Serpent OS Development Slowing Down Amid Lack Of Funding

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  • phoronix
    Administrator
    • Jan 2007
    • 67370

    Serpent OS Development Slowing Down Amid Lack Of Funding

    Phoronix: Serpent OS Development Slowing Down Amid Lack Of Funding

    Serpent OS is the original Linux distribution started by Ikey Doherty of Solus Linux fame and has been pursuing its own package management system and new innovations in the Linux distribution landscape. While there has been recent success and new development builds coming out, feature development on Serpent OS is expected to slowdown now due to a lack of project funding...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite
  • rmfx
    Senior Member
    • Jan 2019
    • 762

    #2
    It’s a shame because they were developing innovative solutions unlike many distros.
    Tech makes trillions but FOSS (they happily rely on) is disrespected.
    Just like freedesktop that can’t find hosting services while the Linux ecosystem is worth dozens of billions. Im so tired of these ridiculous situations.

    I think FOSS should stop being too nice and start retaliation.
    Last edited by rmfx; 04 February 2025, 12:32 AM.

    Comment

    • pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx
      Senior Member
      • Jul 2020
      • 1591

      #3
      That's unfortunate, but a good reminder for me to donate a bit. Scaling open source is hard. I'd like for this one to get big enough to reduce the hit by bus factor.

      Comment

      • ahrs
        Senior Member
        • Apr 2021
        • 584

        #4
        Originally posted by rmfx View Post
        It’s a shame because they were developing innovative solutions unlike many distros.
        Tech makes trillions but FOSS (they happily rely on) is disrespected.
        Just like freedesktop that can’t find hosting services while the Linux ecosystem is worth dozens of billions. Im so tired of these ridiculous situations.

        I think FOSS should stop being too nice and start retaliation.
        The sad reality is that nobody cares about the backbone of software, like package managers, even Red Hat is only worth billions because of their software services, not because of their OS. Anyone that wants to get funding for something as boring as a package manager or operating system is going to face an uphill battle. Now if you can sell software services and support maybe you'll stand a chance, except it's not the .COM bubble anymore, another Red Hat is not possible.

        Comment

        • curfew
          Senior Member
          • Aug 2010
          • 639

          #5
          Which section of the GPL mandated sponsorship? And from who? That's open market, not open source. Rules of the open market dictate that if your *product* is not worthy to the market space, then it won't generate any "income security".

          It would be open sourcish if he was pleading for collaborators and contributions in code...
          Last edited by curfew; 04 February 2025, 01:45 AM.

          Comment

          • hkupty
            Junior Member
            • Jun 2023
            • 40

            #6
            Originally posted by rmfx View Post
            It’s a shame because they were developing innovative solutions unlike many distros.
            Tech makes trillions but FOSS (they happily rely on) is disrespected.
            Just like freedesktop that can’t find hosting services while the Linux ecosystem is worth dozens of billions. Im so tired of these ridiculous situations.

            I think FOSS should stop being too nice and start retaliation.
            There is an important factor here that Linux is huge despite desktop. Most of the financial support to Linux goes to server side or IoT. It is true that some projects like FFMPEG are agnostic to placement so while beneficial to end users are also fundamental to some business logic running in the cloud and they also don't seem to get enough funding, so while I agree that the money flow in tech is huge, I think Linux and to some extent some of the FOSS projects are getting a share of this through business focused workloads.

            Another dimension to this problem is that innovation needs to be proven before it gets traction. It's both lack of advertising and a conservative mindset: we're in a small bubble here, most of the people never heard of serpent os, so the exposure is small. On top of that, it is still novelty so most people will not engage yet. It is difficult to reach outside our bubble and make more people convinced that it is a project worth investing.

            I speak from experience. I have written a substantially more efficient logger for the JVM than logback and yet it barely reached 100 stars on GH, 0$ funds, no one heard of that. And it's not to my power - or anyone's really - to individually make this or any project known and famous unless there's a company backing it, lending both credibility and audience, so a positive momentum can develop for the project.

            We love to hate Google and Facebook and other evil bastards but it's undeniable that they do reach out to a gigantic audience and have enough credibility to lend out to open source that when they do, those projects get massive traction effective immediately.


            Comment

            • mos87
              Senior Member
              • Sep 2016
              • 459

              #7
              Originally posted by ahrs View Post
              The sad reality is that nobody cares about the backbone of software
              Endless hobbyist vanity / NIH projects are the backbone of nothing.

              Comment

              • ahrs
                Senior Member
                • Apr 2021
                • 584

                #8
                Originally posted by mos87 View Post
                Endless hobbyist vanity / NIH projects are the backbone of nothing.
                Obviously, it's brand new. I meant more the concept in general. Do you think Dnf would have funding if not for Red Hat? Nobody is funding package managers.

                Comment

                • gotar
                  Senior Member
                  • Dec 2021
                  • 249

                  #9
                  Originally posted by ahrs View Post
                  Obviously, it's brand new. I meant more the concept in general. Do you think Dnf would have funding if not for Red Hat? Nobody is funding package managers.
                  Considering dnf is ~2 decades beyond poldek in usability and user experience...

                  Comment

                  • dEnigma
                    Phoronix Member
                    • Dec 2014
                    • 102

                    #10
                    Since mid-2022, Ikey Doherty has been working on Solus Linux full-time after a stint as a Mozilla Thunderbird developer.
                    That should say "Serpent OS" instead of "Solus Linux".

                    (and incidentally, if it were Solus it should just say "Solus", without the "Linux")

                    Comment

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