Overchoice In The New Non-Aligned World

By Adrian Kosmaczewski.
Published in Issue 092: Linux, part of Current Volume 08: 2025-2026.
1774 words, reading time ~9 minutes.

The Non-Aligned Movement was born in 1961, during the most dramatic period of the Cold War, in opposition to the nuclear escalation threats between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Countries from what it is now known as the “Global South” got together to figure out ways to help each other in a period of great turmoil.

Similar to those days of yore, “dramatic” is quite an appropriate word to describe the times we are living in; we are very far away from “the end of history” thesis proposed by Francis Fukuyama between 1989 and 1992. In our nerd minds, the sense of dread is accelerated by the fact that no dystopian sci-fi author ever came up with a scenario like the one we are doomscrolling on our devices every morning. The future used to look like flying cars and teleportation to Mars; instead, we had a fascist comeback streamed live over TikTok.

It is in such historical context that, while we were busy preparing this very text, the French government announced plans to migrate an as-of-yet unknown number of computer desktops from Windows to Linux. Big tech, an admittedly US-based contraption, has turned against old allies and made Google’s old “don’t be evil” mantra a forgotten memory from a bygone era.

Linux becomes, as a matter of fact, the “non-aligned” option of operating systems, in stark opposition to the cold war represented by the duopoly of Windows and (admittedly, to a lesser extent) macOS. (We have already talked about the mobile duopoly in a previous article, a market in which Linux is present in a different yet very strong way.)

The French decision, albeit late, is wise, commendable, and reasonable. If there is one thing we should learn for the current times, is that we cannot trust anymore in the desires and values of a psychotic government. And this includes operating systems, software, SaaS offerings, or whatever comes from the other side of the Atlantic.

(As a Swiss citizen, I would love to see my government follow the same path as France in this respect, but Switzerland has a track record of siding with the wrong side of history in order to maintain their beloved neutrality, so I am not holding my breath at this point.)

The problem is that, as far as options go, Linux is a terrible third one.

Do not get me wrong; I am a very happy Fedora Linux user, and I am using it at this very moment to write the lines you are reading. But I work in IT, and I am willing to put up with the myriad shenanigans Linux brings upon users. The work that French IT administrators is about to start is pharaonic, and I am not mincing my words.

Why do I say that Linux is a terrible option? Because of overchoice, and because we are all very tired indeed.

Overchoice is a psychological factor with quite a history. First explained by Alvin Toffler in his 1970 book “Future Shock”, and then popularized as “The Paradox of Choice” by the 2004 book of the same name, it is an intuitive part of our current world.

Here is a fun observation; one of the biggest criticisms that communism has received across the ages is that of lack of choice. Common was the mockery between the spartan looks of a Soviet grocery store, offering a very limited set of products (if any), with the overabundance of American supermarkets, created thanks to the forces of the “free market” that should never be stopped.

Yet, in the computing world, one of the most striking byproducts of capitalism, we have at most two versions of Windows (“Pro” and “Home”) and just one of macOS (remember when there was a “Server” version thereof?)

Readers well-versed in the history of Apple will surely remember Steve Jobs’ matrix of products when he returned to save the company from bankruptcy in 1997, drastically reducing the amount of products offered by the company to just four: two laptops and two desktops, one of each for “home” and “pro” users. Somehow, solving the paradox of choice was exactly what Apple needed to become the most valuable company on Earth merely 20 years later.

On the non-aligned side of things, and against all market logic, the Linux galaxy, itself, is a realm with a myriad choices. Maybe too much?

First of all, let us bring some terminology first. Nobody installs just “Linux” per se. What users install on their laptops are “Linux distributions”, also known as “distros” in the jargon and slang of this fringe realm. Longtime Linux expert Michael Kerrisk explains distributions much better that I could:

Precisely speaking, the term Linux refers just to the kernel developed by Linus Torvalds and others. However, the term Linux is commonly used to mean the kernel, plus a wide range of other software (tools and libraries) that together make a complete operating system. In the very early days of Linux, the user was required to assemble all of this software, create a file system, and correctly place and configure all of the software on that file system. This demanded considerable time and expertise. As a result, a market opened for Linux distributors, who created packages (distributions) to automate most of the installation process, creating a file system and installing the kernel and other required software.

