From The Chief Editor's Desk...

I don't keep it a secret. I'm a big baseball fan. I'm not one of those "rabid" baseball fans, who'll watch just any ol' baseball game. I watch ‒ daily ‒ my hometown team, the Kansas City Royals. Yes, those hapless KC Royals. While they currently have one of the worst records in Major League Baseball, I'm a true fan, through thick and thin (and there's been a LOT of "thin" in those years). I've been a fan since their inception in 1969. In fact, I remember attending a Kansas City Athletics game in the late mid ‘60s with my parents and maternal grandparents, before they packed up and moved to Oakland to become the Oakland A's.

Depending on "who" you reference, Kansas City is the smallest (or next to smallest) "small market" team in the MLB. That references their payroll, the population of the area they draw from, the seating capacity of their stadium, and the market value of the baseball club. Other teams that are considered "small market teams" in the MLB include the Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Rays, Oakland Athletics, Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Compare these to the typical "large market teams," like the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs, Washington Nationals, and Philadelphia Phillies. The salaries of those teams make the payroll of the small market teams look like loose change you might find in the gutter of the street. The seating capacity of their stadiums is enormous, compared to the seating capacity of the small market teams. The market value of the large market teams compared to the small market teams is like the difference between night and day.

I'm sure you get the idea.

As a small market team, the Kansas City Royals get very little respect around baseball. Even when things are going "well," they really don't get the respect that the teams in larger markets get. ANYTHING that goes awry gets blamed on not having the vast resources that the large market teams have access to. Of course, the Royals haven't done much lately to garner much respect either, being in year seven of a five year "rebuild," with scarcely any light visible at the end of the tunnel. Some of the players from that 2015 World Series team have either retired, left baseball altogether, or have become "fringe" players on other teams. The economics of being a small market team pretty much precluded the Royals from being able to retain the core talent of that championship team. Oh, and let's not forget the hands of Father Time, who isn't particularly kind to youthful athletes.

In many ways, PCLinuxOS has a lot in common with the Kansas City Royals. We don't have any corporate sponsors. We don't have any "rich" benefactors "bankrolling" its development. Nope. We have people who are passionate about their craft, doing the best they can. And, in many cases, their best is simply the best in the Linux universe. We have a community of users who joyfully support the development and the infrastructure necessary to have a public face with individual donations to keep things afloat.

PCLinuxOS doesn't have the name recognition of the *buntus, Fedoras, and Arch Linux distros. PCLinuxOS doesn't have any rich corporations or benefactors to fund its existence. PCLinuxOS doesn't get the respect that many of the "big players" among Linux distros enjoy. As a PCLinuxOS user, I am grateful for all of those. Way back, about 10 years or so ago, PCLinuxOS was riding high as the #1 distro on Distrowatch. Being "on top" made PCLinuxOS a target. Everyone wants to "dethrone" whomever occupies that coveted "top spot." We had all kinds of riff raff coming in from the outside, just to cause problems or be demeaning.

I'm quite happy to be using a Linux distro that offers so much to its users, yet avoids that circus atmosphere that comes from being "on top." PCLinuxOS can't be beat when it comes to hardware recognition. PCLinuxOS can't be beat when it comes to stability. PCLinuxOS can't be beat when it comes to talking about the community of PCLinuxOS users. Let all the others deal with that BS. Not being in the "top spot" allows Texstar, his merry band of packagers, and its users to just calmly go about their business, without any of that hype and showboating. No circus around here, thank you very much!

********************

This month's cover image was created by parnote, using an image from pixelRaw on Pixabay and "sweetening" it up a bit with a PCLinuxOS logo. We thought it was fitting, since this month marks the 32nd "birthday" of Linux.

********************

Until next month, I bid you peace, happiness, serenity, prosperity, and continued good health!