The Linux Desktop has been improving by leaps and bounds over the last few years.
More popular than the OS with majority market share is an unrealistically high bar for success. I could totally see linux become a mainstream desktop OS at some point.
I feel like the challenge with that is that is going to be moderation. (well, the challenge is always with moderation)
I wouldn’t really consider myself a “refugee”.
I’ve been feeling like the internet has been become a more isolating and nonconstructive place for a long time, and I have been following the fedverise & other projects for a while, hoping that we might be able to build something better.
I am interested to see where things go.
It’s a difficult challenge.
The common refrain about the fediverse is “don’t over think it! You can engage with communities across instances!”
But the truth is the instance you choose does matter to the experience you’ll have. The most obvious thing to consider is what other instances is it federated with and what is it’s reputation? Who you are able to engage with on the fediverse is directly related to your instance.
Second, one of the primary feeds you’ll see is the “local” posts. It’s the default as far as I can tell. For non technical users, that will be the default experience.
So choosing an instance is, for me, a question of what you do and don’t want to see, fundamentally.
The catch-22 is that for those who aren’t power users, you really want to have them onboard to an active instance, which implies a minimum size. But that then makes it more difficult to bootstrap a new instance.
Finally, it would be interesting to have a Split View of what “all” looks like on the instance you choose, and what “all” looks like on the instances it is de federated from.