The gatekeeping I was referring to is giving people shit for being weebs, furries, etc. etc. Feels skeezy and moralistic. One of my favourite things about the Linux community is how openly eccentric so many people are. Even if it isn't my aesthetic it's way less contrived than the bland wastelands that corporate culture generates.
It wasn't really relevant to your question, but you do you, weeb OP.
Idk, I feel like gatekeeping is a bigger problem than anime thumbnails.
I feel like every larger open source project that doesn't have a Tyson Tan designed mascot doesn't have one because they refused to let him make one for them.
I agree that this is a sad thing, but I guess not everyone in the Linux world is into furry waifus.
My approach has been to slowly learn how to play to the strengths of Linux and not pine after anything on Windows because ultimately I've gained a lot more than I've lost.
The one piece of software I haven't been able to avoid keeping around is Sigma Studio, so I have a 10 year old shit top for running it, but it also runs in a VM if I need it. Thankfully I only need to use it once or twice a year.
If you rely on multiple pieces of software for important everyday activities and they aren't usable in wine or a VM, you probably have no choice but to use the operating system that is the best vehicle for those tools. Doesn't stop you from also using linux for other stuff, but I can understand how that's not the same as going all in.
Not really partition related but in terms of backups, state replication and reliability:
State of Systems: NixOS configs. Art: Borg + Borgbase. Code: Git + Sourcehut.
I feel like microsoft's gameplan is less "everyone must use windows" these days and more "we want to gatekeep tech on as many levels as possible". I'm wary of relying on anything they put out. I think we've all recently seen what big tech companies do when they decide its time to monetize more aggressively.
Right now helix is pretty good for what I do with it.
Hell yeah, raptor is great.
I can declare the complete state of my systems in a config file that I store on sourcehut with git and pull down to have a fully configured system on new hardware whenever I want it.
I can use tiling window managers.
I can work with native containers easily.
I can run an operating system that is designed to be the most useful tool it can be, not the most profitable product it can be.
This is one of my favourite things about tracker music. It's obviously a lot more complicated to share the full source files for music that uses a workflow involving paid tools or that is complex to replicate. The de facto openness of the tracker format is something that is unlikely to be seen again, but rendering stems / sharing patches / encouraging sampling are all still valuable.
I'd love to see a healthy foss music scene that encorages building on one another's work and would definitely participate. Music is way more interesting when we don't have to fight economic territorialism to make it, as complicated a path as that has become.
At the moment I pretty much only buy games on Steam. GoG has been pretty hostile to Linux over the years, whereas Valve is the only gaming focused company that robustly supports Linux on both a hardware and software level. The money I give to their platform directly supports Linux gaming and everyone directly benefits from this.
Valve is also an exceptionally rare example of a privately owned, not publicly traded company of their size. Gabe Newell himself owns a majority stake and has shown that he is more interested in running a company that can make effective long term decisions than a company that desperately suckles at the teats of short term profits and corporatocracy. As long as this stays true, Valve is in a vastly better position to resist enshittification than most big tech companies out there. Valve doesn't need to pull a Red Hat unless fundamental things change, and Gabe seems pretty happy to be in a position where he doesn't need another layer of corporate overlords.
I'd definitely prefer to have DRM free stuff, but Steam is a pretty good compromise at the moment. If Valve ever goes to shit, I'll just take steps to access the games I own in a way that is independently well supported on Linux. I suspect there will be multiple ways to do so if it ever comes to this. Proton being open source counts for a lot.
That is certainly one use of the word gatekeeping. Another common use of the word is:
"when someone takes it upon themselves to decide who does or does not have access or rights to a community or identity".