Linux Is Losing Its Way — And No One Seems to Care

July 19, 2025 | Articles

I've been using computers for over 30 years. My first was an Atari, which I used for audio production before offloading the task to professional workstations like the Roland W30 and later the Kurzweil K2000S. This freed up my computer for what eventually became my main focus: Linux-based web design, and later, software development and 3D work using tools like Blender.

From around 2000 until 2022, Linux went through an incredible period of growth. It became fast, polished, and versatile—a real alternative to commercial operating systems. But starting around 2022, something changed. Progress slowed. Decisions became erratic. Things that used to work just… stopped working.

And what's worse: no one in the Linux world seems willing to admit it.

Where Things Started Breaking

In the past, I could install Blender and it would "just work." Today, Blender often fails to detect my NVIDIA GPU on Linux without time-consuming troubleshooting. Fedora, once one of the most polished distributions, refuses to install on certain USB sticks due to obscure dracut errors—errors that never existed before.

Then came the audio issues. Distros like Manjaro, CachyOS, and EndeavourOS developed a persistent hissing noise in their audio output. Debian and Ubuntu weren't affected, but the pattern was becoming clear: the cracks were spreading.

At one point, my system would experience monthly screen glitches where the screen would fill with garbled noise. Thankfully, that seems to have been resolved in the last six months—but it's telling that such a severe issue was ever allowed to exist for that long.

My Dell PC Is Now Unusable with Linux

I own a Dell Inspiron 5680 with an Intel i7-8700 and NVIDIA GTX 1070—still a powerful machine. It ran Linux flawlessly for years. But now? Linux can no longer handle suspend/resume properly. When waking from sleep, only one of the CPU's 12 threads becomes active.

No fix. No workaround. No explanation.

Windows 11, on the other hand, handles it without issue. It uses all 12 threads. It just works.

Let that sink in: I have to use Windows, because Linux no longer functions on the same hardware it once ruled on.

Windows Isn't Great—But It Works

Do I like Windows? Absolutely not. It's bloated. It's manipulative. Every year it becomes more invasive.

But thanks to brilliant tools like Chris Titus's Windows Utility and Rufus, I can disable the junk, remove the telemetry, and actually use the system efficiently. I can tune Windows to be more performant than most modern Linux distros—and that's just depressing.

The Hall of Fame: What Good Software Looks Like

"Let's be clear: I'm not against modern tech. I'm against bad software, and today, bad software is everywhere, including in the Linux ecosystem.

But a handful of titles stand out. They remind me what software should be: intuitive, respectful, powerful.

Everything else? Functional, perhaps. Even excellent in isolated cases. But not genius. Not intuitive. Not brilliant.

Today's Linux: Same GNOME, Different Logo

Every distro today is just a variation of the same thing: GNOME + Wayland + PipeWire + systemd. Endless repackaging. Endless regressions.

Take openSUSE Tumbleweed. I installed it, cleaned up the bloat, and configured it just right. Then, a daily update reinstalled all the apps I had deleted. Yes, I understand "patterns." Yes, I understand "taboo packages." But I don't accept wasting time on a distro that doesn't respect user choice.

So I returned to Manjaro GNOME Minimal Edition. It's not perfect—but for now, it's the least broken option.

The Only Bright Spot? AI.

The real revolution isn't happening in Linux. It's happening in AI.

While Linux development stalls behind bureaucracy and regressions, AI tooling is sprinting ahead—opening doors once reserved for elite developers. Tasks that used to demand hours of bash scripting or deep system tweaks can now be resolved with a single prompt to an AI assistant.

We're generating code, customizing workflows, repairing broken dependencies, and bypassing layers of poorly documented legacy—without waiting for upstream patches. It's not hype. It's a shift in power.

AI is delivering what open source once promised:

In fact, many of us now use AI models to write missing Linux documentation, troubleshoot obscure errors, and even rebuild our own minimalist distros. Where Linux once gave us the tools to take control, AI is now giving us the means to understand and expand those tools, faster and more intuitively than ever.

This isn't a rejection of open source. It's a reawakening of the original promise—driven not by ideology, but by utility.

When Devotion Dies

In 1999, while working for IBM Canada, I discovered Linux. It was love at first sight. I've spent decades building ever‑faster PCs, running Linux across the board, loving the freedom, the performance, the elegance.

But that era is over.

Modern hardware is throttled by endless security mitigations. Software is increasingly bland, fragile, and indistinguishable. The soul of Linux—the passion, the innovation, the obsession with doing things right—has been replaced by conformity and shortcuts.

If this doesn't change, I can see where it's heading: Linux won't run all my machines. It'll live in a single UTM virtual machine, a ghost of its former glory.

Hopefully, someone out there understands how to steer this ship before it sinks.

Because if Linux loses users like me—users who stuck with it through thick and thin—it won't be long before there's no one left to care.

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