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Partly, it's a matter of timing. When Progeny started, it was 2000. Perhaps the height of the .com bubble. There were a lot of competitors to Debian. Redhat was still officially supporting a free desktop OS. GNOME hadn't yet recieved a critical look via a Usability study that demonstrated that half the crap in it was not only useless, but confusing. Distributing an .iso was feasible but finding software to burn them was still arcane. Crappy modem support was still a fundamental problem. A notable constants though: Debian stable was two years old, and woudn't be out for another year.

By the time Ubuntu came out, Fedora had taken (and partly dropped) the torch, GNOME was vastly improved, KDE wasn't in danger of being placed in non-free, and a lot of Linux providers dropped out after the .com crash.

The other half of the equation was simple: goals. Shuttleworth aims to be truly successful, not just something to feed himself and his kids (*cough* his progeny *cough*). He capitalized on the fact that Debian stable was so sorely out of date that when everyone else stated they'd not be packaging xfree 4.4, debian had just gotten 4.3 into unstable. Ubuntu's release schedule is (usually) designed to be synchronized with GNOME so that, for a brief moment, Ubuntu is one of two places to go for the latest (the second being CVS). Shuttleworth recognized that a number of people didn't have access to windows based CD burning software, or perhaps the knowhow to find some, and funded ShipIt.

While Murdock was aiming for NOW (network of workstations), Ubuntu's initial focus was on laptop support. Even in 2000, the question was asked "why do you think your SSI will succeed in today's environment?" If the answer was "it's open source," well that answer clearly wasn't adaquate. NOW assumes a very specific kind of resources, and adds a lot of complexity to gain something that rapidly falls in price. It might be interesting, but you have to own more than a couple workstations to make it worth your time, and it doesn't really aid mysql or apache much.

It almost seems like Canonical learned from Progeny that half of selling Debian support was going to be making people want it, instead of capitalizing on some imaginary underserved market segment looking for ways to reduce the cost of Debian deployment. As always, sales, sales, sales!

Has anyone got any references to support this claim? Were their patches accepted? What did the patches do?

On the other hand, Microsoft certainly isn't offering any patches to Ubuntu bugs...

You forgot to say that (k)Ubuntu's live CDs are in fact the Dapper Beta CDs and that the (k)Ubuntu's developers are jumping through hoops to solve outstanding bugs before Dapper is released. That screen resolution problem is exactly one of those problems, which is extensively documented, and you can see for yourself if you browse (K)Ubuntu's bug reports at https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu .

https://launchpad.net/malone is a good place to start, you can file bugs there Also you can register to ubunt-user list: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-u sers But it's better to have a gmail account for that, if you need one I can give you one if you mail me at olafra at gmail.com

~$ dpkg -l ruby1.8
ruby1.8 1.8.2-9ubuntu1 Interpreter of object-oriented scripting lan

~$ ruby --version
ruby 1.8.3 (2005-06-23) [i486-linux]

I've read several places that this is a CVS version.

"When I pulled the Ruby package out of Breezy and built it, it was a 1.8.3 CVS
build. This is yet another pre-release package. I don't think the updated Ruby
package has made it to backports yet. I've been checking every couple of hours
now. If and when the package does make it into backports I hope and pray that
it's a 1.8.2 stable build and not something that was thrown together out of CVS
like what I've already seen."
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/ruby1 .8/+bug/18876

"...doesn't work if you're running Ubuntu 5.10 (and I'm guessing Debian sarge) because they have a heavily patched 1.8.2 version of ruby (from CVS) that reports itself as 'ruby 1.8.3 (2005-06-23) [i486-linux]'..."
http://dev.rubyonrails.org/ticket/2263

Replying to myself, here's the bug:
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/scim/ +bug/2565

It's nice to see a distro with a sense of humour. I especially like that the severity is set to critical.

https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/beagle- integration

Mark Shuttleworth call for Edgy Eft (https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+specs) is nice but does it really have any impact on improvement on Linux systems, on it's market share. Does he really think that this will produce any new ideas which are needed for the break through of Linux in the desktop area? I think not.

