I wanted to write this about two weeks ago, but I just got sort of apathetic. Well, what I wanted to say has to be said, so here it is: Red Hat is clearly going the wrong way. Their message is clear:

RHEL is not interested in desktops, and it never will. Whoever wants to quit Windows and use Linux on their laptops or desktops shouldn’t look towards Red Hat. The fact that GNOME simply isn’t an appropriate desktop overall, and Files is the dumbest file manager of all, isn’t relevant anymore; what matters is that, from now on, RHEL and clones, as well as CentOS Stream, are really only meant for servers, containers, stuff like that. Fedora? A dead end for gullible guinea pigs.

Old news from the last couple of weeks

At first, I ignored such news:

I overlooked them because I stopped using AlmaLinux 9.4 with KDE long before 9.5 was released, and I went the Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS way. When RHEL isn’t targeting the desktop users, and other desktops than GNOME need to be retrieved from EPEL, and generally one has to go to great lengths to find the extra software you need, what’s the right decision to make when extra repositories start disappearing? That was the last straw, and a fortunate one: it helped me get rid of the stubborn idea that I still could use a RHEL clone as a daily driver on two laptops and a mini-PC, just because in the distant past I’ve used CentOS (the real one), Scientific Linux, and other clones.

What’s the problem with these new releases?

Fedora is here for temporal reference; RHEL 10.N will not get any updates from the newer Fedora releases!

Well, let’s read from CentOS Stream 10 Release Notes: Removed functionality:

Xorg server

Xorg server (xorg-x11-server-Xorg) is no longer included. Wayland is the default display stack, with Xwayland (xorg-x11-server-Xwayland) available as a compatibility layer for legacy X11 applications. You can read more about this transition in the blog post Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 plans for Wayland and Xorg server.

Desktop applications

Most graphical desktop applications have been removed. This includes:

  • Firefox
  • GIMP
  • LibreOffice
  • Inkscape
  • Thunderbird

RHEL is transitioning to providing desktop applications via Flatpak. CentOS users who want these applications are encouraged to install them from Flathub or request them in EPEL.

Wow.

❶ I have nothing against Flatpaks (not even against snaps!), but I hate immutability, and I hate to be forced to use Flatpaks for everything GUI! This new path taken by RHEL makes it ideal for a server with a minimal desktop environment (which is GNOME, unfortunately), but not so much for a desktop. I listed here 11 ways of installing software in Ubuntu, which obviously include Flakpaks, and indeed I explore Flathub to discovers some possibly interesting apps, but I hate being forced to go a unique way. Red Hat simply said, “Look, we fucking don’t care about desktop apps!” OK, so the sensible thing to do is to reply, “Look, you just abandoned the Linux Desktop, so fuck you!” Red Hat has purposely broken GTK and GNOME, now they shit on us, and yet there are people who are still fans of this miserable company?! Even if I paid for a RHEL Desktop license, this is what I’d get?!

❷ I absolutely don’t need this half-baked, mostly broken Wayland shit! I plan to use X.org for as long as it will be possible! Once again, forcing things—especially immature technologies!— on people was supposed to be Microsoft’s and Apple’s prerogative. I want freedom in Linux, so fuck you, Red Hat!

Liam Proven from The Reg also noticed in ‘Tis the season to test the RHEL and AlmaLinux 10 betas the various changes in RHEL proper (not CentOS Stream); but I’d like to quote from the Release Notes for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.0 Beta, Chapter 10. Removed features:

The inst.xdriver and inst.usefbx options have been removed

The graphical system for the installation image switched from the Xorg server to a Wayland compositor. As a consequence, the inst.xdriver boot option has been removed. Wayland operates without relying on X drivers, making it incompatible with loading any such drivers. As a result, the inst.xdriver option is no longer applicable.

Additionally, the inst.usefbx boot option, previously used to load a generic framebuffer X driver, has also been removed.

Jira:RHELDOCS-18818[1]

That makes sense, given the forced use of Wayland.

Capturing screenshots from the Anaconda GUI with a global hot key is removed

Previously, users could capture screenshots of the Anaconda GUI by using a global hot key. Consequently, users could extract the screenshots manually from the installation environment for any further usage. This functionality has been removed.

Jira:RHELDOCS-18492[1]

That’s completely stupid.

Removed support for adding additional repositories from GUI

Previously, when configuring the installation source, you could configure the additional repositories for the package installation. Starting in RHEL 10, this support has been removed. However, you can use the Kickstart installation method or inst.addrepo boot option if you want to specify additional repositories.

Jira:RHELDOCS-18413[1]

They just don’t want you to use extra software, except from EPEL and Flatpaks.

