vacuumflower

Nobody and nothing living forever is one of the reasons centralization is bad. But humans sadly like to flock.

RH is approaching the end of its life cycle. First they were hackers. Then they became a useful and aspiring business. Then RPM-based distributions were what made Linux not marginal anymore (though probably this also has something to do with Mandrake's success). Then they became something in the center of things, connected to everything happening with Linux and other Unix-like systems (at least on desktop). Then they realized that and started milking that slowly. Then they became arrogant.

The GPL gives you that right, but RH still has the right to cancel your subscription (under this agreement) and not give you anything further under GPL conditions.

So technically (legally) it's fine and they are in their right, but RH has been doing lots of stuff recently (and not so recently) which I feel is combative and divisive, at the same time presenting their opposition as combative and divisive (the way they've been promoting Gnome 3 and Wayland and PA and SystemD and so on, trying to present everybody who doesn't like these things as a flat-eather or a conservative, and discarding any critique in a tone one shouldn't allow), using classic propaganda means at that. So they are not acting in good faith, and any reliance on them is bad.

No, it's a different OS not intended as an alternative to Windows in any other sense that it's a desktop OS too.

But it won't be hard if you start with something common, like openSUSE or Debian.

You mean that RH hates ergonomics? Agreed here.

About the function of systemd (or docker, or pulseaudio, or gnome 3, or wayland) - well, I don't need it, but I understand the usual arguments of its proponents. It does solve problems other init systems don't. Only it's such a PITA to use that I'm a Void Linux user.

Especially sad considering that this was entirely different in the Gnome 2 times.

That's to be free of discrimination by the state, which usually will treat your obligations independently of your rights.

While private discrimination is always something in the grey area. By private discrimination I mean both a banner saying " are not welcome here" and having face control (something quite normal for night clubs, and you'll also pick your tenants if you rent out).

RH is the maintainer\developer of great many things. Of course it'd be nice for them to have good competition (like what Canonical was), so that they wouldn't use that power for evil.

Still them becoming weaker is not a case for optimism.

I'd really like something like Gentoo with official binary packages (and relevant tree), so that building from source would be an option and installing a binary package the usual way. Well, also simpler installation maybe.

I mean, Calculate Linux does that, but I think it's a Russian small-business oriented distribution, so not exactly my use case.

The whole idea of some things being protected and some not is very wrong. Rights should be a wildcard. That's the right of private discrimination as ancaps see it.

No, such daily stuff doesn't harm you, and even has the virtue of people you'd not want to depend on being more likely to show their true colors.

EDIT: I too have some Jewish relation and have thought of this.

Maybe systemd gets grouped with wayland and xorg with other init systems simply because of usability?

I mean, I got used to the thought that what I prefer is less usable, because some pretentious UX designers say so, and we Unix nerds use inconvenient things because we are all perverts.

But when I read about industrial design and ergonomics, it seems that my preferences are consistent with what I read, and all those UX designers and managers should just be fired for incompetence and malice.

Back to wayland/xorg and runit/systemd (for example), same reason FreeBSD may seem easier to set up and use than an "advanced" Linux distribution - there's less confusion.

Living in Russia, I have mixed feelings about this slow controlled collapse TBF.

For Russia itself, maybe things being over after a couple of months (or years) of civil war starting in 1999 would be better.

But for everybody else, of course, there are bigger risks associated with that. Not really something nuclear even, just economically less pleasant.

Why would it be funny?

Having a plan for an unlikely event is not funny if having such a plan is your job. There are plenty of people who should do exactly that.

Because not having a plan for an unlikely event that bloody happens is, eh, negatively funny.

As others have said, lack of privacy is what makes BitTorrent not the best tool.

Other things may be inconvenient (like good old XDCC or using Google Disk for piracy), or "invisible Joe" (like ed2k, gnutella and Usenet, due to all of these just not being sufficiently monitored by law enforcement or neighbors interested in your porn taste) cases.

And Freenet, I2P (with iMule and what else there is, there was some sharing thing similar to ed2k in experience), RetroShare are not sufficiently popular.

In general good things are not popular.

My point is, let's wait for Locutus and whether it succeeds in transforming the Web.