If a developer is interested in edgy work he has to drop a lot of the out dated circumstances taken over from the old UNIX area which is now almost dead. He has to get rid of thinking along all the current implementations and work on something which isn't as limited. There are IMHO two very important areas where hard cuts are a necessity and both are linked with the look&feel.

First any edgy work has to get rid of all the Gnome/KDE/etc desktop guidelines and replace them with a single set of guidelines as outlined in wyoGuide (http://wyoguide.sf.net/). Only then will OpenSource application become competitors to the commercial counterparts.

Second any edgy desktop has to get rid of X11 and replace it with a frame buffer implementation (DirectFB) as outlined in wyoDesktop (http://wyodesktop.sf.net/). Only then will the Linux desktop be possible in a sensible fashion on anything ranging from super computers to embedded devices.

I'm well aware that these two suggestions throws away the most important corner stones of the OpenSource world. I also knows that this means a huge load of work but to become successful this is simply necessary. Believe me if it isn't done and if not soon the OpenSource will fail. So I encurrage anybody, developer or not, to visit the two projects and subscribe to the users mailing list else the Ubuntu Bug #1 (https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/1) will never be fixed.

O. Wyss

Mark Shuttleworth call for Edgy Eft (https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+specs) is nice but does it really have any impact on improvement on Linux systems, on it's market share. Does he really think that this will produce any new ideas which are needed for the break through of Linux in the desktop area? I think not.

If a developer is interested in edgy work he has to drop a lot of the out dated circumstances taken over from the old UNIX area which is now almost dead. He has to get rid of thinking along all the current implementations and work on something which isn't as limited. There are IMHO two very important areas where hard cuts are a necessity and both are linked with the look&feel.

First any edgy work has to get rid of all the Gnome/KDE/etc desktop guidelines and replace them with a single set of guidelines as outlined in wyoGuide (http://wyoguide.sf.net/). Only then will OpenSource application become competitors to the commercial counterparts.

Second any edgy desktop has to get rid of X11 and replace it with a frame buffer implementation (DirectFB) as outlined in wyoDesktop (http://wyodesktop.sf.net/). Only then will the Linux desktop be possible in a sensible fashion on anything ranging from super computers to embedded devices.

I'm well aware that these two suggestions throws away the most important corner stones of the OpenSource world. I also knows that this means a huge load of work but to become successful this is simply necessary. Believe me if it isn't done and if not soon the OpenSource will fail. So I encurrage anybody, developer or not, to visit the two projects and subscribe to the users mailing list else the Ubuntu Bug #1 (https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/1) will never be fixed.

O. Wyss

You all may know that OpenSource isn't much loved by the ordinary users because of a range of reasons. The OSDL survey (http://www.osdl.org/dtl/DTL_Survey_Report_Nov2005 .pdf) shows that even the majority of the Linux users wish for Windows-Only applications. Novell's cool solution website (http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/16798 .html) proves that their users (customers) prefer Windows-Only applications. And the thread at LinuxQuestions.org (http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthrea d.php?t=105955) gives more hints. To solve this I've a vision outlined in here (http://wyoguide.sf.net/papers/Cross-platform.html ).

Sure enough this vision can only become true if many of you choose to participate which of course means a lot of work for all of you. But exactly here comes the Google SoC into play it would allow to get your own project be converted to conform to the wyoGuide guidelines (http://wyoguide.sourceforge.net/guidelines/conten t.html). So I encourage any project to apply for the Soc (http://code.google.com/soc/) to make it

• conformant to the guideline so any user may feel comfortable
• conformant in the code so any developer may feel comfortable
• conformant in spirit so the Ubuntu bug #1 (https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/1) gets finally tackled.

So don't fear to apply even if your project is just a small one since when your project is converted it most probably will attract more users and more developers, soon surpassing any project which doesn't care.

If you are just a user of a project make the developers aware of this. You might even check the guidelines yourself and help in testing. Or you might help in suggestions for corrections, etc. Tell it to your friends, your university stuff or anywhere else. Just make this vision become true and the first Top inhibitors of Linux desktop adoption gets finally solved.

O. Wyss

Don't judge too harsh, BP doesn't have some millions left to drop into a project but has to earn some money. Don't under estimate the effect money has on the success of OpenSource projects. I guess there isn't a single top project which doesn't have a sponsor. Just see what happens to FreeBSD after the last sponsor left.

