Fedora 24 Featuring GNOME 3.20, Tons Of Improvements Released (betanews.com)

After several delays, the Fedora Project on Tuesday released Fedora 24 (download link), the latest version of its Linux-based operating system. Fedora 24 brings with it a number of interesting features and changes, including the GNOME 3.20 desktop environment. The latest version of GNOME comes with media-player controls in the notification panel, and improved search feature in the Files application. New GNOME will also let you easily upgrade to Fedora 25, by simply using its Software application. There's also improved font-rendering. Among other things Fedora 24 has an upgraded version of glibc, or GNU C Library, which comes with improved performance and bug fixes across the entire operating system. You can learn more about the features at TechRepublic..

Comments

So why so much anger in the Linux community?

[Anonymous Coward]

If Fedora is so "great", why has its software caused so much anger and strife within the Linux community?

I know some people will try to downplay this anger, wrongly claiming it's the work of "a small number of trolls" or blaming it on "loudmouth neckbeards" or some other nonsense like that. But I think the problem is actually far more widespread than that.

I see so much anger over GNOME 3 and systemd here. I see so much anger about GNOME 3 and systemd at HN. I see so much anger about GNOME 3 and systemd at Reddit. I see so much anger about GNOME 3 and systemd on the numerous Linux distro mailing lists I'm subscribed to. I see so much anger about GNOME 3 and systemd in the many bug trackers that are out there. It's not isolated anger. It permeates the entire Linux community and ecosystem!

Then there are all of the people who are angry but don't express it online. I bet a lot of them just say "fuck it" to Linux. They just use FreeBSD, or OS X, or even Windows without saying a thing. This is probably why Linux's share of the desktop market is at most 2%, and that's being generous.

I've followed the Linux and open source communities for decades now, and I've never seen as much strife and outrage as I've seen lately. I've never seen so many disappointed Linux users. It's not like the old days, where Linux users were excited about new releases of major software like GNOME. Now they fear those releases, wondering what has been screwed up.

The most interesting aspect is that so much of this anger actually centers around a few specific projects: GNOME 3, systemd, and PulseAudio. They all naturally attract angry and upset comments, and the only time we see anybody say anything positive about them is in some attempt to rebut the anger expressed by somebody else!

All in all, I think that relatively small parts of the Linux ecosystem and driving away lots of users, or at the very least making them miserable, without offering any tangible benefits. This does not bode well for the future of Linux! Linux only succeeds when it's hidden away and almost invisible, like in the case of Android. Otherwise, people tend to really dislike Linux and its modern user land software.

Re:So why so much anger in the Linux community?

[LichtSpektren]

I'm not sure why you Anonymous Cowards think you're inciting any change when your troll of every single Linux-related news story has been exactly the same for the past five years, but I'll bite again.

Fedora has nothing to do with GNOME, systemd, or PulseAudio. Firstly, Fedora is developed by the Fedora Project. Secondly, GNOME is developed by the GNOME Foundation. Thirdly, systemd and PulseAudio are developed mostly by employees of Red Hat, but lots of others contribute to them, and they are distributed by freedesktop.org. You can say "oh well they're all funded by Red Hat so they're all really from the same source," but that's dubious logic. You could say the Linux kernel is Red Hat's project by the same logic.

If you hate GNOME Shell, use a different DE. I also hate it and I don't use it. If you hate PulseAudio, uninstall it and use something else to your like. If you don't like systemd, many distros still maintain SysVinit-core, or you could use Slackware or Devuan or Gentoo or CRUX because they don't ship systemd as the default init system.

Again and again you Anonymous Cowards proclaim a great upheaval over the above issues, but in real life, this doesn't seem to be the case; the user base, developer base, support base, and most clearly of all the *financials* of all the major Linux companies that ship distros with GNOME and PulseAudio and systemd (Canonical, SUSE, Red Hat, IBM, Oracle) are all doing just great.

Then there are all of the people who are angry but don't express it online. I bet a lot of them just say "fuck it" to Linux. They just use FreeBSD, or OS X, or even Windows without saying a thing. This is probably why Linux's share of the desktop market is at most 2%, and that's being generous.

The Linux desktop market share is higher than it was before systemd and GNOME 3 were widely adopted.

Re:So why so much anger in the Linux community?

[Junta]

On the Gnome 3 front, I'll agree that it's probably easier to just go with MATE desktop if you miss Gnome 2 that much. I'm sympathetic, but the fork has been pretty viable, so it's not like there's no recourse.

Similarly for pulseaudio, by and large if it is not well liked, it may be ignored. Also as something relatively 'on the fringe', it's not something I feel like RedHat as an organization particularly cares about. Network Manager is another one in this way *mostly* (non-network manager ways of managing wifi have atrophied).

systemd is a different sort of thing in a couple of ways. One is that given it's role, it is not so simply swapped out at user will. It's one of those core components that is difficult to make selectable (like kernel and glibc). As such a user doesn't have as much individual ability to opt in/out, hence the advanced vitriol, as those who dislike it have relatively little recourse than to whine.

Also, to say that RHAT isn't effectively calling the shots over systemd is slily. Of course they are. It is, at it's core, a part of their strategy. It enables some capabilities they really want for their business in providing orchestration capabilities. The leadership of systemd is within redhat. the leadership of the kernel is outside (though RHAT makes a ton of contributions, they are not the leaders). The leadership role is not some arbitrary detail, it's pretty important, *particularly* in systemd that has such a strong vision of what it wants (contrast with an open source project like openstack that kind of meanders about all over the place).

systemd has caused some headaches and there's frustration because expressing those headaches is meat with mostly useless 'me toos' or dismissive 'you are just trolling'. Not a whole lot of 'well, let's see what we can do to address the specific concerns', but instead calling out such viewpoints as just flat out wrong.

Sure, a lot of it has devolved into inane troll copy/paste posts, but there are legitimate gripes and RedHat is in a key position as the pusher of the technology to be the target of frustration.