I've reached the conclusion that the Year of the GNU/Linux Desktop will never arrive...

I've reached the conclusion that the Year of the GNU/Linux Desktop will never arrive, because the absolute majority of the population (even here on Jow Forums) can't wrap their heads around what "free software" actually means and implies.
How many times have you heard of arguments like:
>Linux is so fragmented! Why can't everyone stop working on their shitty distros and just work on one?
The entire point of free software is that you are free to do things like forking distros as many times as you want and any way you like, and for any reason you want, as retarded as that reason may be.
And many more arguments against GNU/Linux follow the same vein of:
>Why can't they just restrict my freedom to choose and just tell me what to use?
Moreover, I've reached a gloomy conclusion, which renders GNU's efforts as efforts in utter vain. It's the following:
PEOPLE DO NOT LIKE BEING FREE.
It is indeed sad, but I don't think much can be done about it.

Attached: heckert_gnu_white.jpg (600x600, 65K)

>PEOPLE DO NOT LIKE BEING FREE.
If you don't like being free, you can always becme my slave. Sign up now!

I like being free. The majority of people do not.

I was just watching a video today that has a message for this:
>People are willing to sacrifice quality for convenience!
As long as it works and you can jump in, the normal layman does not care.

Then again, GNU is practically cancer since you can't use ""non-free"" software or, God forbid, call it just Linux.

>thinking this shit matters irl
please have sex

>GNU is practically cancer since you can't use ""non-free"" software
except you can. I have steam installed on my Xubuntu system right now.
It might upset a few diehard freetards, but there's nothing stopping you from installing proprietary stuff, assuming the vendor has taken the time to create a GNU/Linux binary.

>PEOPLE DO NOT LIKE BEING FREE
No, the problem is that people have no idea what freedom means. The average person will tell you something along the lines "like, doing whatever I want?" or "freedom of choice! no restrictions!" and proceed being slaves by choice and standing up for the right to be slaves - all this, while thinking they're free.

I've had this thought as well, OP. People are just so used to centralization, and this extends to so many areas. Even some privacy orgs have been guilty of this, recommending signal instead of something like Riot or XMPP. It's gotten so much worse I think since the rise of social media.
And as you highlight, this applies to development as well, and it feels unfamiliar and "wrong" to people brainwashed into the botnet.
Free Software is not a monopolized ecosystem of vendor lock-in.
For Windows servers and desktops, for example, Microsoft makes the Kernel. Microsoft makes the userland. Microsoft makes the web server. Microsoft makes the DNS server. Microsoft makes the DHCP server. Microsoft makes the Email server. Microsoft makes the browser. Microsoft makes the Email client. Microsoft makes them all proprietary and controls the entire stack on both sides, from top to bottom.

For Free Software systems, the development is decentralized. There is much diversity and different circumstances, but the following is a generalized example for a singular system: The kernel is made by a wide array of contributors and led by Linus Torvalds. The userland is made by the GNU project. the web server is made by Apache Foundation. The DNS and DHCP servers are made by the Internet Systems Consortium. The email server is made by Wietse Venema and various contributors.The Browser and email client are made by Mozilla. All of them are free software, and none of these people or organizations controls the entire stack. If one of these projects goes to shit or you just don't like one, it can be discarded in favor of a replacement.

Why would you call GNU Linux?

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.