Besides just give me a few millions and I will fix Ubuntu's bug #1 (https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/1) at least to a certain extend (see http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/54009/index.h tml).

O. Wyss

I really hope Mark Shuttleworth makes any progress in solving Ubuntu Bug #1 (https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/1) albeit I fear he still needs several centuries at the current fixing rate.

See also http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/54009/index.h tml

O. Wyss

1. I definitly don't ignore flaws in GNU/Linux software, I run promptly off and patch them. As for Windows flaws, I find them quite interesting because they're usually not just a regular typo kind of flaw but something more deep in the archetecture, they kind that I want to learn to avoid as a budding computer programmer. Plus I'm a Windows sysadmin and so these will quite possibly affect me personally

2. I've actually never yelled anything on slashdot ( by yelling, I'm assuming you mean typing with caps on)

3. I have one penis, that is enough. Thank you.

4. I don't hate windows, it's more of a strong distaste, like the feeling I have for asparagus. Also, you'll never see me spending money on windows emulation software. I've played with Wine to get IE to work in Linux, but that is because I'm a web developer and I need to test stuff, not because I enjoy that travesty.

5. I'm not quite sure what this means, but I have it on good authority that several large bussinesses use it on there desktops. Nasa is one example, Ibm is moving there, and I think European companies have a dispropotionatly large number of deployments.

6. I don't know any linux user who would be ashamed that people don't know what linux is. It's a bug, but were working on it. https://launchpad.net/malone/bugs/1

7. Somebody else alreay spoke to this.

8. Are kids masochists for playing with Legos for hours on ends? I do this because I enjoy it. If you don't there are many distros that do not require that sort of thing.

9. Funny, I saw an artical in newsforge about a professional publisher that used about half linux, half windows.

10. I know nothing about video editing, don't really care either.

11. Depends on what you mean. For the 'gamer' types (you know who you are) that is true. It's the main reason I still have a copy of windows. For most people I don't think that's too much of an issue. As for educational software, there's plenty for Linux.

12. I actually find this more true of windows users that linux users.

13. These lunatics are probably smarter than you or I will ever be. And I don't think any one where has a problem with clicking. It's just really inefficient for some tasks.

14. Yes, and your statement was incredibly factual. Pot, meet kettle.

15. I'm deeply confused what 'gentoo', 'lgx', and 'rpm' have to do with tenageers.

16. I'm actually quite happy with win32codecs.

17. No I'm starting to think your post should have been modded funny.

18. I'm not much of an office user, but OpenOffice works quite fine for me. I love the pdf export option, and it's equation writting capabilities suit me well as a math student. Sure it has a few issues, but I like it better than MS Office.

19. I've never had problems with recording in Gnome. It's increadiby easy too.

20. I have a CD-RW, DVD R/RW and it can read and write both CDs and DVD fine in linux.

21. I didn't need any 3rd party software to use X. To get good graphic accelleration I needed the non-free fglrx driver. But the same would be true in Windows.

22. I'm not a usenet user. But I do find emails from Outlook users with their tiny blue fonts annoying so I can sympatise.

23. Did I miss something? What happened to IBM, Redhat, Novel, HP, and several other large companies.

24. Thats fine with me. I'll continue to give my money to the companies that stay.

25. I'm not an authourity on the issue. But I've heard that the Windows one would be better off to be non-existant too.

26. I've set up Windows about 150 times now. It takes about 3-5 hours to get the computer into a state were it is ready to use. (this includes patching, and installing important software like a real web browser, office software, a firewall, AV, etc). An Ubuntu install is about 1 hour.

27. All my usb stuff Just Works(tm). Same with my brother's, and anyone else I've seen.

28. I used linux before I knew s

It is already at ubuntus bugzilla, and is confirmed (not rejected): https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/gnome -screensaver/+bug/22007/+viewstatus
We may have to stay with xscreensaver until gnome 2.16, but well, it has served us well until now anyways.

should be more than enough to break Mircosoft's monopoly on the desktop which certainly will have a mighty impact on their ability to throw around with money. How?

