Remember that cat that came by and hung out with me? Turns out she’s a total ho. Just comes around when she feels like it. It’s nice to have the company once in a while without the responsibility of caring for her, but I miss my family.
I bring this up because the way I feel about Cleo, the cat, is how I feel about Linux after living with it for a couple weeks: It was a lovely little tryst, but I need a system I can count on. I have too much invested in the hardware to fuck around with the software. And it’s disappointing, because I really like both the cat and the OS.
Open source software is a lot like independent music in the last decade or so in that you really can’t expect regular updates if you don’t want to pay for it. The authors just move on and leave their library to collect dust in an obscure repository until it doesn’t work with the hardware anymore.
And the niche fans cash their check after work, lament their loss, and blame the hardware manufacturers.