Thread

1. ItsMattyG · 1791054287 · focus · HN ↗

   I don't see how this will survive the attacker/defender gap as ls get increasingly good at cyber security and finding 0 days... but maybe it's an obscure enough is it doesn't matter?

   1. PorciiVorbesc · 1791054482 · focus · HN ↗

      Probably because pop_os and Cosmic are so niche and their market share so insignificant, that they're irrelevant to attackers and bad actors, when those now have much bigger fish to fry to make their time and effort worth it. See the Arch AUR attacks, for perspective.

      I think even amongst the HN and Linux userbase, pop_os is still niche, let alone amongst normies who never heard about Linux. So they can afford take the high road and treat it like their personal sandbox, accepting only human written code.

      But larger and more important projects like Fedora and Debian are more pragmatic with the fact that they'll have to accept AI written(but human reviewed) code, if they wish to keep up with the real world development and threats, as expressed by Linus Torvalds himself.

      The thing is, the cat's out of the bag on this one now, especially in the field of pen-testing and reverse-engineering. AI can brute-force its way into projects in ways that beat even experienced researchers, so your only choice to keep up is to accept the use of AI generated fixes as a counter defense.

      1. badc0ffee · 1791056116 · focus · HN ↗

         It does show up on top 5 lists for Linux desktop distros quite a lot, and COSMIC is quite unique, so I suspect a lot of people are at least trying it.

         (I wasn't able to make it work on a scrap Dell I tried it on because the GPU was too old. Booted the USB key and COSMIC greeter failed to start)

         1. PorciiVorbesc · 1791056340 · focus · HN ↗

            >It does show up on top 5 lists for Linux desktop distros quite a lot

            1) Firstly, your source plase? My research according to Google Gemini 3.8 Pro shows top 5 DEs are as follows:

              +---+---------------+------------+-------------------------------------+
              | # | Environment   | Est. Share | Primary Ecosystem / Defaults        |
              +---+---------------+------------+-------------------------------------+
              | 1 | GNOME         | 45% - 50%  | Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, RHEL        |
              | 2 | KDE Plasma    | 25% - 30%  | SteamOS, openSUSE, Kubuntu, Manjaro |
              | 3 | Cinnamon      |  8% - 12%  | Linux Mint flagship                 |
              | 4 | Xfce          |  6% - 9%   | MX Linux, Xubuntu, low-spec PCs     |
              | 5 | MATE          |  2% - 4%   | Ubuntu MATE, Mint MATE (GNOME 2)    |
              | - | Others / WMs  |  3% - 5%   | Hyprland, i3, Sway, LXQt, Budgie    |
              +---+---------------+------------+-------------------------------------+ 
            

            So then COSMIC isn't even TOP 5, for this to be a major target by market share as originally claimed.

            2) Secondly, keep in mind that distrowatch is not representative of linux userbase. MX-Linux kept showing up at the top spot for many years despite being niche.

            3) And thirdly, TOP 5 DE isn't really an achievement when Linux DE market share is overwhelmingly dominated by KDE Plasma and Gnome as the majority shareholders, with XFCE and Cinnamon trailing. So Cosmic DE if it somehow made the no. 5 spot, would still be ignorable sub <1% market share, as I initially claimed, basically invisible to bad actors.

            1. yugoslavia4ever · 1791057817 · focus · HN ↗

               You're being way too defensive. GP replying to you was clearly trying to have a conversation, not attack your knowledge. Chill.

               1. PorciiVorbesc · 1791058583 · focus · HN ↗

                  >You're being way too defensive.

                  "Way too defensive" how? By asking and bringing data for my PoV?

                  >GP replying to you was clearly trying to have a conversation

                  As am I, except I ask for, and also bring data to back up my PoV, instead of vague opinions.

                  >Chill.

                  Where am I not being chill?

                  1. kyubey · 1791062166 · focus · HN ↗

                     To reflect some sentiment from another comment you posted - we're not your unpaid tone auditors. Learn to have normal discussions.

                     For funsies, I threw two different DE-by-marketshare inquiries at Gemini 3.8 Pro in separate sessions and it ranked Cosmic 12th in the first and 7th in the second. Very trustworthy stuff.

                     1. PorciiVorbesc · 1791062577 · focus · HN ↗

                        >Learn to have normal discussions.

                        Please show me what part of what I said before was not "a normal discussions" according to you?

                        >it ranked Cosmic 12th in the first and 7th in the second. Very trustworthy stuff.

                        And that disproves me how exactly? I originally showed "Cosmic is NOT a TOP5 DE", and the LLM data you posted also shows that IT IS indeed NOT a top 5 DE.

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