 Recently, Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, posted a new job offering on their website. They're looking for someone to become the Linux desktop gaming product manager, and this person, this role will be for somebody that can drive engagement and adoption. The role requires an analytical storyteller with a strong sense of message and a deep understanding of Linux graphics, gaming, desktop technologies, and community. Basically, they want someone to help get a better gaming experience specifically on Ubuntu, and of course, they want somebody to convey that message to the community to preach just what a wonderful experience gaming on Ubuntu can be. And I find this job posting very interesting, because I do think it confirms something that I've been saying for a number of years now, and that Ubuntu has kind of been resting on its laurels, right? Ubuntu kind of just quit trying to actually make desktop Linux work, because Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, they make all their money in the server space. They make their money when you know, server, enterprise, cloud, IoT, you know, they make all their money that way with Ubuntu. They don't make any money on Ubuntu, the desktop. So in the last four or five years, it seems like they've kind of just forgotten about desktop Linux. They really don't give it much lip service, and they really don't do much to actually improve desktop Linux, the experience. And it shows because so many other desktop Linux distributions out there have rose up in the last few years. I mean, Manjaro has just exploded on the scene here in the last few years, right? Manjaro has become a very popular new user friendly distribution that has a good gaming experience. PapOS, the same thing in the last few years, PapOS exploded in popularity. And again, new user friendly distribution, and it has a really good gaming experience as far as getting, you know, the latest and greatest drivers and kernel and things like that. And these distributions have really shown just how far behind Canonical has fallen, because, you know, Canonical is not a good gaming Linux distribution. And that's why they're hiring this product manager. It's because, you know, in 2012, when Valve first came out with Steam on Linux, they actually recommended Ubuntu as the distribution to use for Steam on Linux. And the reason they did that is because Ubuntu was the most popular Linux distribution by far, you know, on the desktop. So they catered to Ubuntu. But quickly, I think they realized that Ubuntu, just the whole development model, you know, the static release model with Ubuntu, and just the fact that Ubuntu and the company behind it, Canonical, didn't seem that interested in, you know, the whole desktop experience anyway. You know, they quickly transitioned to promoting other Linux distributions. Valve, eventually, when they did the first Steam OS, of course, they decided to actually base off of straight Debian rather than Ubuntu. And of course, now they finally transitioned to where most of desktop Linux, I think would agree, is the best gaming experience, which is Arch Linux, Arch Linux-based distributions. And that's why the Steam Deck is actually going to be based off of Arch is because anyone that's been around desktop Linux long enough knows, especially for a gaming experience, if you want the latest and greatest kernel, latest, greatest drivers, you know, new products come out all the time, various things related to Proton and Vulkan and things like that. If you want the latest and greatest, you need to be on a rolling release. And Arch Linux is kind of the king of rolling release desktop Linux distributions. I think one of the biggest reasons why Ubuntu lags behind as far as being a good Linux gaming distribution is there's so much development being done on Steam on Linux and Wine and Proton and Vulkan and all of these technologies, they're constantly coming out with this new cutting edge, bleeding edge technology that you can't just go and then go get these new experimental apps from the app package manager in Ubuntu. They're not going to be in the repose, right? You got to go jump through some hoops, you've got to go try to enable some experimental PPAs to get some of these new packages, or maybe go find a snap pack or even a flat pack or, you know, some third party package, maybe you even have to build it from source, where on an Arch-based distribution, you wouldn't have to do any of that, because typically on Arch, as soon as a new app is ready, and as soon as it's been introduced into the repository, it's ready like the next day, right? You can go grab it and it's ready to go. You don't have to jump through any weird hoops to go install third-party packages that may or may not be trustworthy. I think the most glaring indictment of Ubuntu and the failure of Ubuntu as a Linux gaming distribution is some of these big tech YouTubers that are now giving Linux a serious try as far as a regular day-to-day operating system as a gaming operating system, especially none of them are trying out mainline Ubuntu, right? When you see people like the Linus Tech Tips guys and, you know, they're