The earliest distributions appeared in 1992, and included MCC Interim Linux (Manchester Computing Centre, UK), TAMU (Texas A&M University), and SLS (SoftLanding Linux System). The oldest surviving commercial distribution, Slackware, appeared in 1993. The noncommercial Debian distribution appeared at around the same time, and SUSE and Red Hat soon followed. The currently very popular Ubuntu distribution first appeared in 2004. Nowadays, many distribution companies also employ programmers who actively contribute to existing free software projects or initiate new projects.

So a “Linux distribution” is just a wonderful thing composed of a myriad different software thingies, forming what most users would end up calling an “operating system”. And just how many different thingies could be distributed this way? Hang on tight little tomato, this is going to be quite a ride.

  • Some distributions are “free as in beer and free as in freedom”, in which case support means talking to fanatic users on a Discord forum telling each other to RTFM. On the other hand, some other distros actually cost money, in exchange for actual support, maybe even a 0-800 phone number to call when in despair, better compatibility with a variety of hardware, or some other warm feeling for you to feel inside. This latter case is usually preferred by businesses, for reasons that should be obvious by now.
  • Some distributions are explicitly designed for beginners, others for more advanced users (the definition of which is always vague), or for specific use cases like conducting business, playing games, writing software, und so weiter.
  • Some distros have specific hardware targets: some work fine on a standard laptop, while others work better on dedicated workstations, or maybe on servers, or even supercomputers, mainframes, or some embedded system NASA ships inside a probe to Mars.
  • Some are easier to install that others: some might include a graphical “wizard” interface, while others… well, I hope you enjoy typing on your keyboard.
  • Some are already localized for specific countries, which is something some users might prefer (or be forced to use). Most notably come to mind the ones from North Korea, China, Sweden, Turkey, Lithuania, Romania, Greece, Philippines, Colombia, New Zealand, Italy, Brazil, and of course Argentina.
  • Then there are the CPU architectures supported, for an outstanding variety of computers out there… even though if most humans are running on some “86”-compatible thing. Of such variety, each distribution picks their own preferred targets, changing their mind as years go by.

And then come the esoteric parameters that make or destroy distributions:

(Takes a deep breath, shakes his head, keeps writing.)

Imagine going to a McDonald’s (another pillar of our capitalist world) and similarly being asked a myriad of questions before ordering a Happy Meal. You would run away in despair; yet, this is the reality of the Linux galaxy, where for better or worse, choice is king.

So much for communism, am I right Steve?

The reality is that most users in 2026 compute very happily with a relatively recent 64-bit Intel-based laptop, with 8 or 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB hard disk, probably formatted with Btrfs, bundled with the GNOME or KDE desktop environment on Wayland, using systemd, consuming software from either the APT or RPM package managers, including Flatpak for a more end-user-friendly interface to install userland applications, and with LibreOffice and Firefox pre-installed, thank you so much. And that means in general Ubuntu (or any of its variants, like Zorin OS) or Fedora (for slightly more advanced users).

If you are into building containers, we cannot recommend Alpine too much.

And if you are a really, really, really advanced user, particularly of the paranoid kind, some mix of Arch or Qubes OS will do just fine. We have mentioned the latter in a previous article about Joanna Rutkowska:

She is also the founder and main developer behind Qubes OS, described as a “reasonably secure operating system”, and praised by none less than Edward Snowden himself.

Finally, for the French government officials reading these lines in quest of enlightenment, you might want to consider using SUSE, RHEL, or even some business-friendly versions of Ubuntu. (Disclaimer: I am currently working for the company that makes RHEL and Fedora.)

There you go, I have just solved your Linux overchoice in a couple of paragraphs. You are welcome. If all else fails, you can even test individual distros directly from the comfort of your browser, no need to install anything on your laptop.

Cover photo by 愚木混株 Yumu on Unsplash.

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