The support for the libreport library has been removed

The support for the libreport library has been removed from DNF. If you want to attach DNF logs to your bug reports, you need to do it manually or by using a different mechanism.

Jira:RHEL-40382

The DNF debug plug-in has been removed

The DNF debug plug-in, which included the dnf debug-dump and dnf debug-restore commands, has been removed from the dnf-plugins-core package.

Jira:RHEL-23706[1]

They seem to want to make bug reporting more difficult, yay!

Significant changes in the package set for infrastructure services

The following packages are no longer included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux:

  • sendmail : Red Hat recommends migrating to the postfix mail daemon, that is supported.
  • redis : Red Hat recommends migrating to the valkey package.
  • dhcp : Red Hat recommends migrating to the available alternatives such as dhcpcd and ISC Kea.
  • mod_security: The mod_security directive is now available in the EPEL repository.
  • spamassassin : The Spamassassin mail filter is now available in the EPEL repository instead of the standard RHEL repository as it depends on the libdb (Berkeley DB) library, which is unavailable due to licensing issues.
  • xsane : The API is not yet ported to Gtk3.

The following packages have been renamed:

  • gpsd : It was previously included as gpsd-minimal.

Jira:RHEL-22424[1]

Even enterprise users will get frustrated. Red Hat is alienating everyone!

The dhcp-client package has been removed

The dhcp-client package has been removed from RHEL 10, because the ISC DHCP client is no longer maintained upstream. As a consequence, the dhclient utility is no longer available and you cannot use it as DHCP client in NetworkManager. As an alternative, use the NetworkManager-internal DHCP client, which was also the default in previous RHEL versions.

Jira:RHEL-46211

Strange, as Ubuntu still offers isc-dhcp-client.

32-bit packages have been removed in RHEL 10

Linking against 32-bit multilib packages has been removed. The *.i686 packages remain supported for the life cycle of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.

Jira:RHELDOCS-19269

In RHEL10, 32-bit apps are no longer supported. Wow.

TigerVNC has been removed

The TigerVNC remote desktop solution has been removed in RHEL 10.

TigerVNC provided the server and client implementation of the Virtual Network Computing (VNC) protocol in RHEL 9.

The following packages have been removed:

  • tigervnc
  • tigervnc-icons
  • tigervnc-license
  • tigervnc-selinux
  • tigervnc-server
  • tigervnc-server-minimal
  • tigervnc-server-module

The Connections application (gnome-connections) continues to be supported as an alternative VNC client, but it does not provide a VNC server. TigerVNC is replaced by the gnome-remote-desktop daemon, which is a remote desktop server that uses the RDP protocol. You can use the gnome-remote-desktop in the following modes:

  • Desktop sharing: provides sharing of your physical session by using Assisted Access
  • Headless session: provides a single user remote headless session
  • Remote login: provides a graphical remote login and replaces functionality of XDMCP

Jira:RHELDOCS-18388[1]

Ubuntu still offers tigervnc-standalone-server and so on.

Totem media player has been removed in RHEL 10

The RHEL 10 installation does not contain any media player by default. You can use any third party media player available, for example, on Flathub.

Jira:RHELDOCS-18389[1]

Now that we know that desktop functionality is not desired, that makes sense.

power-profiles-daemon is removed in RHEL 10

The power-profiles-daemon package that provided power mode configuration in GNOME has been removed in RHEL 10. In RHEL 10, you can manage power profiles with the Tuned daemon.

The tuned-ppd package provides a drop-in replacement for power-profiles-daemon, which allows it to be used with GNOME desktop and applications that use power-profiles-daemon API. You can also use it to override the three basic power profiles, including power-saver, balanced, and performance through the /etc/tuned/ppd.conf configuration file. If you want to use a customized profile, you can edit the configuration file and map the custom profile to the three basic power-profiles-daemon profile names.

Jira:RHELDOCS-18390[1]

That’s also an anti-desktop feature.

WebKitGTK is removed in RHEL 10

The WebKitGTK web browser engine is removed in RHEL 10. As a consequence, you can no longer build applications that depend on WebKitGTK. Desktop applications other than Firefox can no longer display web content. There is no alternative web browser engine provided in RHEL 10.

Jira:RHELDOCS-19170[1]

Absolutely fabulous!

Evolution is removed in RHEL 10

Evolution is a GNOME application that provides integrated email, calendar, contact management, and communications functionality. The application and its plugins are removed in RHEL 10. You can find an alternative in a third party source, for example on Flathub.

You can back up your Evolution data directly in Evolution using the Back up Evolution data item in the File menu.

Jira:RHELDOCS-19146[1]

Really, they don’t want apps.