not downloading mainline Ubuntu and trying to make that thing a gaming operating system, right? They're downloading things like Manjaro, PapoS, Linux Mint, right? I think that really says everything you need to know about how far Ubuntu has fallen in the last four or five years. And honestly, I'm not sure that canonical and Ubuntu can turn this thing around. I'm not sure that they're ever going to be a suitable desktop gaming Linux distribution, just because I don't think Ubuntu is suited for that task. I don't think they're suited for gaming. It's just the way Ubuntu is designed. The whole development model, the static release model, you know, and of course Ubuntu, the mainline Ubuntu, is really predicated on being a stable, you know, a long-term support distribution, right? It's more along the lines of something like Debian stable rather than Arch Linux, right? And you can't be one of these old, crusty, rot-solid, stable Linux distributions and then, at the same time, be good for gaming. And I think another reason why Ubuntu lags way behind as far as a good desktop gaming experience is the fact that Ubuntu as a distribution is not focused on the gaming experience. Obviously, they're trying to correct that by hiring this new gaming product manager. But what I'm talking about is desktop Ubuntu. They're focused really, when you think about Ubuntu, you think about two technologies, right? You think about snap packs and you think about GNOME. Because Ubuntu, the the main ship edition of Ubuntu, is so heavily invested in snap packages, right? That seems like all they work on these days. And of course, the desktop is the GNOME desktop, which not everybody loves the GNOME desktop, right? That's one of the advantages something like Arch Linux has over Ubuntu is the fact that Arch Linux doesn't have a desktop environment that it's married to, right? They don't promote GNOME or KDE or XFCE, right? If you want any of those desktop environments, you go install it, it doesn't matter which one. Arch doesn't care, right? Where Ubuntu, Ubuntu is married to GNOME, right? It's married to the snap technology that they created. And as long as there's so many people out there that just can't stand GNOME and can't stand snap packages, they're never going to give your distribution a try. You can make it the most fantastic gaming Linux distribution out there. It could be fantastic. It could be better than Windows Gaming. People that hate GNOME and people that hate snap packages are still not going to give your distribution a try. As long as you're focused on that, right? And that's the problem is for the last few years, Ubuntu has been focused on stuff that the community simply doesn't care about. Nobody in the community cares about snap packages. I don't care. I mean, I like snaps. I'll install them. I have nothing for or against snaps, but I don't necessarily want a Linux distribution that all they're doing is working on snap packages, right? And trying to, you know, when they ship new versions of their distribution, some of the programs installed are actually installed by default as snaps. They're like, nobody wants that. Nobody's asking for that. And when that's what you're working on, that's why you've dropped the ball. That's why you're no longer the leader on the Linux desktop. And that's why, in many ways, I think Ubuntu would be better served to actually look at some of the leaders in this space. You know, pay attention to what PapoS is doing right now. Pay attention to what Manjaro is doing right now, because they are getting Linux on the desktop, right? Because they're actually focusing on the stuff that actually matters to the people. I do wish Ubuntu luck in finding somebody for this Linux desktop gaming product manager position. If any of you guys want to apply for it, you know, I'll actually link to it in the show description, because I do think it's a worthwhile gig. And I do think I would love for Ubuntu to knock this out of the park and really make Ubuntu a much better desktop gaming experience, because I think not only would it improve Ubuntu, but I think it would improve the entire Linux ecosystem. Now, before I go, I need to thank a few special people. I need to thank the producers of the show, Devon Gabe, James Matt, Michael Mitchell, Paul Scott, Wiss, Kami Allen, the Linux Ninja Chuck Commander, Kurt Dayokai, Dylan. Oh my goodness, the COVID is acting up on me. I got through most of the video without coughing up along Gregory Higo, Kaskali, Max, Mike, Nitrix, Erion, Alexander, Peace, Archive, Vador, Polydeck, Raver, Rip profits, even Willy. These guys, they're my last tier patrons over on Patreon without these guys. This quick rant about Linux desktop gaming, it wouldn't have been possible. The show's also brought to you by each and every one of these ladies and gentlemen as well. All these names you're seeing on the screen right now, these are all my supporters over on Patreon, because I don't have any corporate sponsors. I'm just sponsored by you guys, the community. If you like my work and want to support me, look for DistroTube over on Patreon. All right, guys. Peace. I guess I need to update my resume.