This piece builds on my previous exploration of ideological strictness in the tech world. Following the DigDeeper writeup, I wanted to turn the spotlight on another rabbit hole I dove into: the culture surrounding so-called "minimalist software" movements, specifically suckless and its surrounding ecosystem and the mindset that drives them.

Introduction: The Problem With Purity

The minimalist Linux world often promotes clean design, lightweight software, and hands-on configuration. In theory, these goals are admirable. In practice, they often come bundled with elitist culture, aggressive gatekeeping, and a disdain for accessibility.

Projects like suckless have built a reputation for producing efficient and elegant tools but also for cultivating communities that can be exclusionary and toxic to newcomers. There's a line between principled simplicity and schizophrenic spiralling. This article is about what happens when that line gets crossed.

An Interview with a Former Suckless Community Member

This section is based on an interview with Crystal, who spent years immersed in minimalist Linux culture before moving away from it entirely.

Paranoia and Burnout

Crystal's experience shows how minimalism can become an obsession. The pursuit of "perfect" setups eventually consumed more energy than any actual work. With constant tweaking, patching, and distro-hopping, the focus shifted away from usefulness towards a never-ending quest for purity.

Over time, burnout set in. OpenBSD and Gentoo offered a middle ground: A powerful, efficient, but less hostile. It was there that Crystal rediscovered what computing could feel like without paranoia.

Homogenized Individualism

The paradox of this subculture is that despite its emphasis on DIY and uniqueness, everyone ends up with the same visual and behavioural patterns. Crystal summed it up: "Same bar on top, transparent terminal, dark anime wallpaper, pywal or catppuccin theme". Even so-called lightweight forks like Chadwm or configurations like NvChad grew bloated under the weight of rice culture and ego.

Ironically, the ones who promoted freedom of control became enforcers of the whole minimalist aesthetic and conformity; hostile to deviation and quick to ridicule those who questioned the meta.

Developer Attitude and the Suckless Ethos

The dwm page states: "... This keeps its userbase small and elitist. No novices asking stupid questions".. The underlying approach requiring configuration via editing C header files is described as a strength of simplicity and control. According to the developers, this model reduces attack surface, removes the need for configuration parsers, and encourages users to learn C.

Yet, many view this approach as exclusionary. It's not just about editing source, it's about the messaging that goes with it. The implication is clear: if you're not already part of the club, you aren't welcome. And while some may defend this as honesty, others argue it's poor design disguised as purity.

For new users, the bar for entry is high not because of the technical demands, but because of the social tone. The attitude isn't "you can learn". but rather, "you should have known".

The Art vs Artist Argument

Crystal also discussed community hypocrisy around the behaviour of developers. Accusations of grooming, narcissism, and incompetence were met with inconsistency: some tools were boycotted for dev behaviour, others excused because the software was considered too good to drop. "People preach apolitical neutrality", Crystal said, "but act with deep bias and favoritism".

The Arch Linux Discord server banned mention of developers like Vaxry or Lunduke. Mentions of grooming/paedophilia-related controversies devolved into chaos. "Separate the art from the artist" vs "you can't use software by predators" vs "keep politics out of Linux". None of it was consistent, and all of it was messy.

Thanks to Crystal

Many thanks to Crystal for sharing their insights, experiences, and stories. This article would not exist in this form without their voice.

Personal Thoughts

Being someone who's watched these subcultures from the edge, I relate to parts of Crystal's story. The seduction of "purity". The dopamine of "less is more". But also the moment you realize you've optimized away usability, joy, and connection.

My personal "deep" dive went as far as using Void Linux with i3 to a custom Gentoo kernel I set up to run on 15-year-old hardware with the bare minimum. I would consider myself "OS agnostic", I just use what I have available. It depends on driver availability, ease of use, and how much free time I have.

I still use minimal tools. I like clean systems. But I am no longer trying to win a war of suffering. Like Crystal, I learned that functionality and ethics aren't mutually exclusive. You can care about code quality without becoming cruel. You can appreciate simplicity without fetishizing it.

This article is about the dangers of ideology when it goes unchecked. The moment community becomes conformity, and minimalism becomes martyrdom.

Disclaimer:

This article is not an attack on individual contributors or technical efforts. Nor is it about ridiculing preference for minimal software. It is a cultural critique. cult.ist strives to offer apolitical, nuanced perspectives, and should not be read as the voice of a single author, but as a collaborative reflection.