Linux will win the desktop

`3:38:45`

Linux on the desktop-... every year. Next year again.

`3:38:58`

Not only can I see it, I find it to be the most probable outcome at this point. It is simply too well-suited for the moment. And again, as we talked about, it's a great irony that all the flaws of Linux, the arcane config files, all the strange error messages and so on should just so happen to be the perfect thing for an agentic operating system. But so it is, and we should rejoice that fate has this irony, and just laugh at it. How... It's so funny to me that all the advantages that Apple had for the longest time-... that they produced this really locked down, curated experience should become their greatest drawback now. If you're into agents and development and working with all this stuff, the Mac is just a hostile place to be. It just has walls all over the place. And Linux is simply open through and through. And it's also interesting because that was not obvious either. If you look at the way a lot of the Linux communities, open source communities, have reacted to AI, it is not universal love. I would argue that the majority of them are actually, if not skeptical, then outright hostile-... to AI. Now, the saving grace is that the BDFL himself, Linus-... Torvalds, just wrote a few weeks ago that he actually welcomes AI.

`3:40:35`

He wants to steer it. He wants to make sure it's good and whatever, but I- the line was something if you think, uh, Linux is an anti-AI project, think again, and you should just do the open source thing and fork it, because we're gonna use AI. And you see these graphs of the number of AI contributions going into the kernel, and it's a parabolic curve. So Linux is leaning hard into this. And, It actually in other ways it was surprising that it didn't. Linux conquered everything else. All the AI infrastructure that everyone runs off, it's all running on Linux. All the systems, all the servers, everything is Linux. So it was kind of a curiosity that the desktop and the personal computers we were using really hadn't been captured, but clearly it was just waiting for this moment. Linux spent the time from '91 to now waiting for agents to fully flourish as an end user operating system.

`3:41:41`

I think it's hard for people to switch when there's not a compelling reason to do so. This was one of the driving design goals for Omarchy. It was not gonna be Timo Windows or Timo Mac. It was not just gonna be a cheap copy where we try to make it as familiar as possible and then kinda worse. I mean, if I was being unkind, I would say that's what Ubuntu has tried to do. And there's something in that, or there was something in that at least, where if you make something really familiar, you can get some people who don't wanna learn something new, and then maybe they'll be compelled about your, whatever, free as in speech, not as in beer stuff. And it just didn't pan out that way. People just didn't care. They just wanted whatever was better. And I think this is why Linux now has the opportunity to win. Because as an agentic operating system, as a malleable operating system, you can tailor to your desires, it is unparalleled. And that is so compelling, and I can see it now. Just since the release of Quattro, the amount of people who have embraced that aspect of it, the malleability, started making their own things, sharing screenshot of it, and being absolute just, Flooded with positive emotions and dopamine-... is, that's the product market fit signal, right? Because what a lot of these individuals are experienced, they're experiencing the very high of what the best of being a programmer is like.

You tell the computer these arcane commands, this rigid logical structure, and it produces what you want. Now suddenly, you sit down and in plain English ramble for 20 minutes. "Oh, it'd be great if it did that. Actually, no, that's not right. Let us..." And out comes software. Out comes an operating system shaped in your image. I think that is one of those experiences that if you have it, you've... If you feel that power in your hands, it's very difficult to go back.

`3:43:58`

Yes. This is how computers were always meant to be. This is how computers started. The Commodore 64, you turn it on. First of all, it boots in a second. Amazing. Second of all, it boots straight into BASIC. It was the malleable computer from the get-go. It just so happened that you needed to know hieroglyphs-... to be able to take advantage of that. Now we've translated it. Agents have given us the Rosetta Stone, and you can simply just speak your desires and- And so they are

`3:44:45`

The perseverance and the commitment and the longevity is truly remarkable. Again, Linus started in '91. He hasn't stopped. I don't know, he's probably taken some breaks along the way. It doesn't seem obvious that there was that many of them. It seems like he just really likes the flow of doing kernel development. He really likes steering where this 40 million line code base is going. He really likes aggregating the net capacity of hundreds of thousands of contributors, and we, as beneficiaries of that, must just sit back and marvel. I mean, at this point, Linux is a system. Like, if Linus stepped out for a while, it would continue to, to go, but it's still one of those protect this man at all cost.

`3:45:41`

Yes, not only AI, they're letting Rust into the kernel too. I know that was a controversial one too. He has this capacity to look at new information-... and arrive at different conclusions.

`3:46:02`

I think the world has gotten too bland. We need a little spice.

`3:46:08`

Now, I think there's a fine line between being spicy and mean. But it has to be in a good spirit. You can be harsh, let's put it that way. If you're trying to impart a lesson to someone you believe could actually learn it-... I actually don't think it's always the worst thing in the world to be a little harsh. Sometimes that lesson sticks, and I think if you talk to people who've worked for difficult leaders, Elon, Steve Jobs, maybe even Bill Gates, many of them afterwards would go like, "These were some very difficult years-... but also some of the very best." "They got the best out of me." Now, I don't think it's my style. I mean, maybe people I interact with feel differently, but in personal interactions, I try and get to the outcome and the lesson in a less abrasive way. But I also think we need some spice in this world. We need unreasonable people, and Linus has justification to be unreasonable. In many instances, the weight of the world is literally on that man's shoulders. The Linux kernel runs the entire civilized society. If the Linux kernel suddenly disappeared tomorrow, nothing would work. So if he's not harsh when that's at stake or at risk, like when ever would you be harsh? So I feel sometimes also there's a proportionality to the size of your mission. This is also why I think these stories about Elon sometimes perhaps being a little bit difficult are easier to rationalize. It's not even that you condone.

You can separate those two things and go like, "Do you know what? It'd probably be... Maybe he would have an even an easier time getting to his objectives if Linus or Elon or anyone else in that position was a little nicer." But also who am I to judge that? Like, when you have the weight of that on your shoulders, either firing little rockets at Mars and transitioning all of us to electric cars and whatever, or you're responsible for the damn Linux kernel that runs billions of devices. Do you know what? It is not my place to call a sort of a code of conduct on you. Again, is there a line? There's a line for everything. There, there's... Something can't... But, like, a few harsh words on a mailing list? No. It's actually a beacon in some regards that, like, there are standards-... and if you fall below those standards at, when the stakes are as high as the Linux kernel, ah, you might get ridiculed in public. That's a liability you should be willing to endure if you participate in this project.

`3:49:07`

And even more to the fact you're just not gonna get those kinds of individuals being fully rounded-... plush, always the perfectly polite people. I mean, Elon has this line, "Did you also think I was gonna be a nice..." Or, or what is it? The

`3:49:24`

... normal chill dude. What? No, of course you're not gonna be a normal chill dude. What, what would the world gain if we got one more normal chill dude and we had to trade Elon? Holy fuck.