That's what it means. Desktop Linux is horrible now. After many years I have fully abandoned GNOME/GNU, so it's funny to see n00bs who just found out about it so excited. Mommy, look, I put a USB into my laptop, and now I have a different kind of bloat!
Discussion
archlinux has 0 bloat
Linux world is vast but you're right in the fact that most distros are just garbage.
I've decided to switch to OpenBSD for servers and AOSP Linux for GUI stuff. No GNU distros anymore.
This is true of pre-configured distributions. But I guess that's the point.
Arch is still fairly lightweight and easy to install - You get a distro to mold however you want.
No thank you. I would rather engage in more productive activities like cutting my lawn with scissors.
Absolutely, you do you - But not correct to say Desktop Linux is horrible now, when the fact is, Linux allows you to take out what you don't want. If you're willing to go through the effort of cutting your lawn with scissors, but not uninstall some garbage packages to keep the machine you use to connect to the world clean and in a known state to yourself (or just put it together in 10 mins as arch allows), then I think that's a different issue entirely.
Tell me how to get verified boot with desktop Linux.
Ubuntu has it, right?
Some distros have this built-in. Others, and for instance with arch, you can use sbctl which automates most of the process, by having you create keys, enrolling them, and then signing the boot files (this is with the default arch bootloader, systemd-boot).
This doesn't verify the firmware.
Irrelevant - BIOS and UEFI for the purposes of secureboot only care about the kernel files and the bootloader. And in the case of UEFI, you can bypass bootloader and directly launch the kernel.
Relevant to me.
SecureBoot is not verified boot. Verified boot is a lot more extensive. There is no way desktop Linux can do it. No matter how many commands you type.
Bruh, the newbies are coming from Windows clown world, or at least from spyware-infested commercial Android.
Of course they think Linux is amazing :D
I built Linux From Scratch in my student days. And then Buildroot.
Zero bloat, but my time has value now :p
Yeah, Windows now has ads which is honestly too far even by MS standards. I really liked Ubuntu 15 years ago, AOSP has the same spirit now.