🧭 Legacy Audit: Tall Stories in the Open Source World

Years ago, I wrote about the bluffs and tall stories that often circulate in the open-source ecosystem—promises of features, integrations, and breakthroughs that never quite arrive. Today, I revisit that post with fresh eyes and a deeper sense of legacy stewardship. Some of those stories have aged into silence. Others have been quietly abandoned. And new ones continue to emerge.

📑 The Original Tall Stories

• Calligra Theme Support (2011): Jarosław Staniek’s article on Shared Themes envisioned CSS-style theming across open-source office suites. More than a decade later, no such system exists. Proprietary suites like MS Office and Apple iWork still lead in design coherence.
• Speech in Ubuntu (2012): Mark Shuttleworth’s blog post promised voice interaction as a fun and natural input method by 2014. CMU Sphinx was mentioned as the backend. Yet speech never became native to Ubuntu, and Unity 8—the interface that was supposed to support it—was discontinued.

🖥️ Wayland: The Display Server That Keeps Falling Back

Wayland was announced as the modern successor to X11, promising smoother graphics, better security, and cleaner architecture. Yet even in 2025:

• GNOME, which had previously dropped X11 support, now includes fallback code for it again.
• Remote desktop, screen sharing, and legacy app compatibility remain problematic.
• Many distributions still default to X11 for stability.

The bluff? That Wayland would fully replace X11 “in the next few cycles.” The reality? We’re still straddling two worlds.

🔍 Why These Stories Matter

These aren’t just technical delays—they’re emotional fractures in the trust between developers and users. When features are promised and then forgotten, it erodes the legitimacy of the ecosystem. Open source thrives on transparency, but it also needs accountability.

🧬 Simulation Prompt

Imagine a club ritual where members audit the legacy of open-source promises. Each member brings a “ghost feature” to the table—something announced but never delivered. They debate:

“Should we continue trusting declarations without delivery? Or should we build a new protocol for emotional stewardship and feature accountability?”

This isn’t about blame—it’s about clarity, legacy, and the future of sovereign software.

🌅 Beyond the Sunset: Life After Windows 10 and Office 2019

On October 14, 2025, Microsoft will officially end support for Windows 10 and Office 2019. This means no more security updates, bug fixes, or technical support. While the software will still run, users will be exposed to increasing risks and compatibility issues over time.

Microsoft’s recommended path is to upgrade to Windows 11 and subscribe to Microsoft 365—a shift from one-time purchases to ongoing subscriptions. For many, this feels like renting software even after buying the hardware.

🛤️ Microsoft’s Official Options

• Upgrade to Windows 11 (if your hardware supports it)
• Subscribe to Microsoft 365 for Office apps
• Purchase Office 2024 (limited availability, still proprietary)

But what if you want to stay sovereign? What if you want to own your tools, avoid subscriptions, and keep your hardware alive?

🌱 The Open-Source Ecosystem: 100% Coverage and More

Modern Linux distributions like Ubuntu or Linux Mint paired with open-source apps can fully replace daily software needs—and even extend them.

📑 Office Suites

• LibreOffice: Full-featured word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation suite
• OnlyOffice: Sleek UI, great compatibility with Microsoft formats

📊 Diagramming Tools

• draw.io: Browser-based or desktop diagramming tool
• Mermaid: Markdown-based diagramming for flowcharts, Gantt charts, and more

📝 Rich Text & Publishing

• Quarto: Markdown-powered publishing engine for documents, slides, and books
• Markdown: Lightweight markup for notes, blogs, and documentation

🖼️ Image Viewing

• gThumb
• Eye of GNOME
• Nomacs

🎬 Video Playback

• VLC Media Player
• MPV
• Celluloid

🎧 Audio Playback

• Rhythmbox
• Clementine
• Audacious

🌐 Browsers

• Firefox
• Chromium
• Brave

🎨 Adobe Suite Alternatives

• GIMP: Photoshop alternative
• Inkscape: Illustrator alternative
• Scribus: InDesign alternative
• Darktable: Lightroom alternative
• Audacity: Audition alternative
• Kdenlive: Premiere Pro alternative

💻 Coding IDEs

• VS Code (open-source build)
• Geany
• Kate

🔬 Scientific Apps

• JupyterLab
• RStudio
• GNU Octave

🧒 Kids Learning Apps

• GCompris
• Tux Paint
• Scratch

🎮 Gaming on Linux

• 0 A.D.: Historical RTS game
• SuperTuxKart: Fun racing game
• Battle for Wesnoth: Turn-based strategy

Bonus: Steam and GOG both support Linux, with thousands of commercial and indie titles playable via Proton or native builds.

🧭 The Sovereign Path Forward

As proprietary vendors push harder toward subscriptions and cloud lock-in, the open-source ecosystem offers a vibrant, modular alternative. Whether you're a student, a civic architect, a creative, or a casual user—Linux and its app ecosystem can meet your needs with clarity, ownership, and emotional resonance.

What would a post-Excel world look like? Can Gnumeric, LibreOffice Calc, or a new AI-powered spreadsheet engine rise to meet the challenge? The search for a sovereign spreadsheet continues.