You Can't Make Me Vibecode Highlight

Linux (and open source software more generally) was a revolution. But it was only a revolution within the boundaries of the computer industry. Much of the web runs on open source. The core of Apple’s operating system runs on open source too. You interact with open source software throughout your day. But (if you’re a normie like me) your relationship to open source software is no different than your relationship to proprietary software.

So the Linux revolution didn’t fail, but it also didn’t follow the expected path. The early adopters in 1999 were all, by definition, techies. They saw the liberatory potential of this new software system and imagined it would transform the public, altering how people en masse engaged with software. But the public remained stubbornly un-transformed. Linux empowers the computer user, but a great many users simply were not interested in that sort of empowerment.