Wayland is stable. What it's not is stagnant, like X11, which lacks fractional/mixed-DPI scaling, per-window HDR/color management, explicit GPU synchronization, and a security model ready for the modern challenges of the mid 90s.
It's also technically cross-platform, as evidenced by FreeBSD's support for Wayland compositors. But it's not its goal either, the goal is an excellent Linux desktop, not something that serves the 17 people in the world that routinely run the same exact desktop config on Linux and non-Linux PCs.
X11 used to crash all the time, especially after an update, back when it was being vibrantly developed. It's been a lot more stable since it got abandoned. I've not had a crash in 13 years.
Matter of fact, the vast majority has moved on to Wayland years ago, both KDE and Gnome have reported their usage stats and neither sees a point in keeping X11 afloat. I too have been using Wayland (KDE) for years, it addressed some decades-long struggles around multi monitor and DPI layouts. I use input methods for CJK that work better and more consistently than before. As far as I'm concerned, this ship has sailed, for the better.
The article's claim about the Council of Vienne is incorrect: the Council was condemning the errors of the Beghards and Beguines, one of which errors was the claim that a woman's kiss was sinful [1]. Thus, the Council was in fact saying it was not sinful to kiss romantically.
This was common for the anathemas written at the time, it would list all the positions, and then at the end say “anyone who holds these let him be anathema” - basically a “not” applied to all of them.
I recently left Red Hat for greener pastures. From where I sat, IBM was slowly turning toward wisdom again, having been run aground by its previous few CEOs. I was skeptical when IBM bought Red Hat, but after several years of not screwing it up, I'm pretty hopeful. Now, Krishna is working on streamlining the business and making the rest of IBM more like Red Hat. Splitting off the low performing Kyndryl, and selling Watson, are part of this by cutting obsolete sectors; focusing on getting Red Hat the resources it needs to rapidly accelerate, and on building the talent pool by hiring more junior engineers, are the positive changes working to turn IBM back into a powerhouse.
They make sure enterprises can run Linux that doesn’t “suddenly” (read: with less than 2-3 years notice) break their critical workflows because some component loses support or some dependency reaches EOL - they do this by extended maintenance, backporting (security) patches to old versions, providing tailored support etc.
This is very valuable to enterprises and so they pay a lot for it.
For example, you can still run Red Hat 6 safely and securely until 2024; by that point Red Hat 8 will have been out for 5 years already.
Red Hat is the premier organization doing open source development. They optimize the experiences for enterprises: lots of support and a goal of helping it be easy to use so enterprises can focus on their business logic.
Lots of well-hated projects come from Red Hat: systemd, wayland, ... but they have also contributed well to some other projects which are much less controversial.
Services/products of a company usually bring one of the following to customers: 1) improve revenue, 2) lower costs or 3) manage risks. RedHat is probably mostly about the last one, manage the risks of running linux.
I was previously at the top of the salary band for Sr. Software Engineer at a decent big company, making 1.7-2x mediocre engineers I know elsewhere. Joining FB, my total comp (400kish) is an ample 5x mediocre in my area, and I hear thats normal across FAANGs.
I know 2x is still ridiculously high, even 1x is a very reasonable amount to live on, but 2x doesn't compare to 5x.
Maybe you live in a place where developers have the privilege of being able to pick the right employer among thousands.
It's not like that in most of the world.
In many places even senior software engineers have to choose between:
- nasty companies (advertisement, finance and trading, faangs, real estate speculation, cryptocurrencies, gambling and worse) that provide a living salary and provide a decent working environment
- few ok-ish companies that can offer a low salary, very unremarkable conditions and stability
- start your company or consultancy and make 0 money
- regret working in software and open a grocery store
