Today I spent my entire day working with Gimp on Linux —
What a fucking idiotic name for a software, and what a fucking correct it is, it’s literally the worst interface I’ve ever seen on any platform. Change this idiotic name, improve the interface, and you’d get a very strong graphical editor not much worse (if at all) than Photoshop, you dorks.
And playing with a graphical editor in Linux, I realised I don’t care whether it is cross-platform or not. Previously, when I used proprietary operating systems, I treated any software as whether it’s worth my time to invest my resources into it, by evaluating whether it is available on other operating systems. That cross-platformness, it allowed jumping ships. I heavily used Adobe Creative Suite on Windows, but then I switched to macOS. And upon switching, nothing bad happened, I could use the software I mastered.
These days, being a Linux user, I take pleasure in the system being open-source, and the entire software stack being open-source too. Or, free and open-source, as it’s commonly named. Also, there is this name, libre software.
I assume the same would apply for FreeBSD and other BSDs too, but I just have very little experience with them. However, enough to know I can switch my system for FreeBSD pretty easily. There’s some difference, and I’d need to learn some new concepts (jails?), but overall, I can transfer all the experience I have.
Today, I realised that on Linux, I just don’t care about Windows or macOS any more! Will Gimp work on Windows or macOS? I know it will, but I don’t care. Same with Krita, Blender, my browser of choice (I use Firefox), my window manager (I love sway), my graphical file manager (I adore Nautilus), my video player (mpv), my terminal emulator (foot). I don’t care whether they are available on Windows or macOS. I’d like them to work on FreeBSD, because I consider this system to become my main desktop system one day, but made not for 100% of my machines. But also I know that most of Linux software works on FreeBSD.
Technically, I see no perspectives with Linux becoming hostile. I assume we’d be able to recompile our own kernel without bloat when needed. If needed. That’s why I mostly don’t care whether the software I use is available on other platforms. While I can imagine giving up and returning to macOS on a laptop (only because of their MacBooks), I cannot imagine a scenario I’d use Windows ever again in my life.
And so, if some software is heavily dependent on, say, systemd, like Gnome is, I have no issues with that. Sad there’s no support for FreeBSD now (and alpine, and some other systemd-less systems), but it’s still no Windows.
I’m willing to study Blender, and I think It’s available on Windows and macOS. But what’s the point? If you need maximum resources for 3D, why would you ever consider using Windows for that? Feels incredibly stupid. I can understand macOS, because of their hardware. But again, in heavy workloads, I expect a loaded Threadripper paired with a dedicated powerful GPU to utilise the software much better.
I wonder, will dropping these other platforms simplify software development for Linux?