How do you feel about books by Alexandre Dumas? They are from long before AI. But… Dumas had a collaborator called Maquet, who came up with plots and did a big part of the writing. He was an ok writer, but not as good as Dumas. So their collaboration was like this: Dumas paid Maquet to produce quantities of ok stories for him. Then Dumas edited them to add his brilliant language and ideas, and Dumas got to take all the credit and glory.

What kind of dirty politics are we talking about here? I remember when Arch switched, the stated reasons from the devs was that their old init system was bad and nobody wanted to maintain it, for example.

I have noticed a pattern in myself, which I suspect could be true for others too. Namely, that I am much more likely to care about someone if the feeling is mutual. On a rational level, I can recognize that this or that person has had a bad time and deserve better, and I want to help them, but if they are hostile or indifferent to me, I kind of stop caring. And vice versa, if I feel that someone cares about me, I will care a lot about them. If this is the case for two people, it can quickly spiral either towards more mutual caring, or more mutual indifference.
Now here’s the tricky part, how do we influence this trajectory? The only way I can think of is to care even if the other person isn’t caring back. Polarizing language can feel good, to assert yourself when you feel hurt, but… is it helpful or detrimental for the bigger picture? It’s so circular and self-reinforcing. So hard to escape.
I get the feeling that many people argue that “well, when they start treating me right, then I will start treating them right, but until then I don’t care”, and sure, I understand that feeling. But the feeling is probably mutual.

universal serial bussy

I agree. The only time a strong vision is a problem is if there are no options. But now, the people who don’t want gnome can easily just use something else. I want the gnome devs to do their thing, and as long as I enjoy using gnome I will use it.

Mine just says “This product contains nicotine and is highly addictive”.

And after you have learned Linux, download any distro that lets you work on your projects with the least hassle and get work done without fiddling around in every aspect of the OS. At least that’s what I’ve observed among older users who see the OS as a tool and not a hobby in itself.