Why the "Wayland People" and "Rust People" Will Lose Hearts and Minds (Same Reasons)
The "attack dogs" of GAFAM (e.g. "Wayland People" and "Rust People" - the latter is what they call themselves) are alienating many people, more so this past month or 2-3 weeks. I've read a lot, seen a lot, witnessed all sorts of things, and spoke about the subject with people, both "IRL" and in IRC.
"It's the end of an era in Linux history," tell us IBM-sponsored sites. Is it really? Did people stop using MP3s because the mainstream media said it was "dead" (they meant, software patents on its had all expired)? Nope, lots of people still use the MP3 format and have many MP3s on various storage devices.
From where I sit and based on what I can see, this is "Team Mono" all over again. "Team Wayland" is scoring many own goals this month. Trying to force some distros to default to Wayland (or worse, offer only Wayland as an option, i.e. opposite of freedom) isn't winning, it's making a lot more enemies (alienation and suspicion) and earning even more pushback than ever before.
What's likely to happen at the end isn't pretty, not because everyone will lose GNU/Linux's stability and many "old" applications will no longer work. By "isn't pretty" I mean there will be a "split". For purely technical reasons many users - and hence distros - will insist on still using X or whatever fork/s come/s out of it. Calling people who don't play along "fascists [sic] maggots" only contributes to alienation, as many people - myself included - who prefer using X aren't even remotely "fascists"; many are anti-fascists.
Now, regarding "Rust People"... I mean, look. I scan the news all day long. There was a time of hype from "Rust People" and Rust was "all the rage". That was a few years ago. Yes, they "infected" Linux. But what have they accomplished since then? How is their Rust-based OS coming along? It's almost dormant. To many people, the mere mention of Rust causes a storm of emotions. There's the joke about "Rust People", something along the lines of... how do you recognise the "Rust People"? Don't worry, they will tell you. That implies they're smug about it and we already saw their attitude inside the Linux kernel (some of them are Microsoft staff and they throw tantrums).
So basically, Wayland pushers are fast becoming like "Rust People". Don't interfere while they make a mistake. Let them bury their own graves. █