Assume you have a 1000 developers who would one year fully concentrate on writing OpenSource applications according to the guidelines of wyoGuide (http://wyoguide.sf.net/). This would easily achieve up to a few hundreds cross-platform applications which are better or at least equally good as any Windows-only application. This base stock will force any software vendor who wants to stay in business to change their applications as well to comply to wyoGuide. Any application soon will be converted to cross-platform that's no question. Together with the already cross-platform Mozilla and OpenOffice this will definitely break MS monopoly on the desktop.

Then nobody would ask again for none-Linux applications anymore as here (http://www.osdl.org/dtl/DTL_Survey_Report_Nov2005 .pdf, http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread .php?t=105955 or http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/16798. html). The Ubuntu Bug #1 (https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/1) would finally be solve and the future as outlined here (http://wyoguide.sf.net/papers/Cross-platform.html ) would become true. All would win, well maybe not MS. So why doesn't IBM size up with Novell, Sun, Oracle, Google and others and throw in 10 million each? I think each of them are able to scrap together this 10 millions without much problems.

O. Wyss

Well, if you ask the users, GNOME Screensaver definitely needs more. Since the developer is refusing to listen to the users there are already people forking it.

See if there are any supportive comments on this app in these forums and bug reports (besides the developers of course):
Thread where early 2.14 users first noticed how lacking this thing is.
Bug report where the developer dismisses any screen saver that needs configuration as broken, despite the arguments given here and here.

And since the solution for many of these dissatisfied users (as mentioned in some of the threads above) is to uninstall it and put Xscreensaver back on, Xscreensaver obviously isn't that broken or confusing.

I'm glad they fixed some text rendering. Because after the last upgrade, my Ubuntu 5.10 renders text illegibly (some weird garbage font that does display properly after being selected with the cursor) in some apps, including Firefox and Evolution (but not Mozilla). I never even got a response to my discussions in the GNOME bug forums.

This must be a rare bug, but I have a similar problem after upgrading to Ubuntu 5.10. Maybe you can take the time to report if your bug is identical to this one https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/23951 and/or also include a screenshot showing the problem?

The goal of Linux as Desktop OS should be to fix Microsoft's design mistakes, not adding their own.

By rejecting everything in Windows as "evil", they're rejecting many good things like the UI and configuration consistency. Why should we have to rely on MANY DIFFERENT stuff for configuration, when Windows does it elegantly with its Control Panel? (I'm talking about the first tier, not the registry crap - Control Panel would do as well by using .ini files instead of the dreaded registry)

To configure stuff in Linux, you have an app to configure the screen, another to configure the network, etc. etc. And THIS is the problem with Linux fundies. "Why change it? It works". It was attitudes like this that gave birth to answers like the famous quake 3 under linux troll, which originally was a legitimate complaint.

In comparison, Ubuntu (as we saw recently) has an extensive list of things-to-be fixed to make it more user friendly (like hardware recognition, boot loaders, package management), and this was the reason to delay Dapper, so they can finish the ones currently being worked.

My theory is that Linux needs a critical-mass of user friendliness to replace Windows on the Joe Users' desktops, and Ubuntu seems to approach that critical mass quite fast. Maybe in 3 or 4 years, it will happen.

I didn't find the password in my installer logs. It seems that if you install in expert mode you're OK. See the bug report here:

https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/34606

It could be that your particular problem isn't seen by anyone else (they may have similar but subtley different kit and not see the problem). If you wander off and no one else mentions it the odds are when you come back in six weeks the problem will still be there (hint: looking at the HP Laptop Support page no one has mentioned the problem on your laptop model).

While it may be daunting, your best chance of having this fixed quickly is to head over and file a useful bug report (e.g. Description of the problem, simple step by step instructions indicating the lead up to the bug, what you expected to happen and what actually happened) over on Launchpad.

Normally I'd ask whether a bug report has been filed on this but I happen to know there's a launchpad bug about the 2G/2G kernel option breaking WINE and Lisps. You're in luck too - a fix for the problem was released two days ago.

Remember folks: Slashdot isn't your distro's bug tracker. Complaining here may give your issue exposure but it probably won't help your bug to be fixed. Please, please report bugs in your distro to your distro's bug tracker. There's no guarantee that your issue will ever be fixed but your odds are vastly improved...

