fuel the healthy competition is a really positive spin on even more fragmentation. It's sad how Linux desktop eats itself.

GNOME is a perpetrator as well. I usually check the GNOME release notes (since I use GNOME on my NixOS laptop) and on a semi-regular basis there is a note that says: replaced app X by a completely new rewrite Y. And there is still no support for basic things like marking up/annotating a screenshot, even though the basic image viewer has been rewritten N times (anyone remember Electric Eyes?).

I think "healthy competition" is the most productive way to look at it, given the situation.

With the history of unclear alignment, it would be foolish for everyone to rely on Gnome.

But there's a ton of investment and value in that platform. (Much of it before Gnome even started, but now under the Gnome umbrella.)

So "competition" has been giving us alternatives.

Maybe ongoing competition will help keep pressure on Gnome, to be closer to aligned with the user bases.