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"why have all the major distos except Slackware and Gentoo adopted it?"

a) "new, shiny"

b) it makes them *FEEL* like they're doing something to implement 'the new thing'

c) peer pressure (lots of 'how come we don't have systemd yet' mail, etc.)

d) same reasons why they implement gnome 3 instead of MATE as a default - right Debian?

I noted that FreeBSD kept gnome 2 for the LONGEST time in ports, and when Mate was ready for prime time, THEN they brought in both gnome 3 AND mate. I'm still using gnome 2 from a couple of years ago and it works pretty well. In fact, NOT having "bleeding edge" all the time made the userland a LOT more stable.

Thing is, when the userland practically *DEMANDS* support from systemd [a continuing problem on BSD systems, which will *NEVER* have it] then you have to put in hacks and patches to compensate. Or put in systemd. Guess which one they did?

We all know why Gnome 3 developers did what it did: they're IDIOTS trying to be Micro-shaft and swallow the touchy-fondly-fat-finger-friendly "trend" coolaid. For desktops, that's been nothing but *IRRITATION* for several *YEARS*. THey had to DUMB DOWN several gnome 2 features that were *THANKFULLY* retained by Mate, like "how many icons can I cram into the icon bar". Try 50. Or maybe just 20, ut you have the system monitor and you organize the icons into groups with variable white space between them. In Gnome 3 you have "3 groups" and you have to engage in odd key+mouse combinations to get to the menu to re-position them (yeah changing THAT was a real "pleasant" surprise, thanks Gnome 3 dweebs). In any case, Gnome 3 carried on in the wrong direction, just like Micro-shaft with the 2D FLATSO FLUGLY "the metro" and now UWP and Win-10-nic.

So now, these same MILLENIAL "it's OUR turn now to do it OUR way" types have created a *MONSTER* that feeds itself and grows stronger due to "all of that".

Fortunately we have Mate, and now Devuan. Thanks, Devuan! Looking forward to the preservation of X11 and *NOT* Wayland, as the SAME PEOPLE drive everything off the cliff like a bunch of lemmings.