What Linux Can Tell Us About AI's Future

“If Linux is so good, why aren’t more people using it?”

Someone once posed this interesting question on X.com. At first, the answer to this question seems obvious: if more people aren’t using Linux, maybe Linux isn’t that good. The people have spoken through their choice.

But the first answer that comes to mind often isn’t the right one. The rational part of our brain takes some time to work. DHH, the creator of Ruby on Rails, published a blog post to answer the question. He wrote:

“If exercising is so healthy, why don’t more people do it?
If reading is so educational, why don’t more people do it?
If junk food is so bad for you, why do so many people eat it?”

He continues, “It’s easier to be fat and ignorant in a world of cheap, empty calories than it is to be fit and informed. It’s hard to resist the temptation of minimal effort.” That’s it. That’s our answer in one line:

“It’s hard to resist the temptation of minimal effort.”

We can understand this from an evolutionary perspective. Up until a few generations ago, food shortages were frequent, and a lack of food meant a lack of energy to survive. The more mental and physical energy a human could save, the better their chances of survival. We are hardwired to think and do less. And this desire to think and do less leads to not choosing Linux.

But that's a discussion about OS adoption. We are more interested in AI adoption. Who’ll get adopted the most: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek, or something else? Which harness will win: Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, or Pi?

The answer, I’m afraid, might lie in the sentence we just read above: “It’s hard to resist the temptation of minimal effort.”

Big players like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google are attracting users with subscriptions that require minimal effort. They are offering all AI-related tools under one roof. For example, if you get Google’s AI Pro Plan, you’ll get access to:

Get one Google AI subscription, and you won’t have to make an effort to find the right product for a task. Everything is available in one dashboard.

But one can argue that Google is an exception because it offers more digital products than any other company.

Well, we can also take the example of Anthropic, a company famous for not wasting effort on side products. If you get their Pro plan, you’ll get access to:

There is an alternative path that empowers users, just like Linux does, but it takes effort. They can use  API keys for multiple open-source models through OpenRouter or OpenCode Zen. They can use open-source harnesses like Pi or OpenCode. They can use OpenDesign for AI-led design. They can use n8n for automated AI-assisted task execution. But a majority of us will probably subscribe to a bundled, closed-source, tech giant product for the same reason a majority of us use Windows and Mac. “It’s hard to resist the temptation of minimal effort.”

I am not throwing shade at people who use bundled products that offer convenience. I am just observing the human tendency to minimise effort. And if human nature stays consistent, a decade later, we’ll probably see a YouTube video titled ‘2036 is the year of Pi.’