I remember keeping track of the Breezy Badger planning wiki before that version was released, and it seemed to me that the team deferred many of their major goals... on the other hand, it looks like most improvements planned for Dapper have been implemented already, as Shuttleworth notes in his message:

https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/dapper/+specs

I'll refrain from Debian comparisons, as they're not needed to communicate what stellar work the team has done here. Point is, Ubuntu users and admins ought to support this delay, for the same reason I support Ubuntu... the Ubuntu team simply has its shit together, moreso than that of any other freely available distribution.

Let Shuttleworth strategize to take on Red Hat, SuSE, and Vista--because Ubuntu actually has a fighting chance. That prospect ought to excite Ubuntu partisans (like me) and fence-sitters alike.

See slow firefox problem in Dapper and the un-upgrade-able firefox 1.0.7 still vulnerable to security issues in Breezy. They also need to fix the fact that they cannot update firefox because everything else in the distro depends on it...

See slow firefox problem in Dapper and the un-upgrade-able firefox 1.0.7 still vulnerable to security issues in Breezy. They also need to fix the fact that they cannot update firefox because everything else in the distro depends on it...

I think that's great. Just a while ago Dapper got a new urine-colored Human theme, and - all due respect to the people who put their efforts into making Ubuntu better - frankly, it's just horrible. If the release is delayed, they have a lot better change to fix the theme.

Another thing i'd really like to see in dapper is the new NetworkManager 0.6 with its WPA and OpenVPN goodness. "Automatic network detection and configuration management" is high-priority target for dapper, and the new features in n-m 0.6 are needed by many users.

Even Sergey Brin and Larry Page nor Bill Gates have enough money to change the world but they could have a rather large influence to certain aspects. I don't know what Sergey and Larry are up to, if the follow the line of Bill or if they go the route of Mark Shuttleworth. Maybe they alltogether finally take on the "Ubuntu Bug #1" (https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/1) but Bill wouldn't like that very much. ;-)

O. Wyss

Sorry, just cant help myself :)

Major Kernel Overhaul
The whole kernel has been reorganized and rewritten to help prevent software from affecting the system in unsavory ways. In Vista, it should be much more difficult for unauthorized programs (like Viruses and Trojans) to affect the core of the OS and secretly harm your system.

Yep, linux got a lot of catching up to do here...
Also, they'll try to increase various small stuff in their kernel (about bloody time..) and, oh look here(screenshot), set up automatic defrag. How novel.

A key improvement to the root file system and memory management of Vista is a technology called SuperFetch. SuperFetch learns which applications and bits and pieces of the OS you use most and preloads them into memory, so you don't have to wait for a bunch of hard drive paging before your apps or documents load. Microsoft has developed a pretty sophisticated prioritization scheme that can even differentiate which applications you are most likely to use at different times (on the weekend vs. during the week, or late at night vs. in the middle of the afternoon).

Sorry, im just to cynical to call this a good thing yet.. MS have shown a remarkable talent to screw things like this up.

Networking
Good support of ipv6, better firewall and decent performance. Yay. Who's catching up to who?

Major Audio Changes
Ok, ill admit they have some neat ideas here.

DirectX 10
I'll quote this : DX10 is going to be Vista-only. - which means we probably wont see this in use for many years. Besides, dont see the big connection between dx10 and "linux playing catch up". Linux tend to promote opengl and SDL for that kind of stuff. I have no experience in either, so cannot do any real comparison.

New Built-In Apps
hmmm, some kind of automated backup of files, protected by the OS? I sure hope they dont let viruses in on the fun.. personally, I think i would prefer a versioning file system instead..

mail, calendar stuff, photo gallery, movie maker, wmp11... many linux distros already have equal or better alternatives for most of those programs (maybe except movie maker.. and wmp11, if you think of the itunes-clone part)

Aero Glass and the New UI
Ok, this is a bit interesting, eyecandy ftw! But Xgl, Cairo, kde4, E17 ... also very interesting.. Calling it catch-up? no, lets call it a race instead.

Security, Security, and more Security
It'll be interesting to see the result, but who's catching up to who?

I'd say that linux already have raised the bar, and microsoft is playing catch-up right this moment, and hope they can raise the bar again, or at least come out equal. I'm mostly writing this comparison based on my experiences with ubuntu, and what I've read and seen of dapper.

