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Mark Shuttleworth: Canonical leads Ubuntu, not 'your whims'

theregister.co.uk

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Re: Mark Shuttleworth: Canonical leads Ubuntu, not 'your whims'

#81

Post by coldtea »

ihsw wrote: post #23
aroman wrote: post #7

As someone who has been an active contributor to desktop Linux in the past, and particularly very close to Ubuntu (I was sponsored to attend UDS-O), I have to say that I am happy Shuttleworth is finally taking this much needed stand. I can absolutely understand the blowback to his sentiments, because really, the diversity of use and mindset in the Linux community is one of its defining characteristics. But frankly, h…

The problem is secrecy and authoritarianism run directly contrary to the spirit of open source software, and if we're going to go down that road then we need to stop calling it a community-driven Linux distribution. Where will we be when Amazon et al start leaning more heavily on Canonical for more invasive features? What recourse will the existing user-base have other than being callously told to "fuck off if you do…

>if we're going to go down that road then we need to stop calling it a community-driven Linux distribution.

It's not like "community-driven Linux distribution" is such a badge of honor.

Re: Mark Shuttleworth: Canonical leads Ubuntu, not 'your whims'

#82

Post by DrZen »

JeremyMorgan wrote: post #29
DrZen wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice attitude to legitimate criticism (Unity kills productivity for many). I guess thats why all the 'l33ts' and everyone else is running to OSX. Thanks for the motivation.

Perhaps I wasn't clear. I'm paraphrasing what they're saying to people. I agree with you completely, Unity is garbage and thankfully we can still switch it if we need to, or switch distros altogether. My comment is disparaging the arrogant attitude of Canonical on this subject.

My apologies, I missed the sarcasm. The scary thing is I think I missed it because its exactly how the Canonical Ubuntu zealots have responded to valid criticism to date.

Re: Mark Shuttleworth: Canonical leads Ubuntu, not 'your whims'

#83

Post by nonamegiven »

Ubuntu used to be one thing, and it was exactly what I wanted.

Now they're something else, and that's OK, but it's not what I want, and that's OK too.

At the moment I'm hanging on to the parts I want by my fingernails, running the nicely minimal Lubuntu. But I think the writing's on the wall that eventually Ubuntu/Canonical will have no interest in supporting the various Ubuntu derivatives, and I'll need to fall back to something like LXDE on Debian. And that's OK too.

Ubuntu used to be one thing. Now they're something else. That's OK. So long, and thanks for all the updates.

Re: Mark Shuttleworth: Canonical leads Ubuntu, not 'your whims'

#84

Post by nonamegiven »

JeremyMorgan wrote: post #48

I think we should take his advice. He says he doesn't want "leet" Linux users and we should go use something else, and many of us have been taking that advice all along. Personally, I'm a Gentoo guy and have been for a while. Here are some great hacker distros that I love to use and contribute to: Gentoo Arch Slackware Debian And for those who want a "user friendly" distro for their mom to try out: Linux Mint Yeah, I…

Linux Mint: it's an Ubuntu derivative, and I suspect that Ubuntu/Canonical will one day either be hostile or at least actively unhelpful to derivatives.

Downloads: http://www.linuxmint.com/oldreleases.php

Everything there is an ubuntu derivative, except in the middle there's a debian rolling release edition.

I suppose the mainstream ubuntu derivative will be great for stereotypical "mom's", as long as Ubuntu's eye doesn't turn in that direction.

For more hacker types that want some creature comforts, are the debian versions a good choice? I would expect/hope that some of the multimedia "just works" benefits would be in there. http://www.linuxmint.com/release.php?id=14

Or would I be better off on debian/LXDE, and manage the few packages that I most care about on my own?

Re: Mark Shuttleworth: Canonical leads Ubuntu, not 'your whims'

#85

Post by pekk »

mich41 wrote: post #60
mtgx wrote: post #44

I'm not sure what it means for the Linux community that Canonical is doing this, but I do think they are doing the right thing for "Ubuntu" if they want to make it a more mainstream OS, and also an OS that works on mobile hardware, and it's fast and smooth. If that means they have to break clean from a lot of legacy stuff, then so be it. Ultimately, I want a strong mainstream OS alternative to Windows - one that is p…

> I want a strong mainstream OS alternative to Windows - one that is popular enough and gets support from all major software vendors for apps. If Ubuntu got at least as popular as Mac OS, it would be amazing, and I don't really care what they have to do to get there. I can understand that Canonical wants to become a "mainstream alternative to Windows" because this means money for them. But why do you care how many bu…

It's pretty ridiculous to call Ubuntu a "buggy Windows or OSX clone".
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