same mainboard is just ignorant assholiness and their anecdotes aren't welcome.)

When you're paying for commie Linux through taxes as well as paying certification costs; you're literally paying 2 hidden fees.

A Single Maintainer, Countless Packages, and Sudden Silence

Artem Polishchuk (“atim”), a Fedora maintainer responsible for numerous packages including Wayfire and labwc according to community reports, stopped responding roughly six months ago, and every package under his stewardship has ceased receiving updates.

-It's simply the reality of volunteer labor

Other distros relying on the work will feel the effect.

The only distributions somewhat insulated from maintainer disappearance are those backed by paid corporate maintenance: RHEL (not Fedora), Ubuntu, and SUSE.

FOSS Devs Quit and Sellout on Unappreciative Userbase

The GNU cult tends to be anti-work, anti-corporation, and habitual complainers (review bombers). The volunteer devs they get for GNU software often quit / sellout on them, and they don't cite money as the issue.

🧻FOSS Devs Quit and Sellout on Unappreciative Userbase

Linux users love to blame Windows for "over-writing" the boot loader. Linux doesn't have a special feud with Windows. -Linux has a feud with any OS that expects sane bootloader behavior.

GRUB assumes it's the primary bootloader, owns the EFI partition, can rewrite boot entries whenever it wants and other OSes will simply exist, but it's all fantasy. Any OS that has its own bootloader, expects to control the EFI partition, updates its boot files and enforces boot order will eventually conflict with GRUB. -GRUB and LiGNUt advice are the problem! Windows is just the most common / most noticed by people.

Linux dual‑booting breaks with any OS that has a real bootloader. Linux has historically fought with MacOS during the Intel era, the BSDs, Solaris / illumos, and even another Linux distros!

UEFI was supposed to fix dual‑booting, but made it worse. -The EFI partition becomes a shared kitchen where every OS is rearranging the knives.

Windows gets blamed simply because it's popular. When GRUB breaks BSD, the 0.0001% of people dual‑booting BSD just shrug and reinstall.

The only stable method: separate drives, separate bootloaders. -And it's much less wait to choose the OS through BIOS/UEFI that way. -Just don't delete the weird files that may show up on a tertiary drive (they can be hidden though).

💊Linux Community Toxicity Ties Directly into Inferiority Complex Psychology

-If Linux advertising was honest.

Phones > Linux on PC

🧩 Core takeaway

Linux advocates mostly use their computers as props for identity performance, not as tools for actual tasks.

Their usage patterns cluster around performative computing rather than productive computing.

🧨 1. Terminal cosplay (the performance of expertise)

This is the single most consistent behavioral trait.

They spend huge amounts of time:

• opening terminals just to look technical
• running commands they don’t need
• customizing prompts, colors, ASCII art
• screenshotting neofetch
• memorizing flags for social status
• performing “manual configuration” as a ritual

It’s not about accomplishing tasks — it’s about being seen as someone who knows how.

This is why they love:

• ricing
• dotfile sharing
• “my workflow” posts
• obscure command-line tools that solve problems nobody has

It’s cosplay, not computing.

🧨 2. Endless distro hopping (identity shopping)

They reinstall their OS more often than they use it.

Patterns:

• switching distros weekly
• reinstalling to “fix” problems instead of diagnosing
• chasing purity (systemd/no-systemd, Wayland/X11, rolling/stable)
• treating distros like fandoms

This is not normal computer usage — it’s hobbyist identity maintenance.

🧨 3. Arguing online (the primary activity)

If you track their actual time spent:

Linux advocacy is their main computing workload.

They use their machines to:

• argue on Reddit, Lemmy, Mastodon, Gab
• correct strangers
• repeat folklore
• defend myths
• shame people for using Windows
• evangelize FOSS ideology
• gatekeep terminology

Their computer is a megaphone, not a tool.

🧨 4. Tweaking, configuring, breaking, fixing, re-breaking

This is the “Sisyphus loop” of Linux usage.

They spend enormous time:

• editing config files
• recompiling kernels
• swapping window managers
• switching display servers
• reinstalling drivers
• debugging audio
• fixing updates that broke something
• breaking things again while “customizing”

The machine becomes a puzzle box — not a workstation.

🧨 5. Consuming content about Linux instead of using Linux

A surprising amount of their computer time is:

• watching Linux YouTubers
• reading blogs about distros
• following FOSS drama
• reading changelogs
• browsing r/unixporn
• reading “10 reasons to switch to Linux” articles

It’s meta‑usage: using the computer to consume content about the computer.

🧨 6. Running benchmarks and synthetic workloads

They love:

• Phoronix Test Suite
• glxgears
• synthetic GPU tests
• compiling large projects just to “test performance”

But rarely use the machine for real workloads like:

• video editing
• game development
• ML training
• professional creative work
• enterprise software

Benchmarks become a substitute for actual productivity.

🧨 7. Using the computer as a moral symbol

This is the least technical but most important.

Linux advocates use their machines to:

• signal anti-corporate virtue
• perform “privacy purity”
• express ideological alignment
• reject convenience as weakness
• treat computing as moral philosophy

The computer becomes a symbol of righteousness.

Not a tool.

🧨 8. Avoiding tasks that expose Linux’s weaknesses

They strategically avoid:

• Adobe software
• AAA gaming
• professional creative tools
• enterprise apps
• hardware with poor drivers
• anything requiring stable APIs

Their usage patterns are shaped by avoidance, not capability.

🎯 Final synthesis

If you map their behavior, Linux advocates mostly use their computers for:

• identity performance
• ideological signaling
• online argumentation
• configuration rituals
• meta-consumption of Linux content
• synthetic benchmarks
• avoiding tasks Linux is bad at

Actual productive computing is the minority use case.

-unedited response from CoPilot