alt Hacker NewsLinux has been going down hill, but since you can choose distributions, there is an escape hatch.
I’ve been moving all my machines to devuan with xfce (or freebsd with xfce).
I have zero issues despite not having to deal with wayland, systemd, snap, etc.
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Yup, that's the benefit. To each their own on Linux. I absolutely love Wayland and Systemd (snap... not so much), but no one is forcing me to use them or not use them, and that's the way I like it.
Exactly. In a broad sense, 'Linux' is an idea not a specific thing. I mean, yes, there is a specific kernel but beyond that it is flexible beyond reason.
I have stuck with distros that are not trying to chase the latest trends but keep a ethical high ground.
I'm not a kernel plumber, but I don't think Wayland, systemd or snap are necessarily part of Linux whatsoever.
You might think that desktop environments are going downhill (which is a fair opinion), but Steam reports an all-time high adoption of desktop Linux in 2026: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/
I could not disagree more. I have been using linux for about 15 years. Linux is better now than it ever was.
CachyOS was the one who moved me from Ubuntu/Debian based distros.