IMHO Linux has not lost its way but most of the Distros have.

Back when I discovered Linux and the Linux Desktop I was like a fat kid
at the Free Candy Store.
I'd read about something find it slightly interesting or think I might
be able to use it in the future and add it to my installation.

Back then it was a battle of dependencies and even the order to install
them and sorting out something simple could take hours to figure out for
this newb.

I'd start with a simple install add X and then grow a monster, packed
with applications I'd probably never use or when I needed them I forget
they were there or what they did.

Eventually I came to my senses started using Debian with Apt-get,
decided that less was more, but I knew I also had the biggest candy
store at my disposal if I needed it and life was good.

Now I look at it and most Distros and their default installs are
catering to that fat kid at the Free Candy Store and loading up with
tons of crap, menus a mile long and you don't have to download it
because it is either already there or in the eyes of the Store Owner you
shouldn't want it. It becomes a battle between Distros of who includes
what as default and who has the latest version in an attempt to prove
their superiority.

Now the much maligned, systemd, network-manager (fingers still want to
type mangler), pulseaudio (spit), avahi etc. all cater to the ease of
Distro stuffing and the shopping mall mall type sameness.

The rest of us who want to be able to pick and choose now have the
foundations used to suspend these giant turd Distro defaults forced upon
us.

I don't blame Linux, I don't blame the devs, I blame the Distro
packagers, marketeers and the target demographic, the stupid (expletive
deleted) fat kids.


Clarke