[Link and Commentary] My Linux love has ended

jnv over at BearBlog wrote a rather personal post titled "My Linux love had ended," and it's one I highly recommend reading if you have time. However, what hits me is that it's so similar to my own experiences as of late.

Their first point about drama in the Linux and FOSS community has definitely been hitting my ears and eyes for a while. Things have been a bit iffy since I started using it back around the early 2000s, but the last decade or so has been one incident after another. It's become less about the code, and more about political posturing and taking sides around nearly everything. I've seen people get accusations thrown at them, and without hesitation, they've been thrown out of communities with little investigation or verification. That's not even counting the number of people who've left from extreme burnout thanks to demanding users and a severe lack of funding or respect.

There's also this push for encouraging the drama constantly among various aspects of the community. From news sites who give play-by-plays, to YouTube commentary constantly adding more fuel to the fire, it feeds itself almost on purpose. Not to mention everything on social media, but that I avoid for the most part, outside of people just bringing it up in front of me.

jnv goes on to talk about other things involving social media, but this quote caught my attention very quickly:

I still like technology and continue to be drawn to the retro scene more than ever. Perhaps it is the simple use that hardware had or the nostalgia of it all. I don't put much thought into why but it makes me feel good again.

This very thing is something I've been going through as well. I'm much happier toying around with virtual machines and emulation of old hardware on my MacBook Pro, or even using retro hardware, because it's calming compared to what I've gone through with modern software (Linux included) over the last few years alone. I enjoy watching people working on old hardware, like Shelby of Tech Tangents and his amazing Data General Nova saga that he's been livestreaming, or Steve of Mac84 and the old Macs he works on. I enjoy seeing people play around with old software, and seeing new software for old operating systems.

But yeah. jnv's post kinda gave me the affirmation I needed that it isn't just a me problem when it comes to everything going on. I feel relieved to know I'm not the only one tired of the drama and BS going on in FOSS space (among other things).