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Canonical asks desktop users to “pay what you think Ubuntu is worth”

arstechnica.com

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Re: Canonical asks desktop users to “pay what you think Ubuntu is worth”

#61

Post by NegativeK »

munchhausen wrote: post #57
pdw wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's now the backports service, http://backports.debian.org/ where you can get newer versions of packages recompiled for stable.

And using this service of course partially defeats the point of using Debian stable at all, at least for the packages that you install from backports.

I can imagine it being more useful for things that are easily fixable/less critical.

I was running a testing desktop, and X updated in a way that broke the proprietary nVidia drivers (nVidia's fault -- not Debian's.) That was quite annoying to suddenly have to fix. Those types of issues (though rare, even in testing) would be nice to avoid.

Re: Canonical asks desktop users to “pay what you think Ubuntu is worth”

#62

Post by NegativeK »

ghshephard wrote: post #2

So, the tricky question is - what if we can't afford that? Does that mean that, ethically, I should no longer use the product if I want to honor Canonical's request?

At a higher level: In my view, when it comes to open source software, beer-free is a part of libre-free.

If you can support the open source projects you use and want to stick around, that'd be good. At a shallow level, it will make them better.

But if you ask an open source maintainer whether a cash-strapped college student or a third-world citizen should avoid using their software because they their donation money could be used for a different purpose..? I hope the answer is no. In fact, I hope the answer extends to "Bill Gates is welcome to use my code without compensating me. Obviously it'd be nice if he did, though."

I'm willing to bet an imaginary nickel that the OSS devs I know would actually be pretty surprised if they received anything at all.

Re: Canonical asks desktop users to “pay what you think Ubuntu is worth”

#63

Post by freehunter »

gabemart wrote: post #24
furyofantares wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what you mean by "can't afford that." If you think Ubuntu provides you with $X in value but you literally do not have $X to your name, well, I'm not sure how it could be providing $X to you, then. You could be totally broke and feel like Ubuntu has the potential to provide you with $X in value (by helping you get a job, for example). You could just donate when the value is realized, not before. Maybe you…

>If you think Ubuntu provides you with $X in value but you literally do not have $X to your name, well, I'm not sure how it could be providing $X to you, then. I'm not sure I follow your reasoning. Imagine I have disposable income of $0 and I currently use Ubuntu. By your reasoning, Ubuntu is worthless to me. However, let's say that if you offered me $1 to stop using Ubuntu, I would say say "no". We can safely conclu…

You certainly do pay for national parks. If you're a citizen, you pay for it in income taxes and any money paid to local businesses while shopping that they then owe in taxes. If you're not a citizen, you're still indirectly paying through taxes paid to businesses while you are on vacation. National parks are not all funded by the entrance fee, they're government-subsidized.

To answer the question, no it is not unethical to use free software for free when you cannot afford to donate. Canonical is not expecting you to pay for it, merely making it clearer that you are able to pay for it if you wish. This comes on the heels of the outcry over Amazon search being built-in, with people asking if Ubuntu is hurting for cash, why is it not easier to give them money?

Re: Canonical asks desktop users to “pay what you think Ubuntu is worth”

#64

Post by abraham »

sandGorgon wrote: post #59

So, I use Ubuntu as my daily driver. But, I am deeply conflicted about this. Primarily because I have heard/read that Ubuntu does not spend its money on developers (expecially core, kernel, fs) and rides on Debian and Red Hat. Secondly, until fairly recently, parts of Launchpad were closed source. Third - there are other groups like Postgres, Openssh, etc which need funding more desperately. What will the donation am…

You can select which areas of development your payment goes to.

http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/how-mu...

Re: Canonical asks desktop users to “pay what you think Ubuntu is worth”

#65

Post by jdjb »

dfc wrote: post #53
jiggy2011 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is from June, here are some benchmarks of the proprietary Catalyst driver vs the open source driver built into ubuntu. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_r... I'd be shocked if they'd made up that huge gap in 3 months.

I have never noticed any performance problems with free ATI drivers. Have you used the free drivers and thought it felt sluggish?

I only use nvidia cards (with the proprietary drivers) because they were the only ones I could find with decent framerates playing something like Minecraft at 1080p resolution.

Do the free ATI drivers get 60fps (or even 30fps @ 1080p resolution) for most full screen games? If so, could you tell me which model of card you are achieving this with?

Re: Canonical asks desktop users to “pay what you think Ubuntu is worth”

#66

Post by olalonde »

jakubw wrote: post #5

Presenting this screen before you can actually get the OS does not make much sense for new users. They won't know if "hardware support on more PCs" or "performance optimisations" will be any important for them. It'd be more sensible for this to show up as a built-in screen after you've used Ubuntu for a few months.

"Paying before you can actually get the OS does not make much sense for new users."

It does make sense for Windows and OS X users :)

Re: Canonical asks desktop users to “pay what you think Ubuntu is worth”

#67

Post by furyofantares »

gabemart wrote: post #24
furyofantares wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what you mean by "can't afford that." If you think Ubuntu provides you with $X in value but you literally do not have $X to your name, well, I'm not sure how it could be providing $X to you, then. You could be totally broke and feel like Ubuntu has the potential to provide you with $X in value (by helping you get a job, for example). You could just donate when the value is realized, not before. Maybe you…

>If you think Ubuntu provides you with $X in value but you literally do not have $X to your name, well, I'm not sure how it could be providing $X to you, then. I'm not sure I follow your reasoning. Imagine I have disposable income of $0 and I currently use Ubuntu. By your reasoning, Ubuntu is worthless to me. However, let's say that if you offered me $1 to stop using Ubuntu, I would say say "no". We can safely conclu…

I wouldn't say the person in you example is unable to afford it, $0 disposable income just means you've chosen to spend all your money in other ways or to save it. So I don't think it's related to the question I was responding to.

Re: Canonical asks desktop users to “pay what you think Ubuntu is worth”

#70

Post by cpearce »

gknoy wrote: post #38
joe_the_user wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Unity is the least worthwhile part of Ubuntu but since it's already here, I'd like them to fund an alternative, not remove funding and keep it as it is. Edit: The page should a "make the desktop less awesome" side of the slider. If Unity is what they mean by "awesome", it should be slid back.

I realize it's not part of the default distribution, but installing xubuntu-desktop is a nearly-painless way to ditch Unity for XFCE. I've been very happy with it.

You can install Cinnamon (the window manager used by Linux Mint), and it's very good. It behaves "traditionally" (i.e. like Windows 7), and it's much prettier than XFCE.
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