Oh, and I've seen the new microsoft backup program mentioned a lot in the article, but havent commented on it, because i dont find it fit in specifically under any of those headings. But I want to mention that ubuntu dapper have something in its specslist, https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/home-us er-backup

Dapper specstable : https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/dapper/+specs table
Its not just vista, theres lots of interesting stuff going on there too.

Sorry, just cant help myself :)

Major Kernel Overhaul
The whole kernel has been reorganized and rewritten to help prevent software from affecting the system in unsavory ways. In Vista, it should be much more difficult for unauthorized programs (like Viruses and Trojans) to affect the core of the OS and secretly harm your system.

Yep, linux got a lot of catching up to do here...
Also, they'll try to increase various small stuff in their kernel (about bloody time..) and, oh look here(screenshot), set up automatic defrag. How novel.

A key improvement to the root file system and memory management of Vista is a technology called SuperFetch. SuperFetch learns which applications and bits and pieces of the OS you use most and preloads them into memory, so you don't have to wait for a bunch of hard drive paging before your apps or documents load. Microsoft has developed a pretty sophisticated prioritization scheme that can even differentiate which applications you are most likely to use at different times (on the weekend vs. during the week, or late at night vs. in the middle of the afternoon).

Sorry, im just to cynical to call this a good thing yet.. MS have shown a remarkable talent to screw things like this up.

Networking
Good support of ipv6, better firewall and decent performance. Yay. Who's catching up to who?

Major Audio Changes
Ok, ill admit they have some neat ideas here.

DirectX 10
I'll quote this : DX10 is going to be Vista-only. - which means we probably wont see this in use for many years. Besides, dont see the big connection between dx10 and "linux playing catch up". Linux tend to promote opengl and SDL for that kind of stuff. I have no experience in either, so cannot do any real comparison.

New Built-In Apps
hmmm, some kind of automated backup of files, protected by the OS? I sure hope they dont let viruses in on the fun.. personally, I think i would prefer a versioning file system instead..

mail, calendar stuff, photo gallery, movie maker, wmp11... many linux distros already have equal or better alternatives for most of those programs (maybe except movie maker.. and wmp11, if you think of the itunes-clone part)

Aero Glass and the New UI
Ok, this is a bit interesting, eyecandy ftw! But Xgl, Cairo, kde4, E17 ... also very interesting.. Calling it catch-up? no, lets call it a race instead.

Security, Security, and more Security
It'll be interesting to see the result, but who's catching up to who?

I'd say that linux already have raised the bar, and microsoft is playing catch-up right this moment, and hope they can raise the bar again, or at least come out equal. I'm mostly writing this comparison based on my experiences with ubuntu, and what I've read and seen of dapper.

Oh, and I've seen the new microsoft backup program mentioned a lot in the article, but havent commented on it, because i dont find it fit in specifically under any of those headings. But I want to mention that ubuntu dapper have something in its specslist, https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/home-us er-backup

Dapper specstable : https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/dapper/+specs table
Its not just vista, theres lots of interesting stuff going on there too.

Mark is also the owner of the "Bug #1 in Ubuntu" (see https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/1) albeit he seems to make no progress at all. For further reading see article at http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/54009/index.h tml

O. Wyss

Ubuntu Express does exactly what you describe, and is coming with Ubuntu 6.04 (Dapper Drake).

Killing off distros would reduce fragmentation, and maybe having more developers per distro would be helpful (though I think there are lots of contributors who wouldn't be contributing if it weren't for the existence of their particular distro). But I think that a better strategy is to simply have people use tools that allow people from different distros to collaborate on patches, bug-tracking, and so on. Ubuntu's Launchpad is intended to be that sort of tool, and I hope it's successful.

Sadly, it is useless for most of Asia because CJK (Chinese Japanese Korean) input is broken:

https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+sources/scim /+bug/2565

The fonts are there, the localization strings are there, the keyboard LAYOUTS are there but the input server to transform romanized input (for example) to the Asian characters is not working. Particularly frustrating because Ubuntu has decided on not making it a core part (as it is in SuSE or RedHat) of the distro...