The Eye of GNOME is removed

The Eye of GNOME (eog) image viewer application is removed in RHEL 10.

As an alternative, you can use the Loupe application.

Jira:RHELDOCS-19134[1]

Cheese is removed

The Cheese camera application is removed in RHEL 10.

As an alternative, you can use the Snapshot application.

Jira:RHELDOCS-19136[1]

No comment.

LibreOffice is removed in RHEL 10

The LibreOffice RPM packages are removed from RHEL 10. LibreOffice continues to be fully supported through the entire life cycle of RHEL 7, 8, and 9.

As a replacement for the RPM packages, Red Hat recommends that you install LibreOffice from either of the following sources provided by The Document Foundation:

The official Flatpak package in the Flathub repository: https://flathub.org/apps/org.libreoffice.LibreOffice. The official RPM packages: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download-libreoffice/.

Jira:RHELDOCS-19152[1]

Some people might actually prefer to install LibreOffice from upstream or Flathub. But literally not offering any LibreOffice package is ignominious.

Inkscape vector graphics editor is removed in RHEL 10

The RHEL 10 installation does not contain any vector graphics editor. You can use any third party vector graphics editor available, for example, on Flathub.

Jira:RHELDOCS-19150[1]

No desktop users needed! Go buy a MacBook.

The PulseAudio daemon is removed in RHEL 10

The PulseAudio daemon, and its packages pulseaudio and alsa-plugins-pulseaudio, have been removed in RHEL 10.

Note that the PulseAudio client libraries and tools are not deprecated, this change only impacts the audio daemon that runs on the system.

You can use the PipeWire audio system as a replacement, which has also been the default audio daemon since RHEL 9.0. PipeWire also provides an implementation of the PulseAudio APIs.

Jira:RHELDOCS-17682[1]

Ubuntu also made the switch to PipeWire, but PulseAudio is still available.

xorg-x11-server is removed from RHEL 10

The X.Org server, an implementation of the X Window System, was previously deprecated and is removed from RHEL 10. Note that the X11 protocol is not removed, which means that most applications will remain compatible through the Xwayland compositor. For more information, see Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 plans for Wayland and Xorg server (Red Hat Blog).

Jira:RHELDOCS-19222[1]

The big, stupid, dictatorial change! Forcing Wayland instead of X.Org is worse than forcing you to use Win11 instead of Win10.

An abrupt conclusion

It looks like I jumped the ship early enough to avoid a greater shock. Still, it’s too bad that I even had to adopt AlmaLinux only to abandon it. But Red Hat is abhorrent as a company.

Red Hat wants to make it clear that they only care about enterprise-grade servers. (Also for containers, via RHEL CoreOS.) Not that they cared much about desktops, but now their focus is crystal-clear.

Now, the dichotomy between RHEL and Fedora was too strong already. Fedora is moving sands, following a fake fixed-point release model; it’s actually a semi-rolling release, as the kernel is constantly upgraded during a release’s lifetime (heck, even in Arch there’s a kernel-lts!), and many other packages are upgraded too within the same Fedora version, including KDE. Fedora is Red Hat’s Arch, and a useless one at that, because RHEL is always eons behind. Being a guinea pig by using Fedora is simply pointless.

In contrast, Canonical’s Ubuntu is more sensibly thought. Any LTS version gets enterprise-grade support, while the other releases don’t. But at least only security, stability, and minor bug fixes are applied during those 9 months. Whoever chooses to stick with LTS (directly, not by using Linux Mint) can also have free extended support via Ubuntu Pro for up to 5 devices per e-mail account. And Ubuntu Pro also extends the support for all desktop environments present in the official flavors, and even to the extra codecs in Universe! You can’t beat that. 

While I stick to Ubuntu MATE (whose layout is easily customizable via MATE Tweaks), I surely appreciate the existence of the so many flavors and desktops. That’s what freedom means! Apparently, the best choice for desktop users is the Ubuntu ecosystem, not Red Hat’s (and not SUSE’s either).

In a certain sense, Ubuntu’s Achilles’s heel is Debian: there would be no Ubuntu, should Debian disappear. On the other hand, Ubuntu is already the number one distro not only on laptops and desktop PCs, but also across cloud platforms (AWS, Azure), Docker, WSL, and whatnot. It’s no wonder some people believe that Linux means Ubuntu; one cannot be “more mainstream” than that!

In the context of the “Linux Mint vs. Ubuntu war” (all flavors considered), and especially as Linux Mint 22.1 BETA is here, I plan to write a very short post on choosing between the two. One of my many objections from the past stopped holding water (I don’t require KDE anymore), but should the verdict keep being the same?