Gregory's Server
The question is: Will Wayland, Flatpak, immutability, PipeWire, etc. save the Linux Desktop?
No, they won't, and they never will. What will save (or has saved) the Linux Desktop is a cultural shift in the community to make it robust, secure, inclusive, and accessible. Technical solutions cannot address social problems.
*This* is why we have systemd, Wayland, Flatpak, immutable distros, PipeWire and all these "next-gen" (some current-gen) technologies. It's a legitimate cultural shift to focus on making the Linux Desktop better for the vast majority of users.
You know what else would improve the Linux desktop? Getting rid of toxic users. Adding a code of conduct also drives away a lot of bigots, which is great for people who belong to marginalized groups.
Speaking of reducing toxicity, I realized that my original post caused one toxic user to switch from GNOME to KDE. And that's wonderful news for GNOME! This person has been making fun of GNOME developers (mind you, volunteers) for a while, and then claimed to be a designer. I hope they don't turn KDE into a hellhole.
Now that I have experience developing and maintaining software, I can confidently say that code quality should be the least of your concerns when it comes to your FOSS project. The most important quality is who you are as a person, and how the project is presented.
No matter how talented you are as a contributor/developer/maintainer, if you are obnoxious and have no incentive to improve yourself, especially by openly admitting that you do not care about people's feelings, don't expect to be welcome in most communities.
Your talent in code does not translate into team spirit or yourself. Having a welcoming place that attracts new contributors (or even current contributors) is much healthier: At worst, it will gradually improve the entire project, regardless of any aspect of the project (code quality, feature set, marketing, etc.); at best, your project will grow quickly.
Now that I have experience developing and maintaining software, I can confidently say that code quality should be the least of your concerns when it comes to your FOSS project. The most important quality is who you are as a person, and how the project is presented.
No matter how talented you are as a contributor/developer/maintainer, if you are obnoxious and have no incentive to improve yourself, especially by openly admitting that you do not care about people's feelings, don't expect to be welcome...