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KDE's Aaron Seigo Bashes Ubuntu Phone

Posted by samzenpus on from the no-sir-I-don't-like-it dept.

sfcrazy writes "KDE's Plasma Active team leader Aaron Seigo has raised some concerns around Ubuntu Phone. He says 'We can start with the obvious clue: Unity currently does not use QML at all; Ubuntu Phone is pure QML. So, no, it is not the same code, it is not the sort of seamless cross-device technology bridge that they are purporting.' He then concludes, 'If you're a Free software developer, user and/or supporter and buying into these claims, I don't know how else to put it other than this: you're being duped. Consider what supporting those who employ such tactics means for Free software.'"

3 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Pretty heavy handed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He has a point (actually two: the phone isn't using the same API, and Canonical marketers implied that it was) but he seems to think that that is disqualifying for users of free software. I don't think it is.

    Point it out, but just add "KDE's approach is quite different. Here's what we're doing instead..." instead of talking about ethics and such.

  2. apt-get by duckgod · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IF Canonical does this right. That is a big IF. We will have the same advantages of the linux desktop on our phones. That is the ability to install any window manager you want. No one corporation will have the power to decide what my work environment will be like. So if you don't like it what Unity is, it is 5ish magic words to get something else installed. Please I beg you Canonical just let me type "sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop".

  3. Pearls from the post by suy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some pearls from the original conversation. Alan Pope:

    We're agile enough that we can migrate our desktop to QML if that's the decision that gets made. Unity has existed on four toolkits already, what's a fifth between friends ;)

    Daniel Stone on wether Ubuntu Phone uses Wayland or not:

    No idea, no-one from the project will respond even to direct questions. They've said in the past that they're writing their own window system, which is pretty tragicomic.

    And the best one, the only thing that Mark Shuttleworth had to say:

    As Kipling put it:

    If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools

    The rest of the poem is pretty apt, too. My kingdom for a link.
    Mark

    I wish success to Ubuntu Phone, really, but it hurts me a little bit that it receives the same or more attention from the community than Plasma Active, when the later delivered the same or more (specially if you value open governance and source code from day 1), with way less resources.