Ubuntu Closes Longstanding Bug #1

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Ubuntu Closes Longstanding Bug #1

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 30, 2013 @04:56AM from the sideways-looking-statement dept.

dargaud writes "Mark Shuttleworth of Ubuntu fame has closed the primal bug on Launchpad, standing since 2004 and titled 'Microsoft has a majority market share,' due to the 'changing realities' of tablets, smartphones, and wearable computing."

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This is a compatibility issue by intermodal · 2013-05-30 05:00 · Score: 5, Insightful

I think Microsoft fixed this bug by creating a compatibility issue that prevents its OS from functioning on devices that people actually like to use.

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Closed as WONTFIX by Anonymous Coward · 2013-05-30 05:00 · Score: 2, Insightful

since the last moves of Ubuntu seem to indicate 'refile for Android' as a solution?
Re:Let me be the First by Anonymous Coward · 2013-05-30 05:03 · Score: 0, Insightful

You'll be far from the first, you'll just be the first in this thread.
Closed Platforms by Adrian+Lopez · 2013-05-30 05:11 · Score: 5, Insightful

Microsoft is losing market share to tablets and smartphones, but these are shut tighter than the PC platform ever was. I'm not sure that's something to celebrate.

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1. Re:Closed Platforms by TWiTfan · 2013-05-30 05:30 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Yes the walled garden of iOS, controlled by one company absolutely and completely, is definitely progress over the open world of the PC.
  
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2. Re:Closed Platforms by TWiTfan · 2013-05-30 05:56 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Yeah, you can buy alternatives to iOS, just like you can (and have always been able to) buy alternatives to Windows. But one lets me install any software I want to on it. The other doesn't. And that ain't progress, brother.
  
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3. Re:Closed Platforms by Voyager529 · 2013-05-30 06:36 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Android is pretty open. They let you run just about anything that can't screw up the drivers without even batting an eye (at least on Sprint they do). And rooting your phone is a simple 10-minute process. I'm not really seeing the problem.
  That's not ENTIRELY accurate. The grandparent's point transcends "Microsoft" and speaks a lot to "ecosystem" as well.
  Amongst the thing that gave Compaq and the IBM clones their rise was their level of openness. You could buy any commodity x86 box (or pieces and DIY assemble said box), and run DOS or Windows or OS/2 or Linux on them, upgrade when Microsoft released stuff, and be in charge of exactly what software did and didn't end up on our machines. Now this level of openness came with a cost, namely all of the problems that naturally came with giving users complete control: viruses/malware/toolbars, the necessary routine maintenance not being performed, incompatibilities, teaching users to "click next until the installation is finished" and ending up with a dozen pieces of software that weren't wanted, and people actually believing the FBI holds their computer for ransom unless they use Greenpak to send money to "pay the fine".
  You can SOMETIMES root in ten minutes. My Toshiba AT200 has a locked bootloader and since Toshiba hasn't released a means of unlocking it (and hacking said bootloader doesn't have the same sex appeal as being the one to crack the Galaxy S5), so I'm stuck in an unrooted state. Even if I had an unlocked bootloader or Nexus 10 or Transformer Prime, I can't install Windows RT on it if I wanted to. In its present state, I can't remove the unwanted applications that came with the machine. Sure I can 'disable' them, but they're still taking up storage space I would rather use for other things. I'm at Toshiba's mercy as to whether I'll ever get Jelly Bean, Key Lime Pie, or Taramasu, and none of them look promising. Sure, I can install most applications on said tablet even if they don't come from the Play Store, but for quite some time this ability was disabled on AT&T phones running Android. I doubt I need to say more than "Kindle Fire" and "Nook Color" to make my point in those cases.
  Android, the operating system, as uploaded to source.android.com, is indeed a "pretty open" system. This doesn't make Android-as-98%-of-the-population-run-it a system as open as Windows-as-98%-of-the-population-run-it, the hardware it shipped on, and the ISPs that shuffled data to it. It might not be Google's fault that Android is twisted in the form that it is by some of the OEMs and carriers, but it is a product they put their name on.
Re:Ubuntu? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-05-30 05:13 · Score: 3, Insightful

It's a self-righteous organization proclaiming that they're more ethical and free than evil corporate computing empires, while at the same time lead by a moronic billionaire who wants to be as cool and smart as Steve Jobs, but continuously throws tantrums when no one takes him seriously because he is not actually Steve Jobs.
Abuse of bug tracking systems by Anonymous Coward · 2013-05-30 05:23 · Score: 2, Insightful

Cute entries like that wouldn't be tolerated in some workplaces. I prefer a professional attitude in the bug tracking system. They should purge anything else similar to this that isn't an actual bug.
Plenty of purile stuff left in the list... by Bearhouse · 2013-05-30 05:33 · Score: 4, Insightful

Like this one:
#461000 General populace ignorance of Ubuntu
Easy fix; stop doing stupid things that are driving people to Mint etc. and get back to what a lot of people, (including me) were hoping for at the beginning - a decent distro that "just works" that we would could confidently install at friends, family, neighbours, SOHO whatever, without support nightmares at evenings and weekends. (Yes, I've been dicking around with BSD etc. for years, but I do need some time with my family...)
With MS busy pissing people off with Win8, they've missed a great opportunity.
I had some success 'converting' people with Linux skinned as XP; c'mon Mark; where's Ubuntu Win7 edition?
1. Re:Plenty of purile stuff left in the list... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-05-30 08:09 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  c'mon Mark; where's Ubuntu Win7 edition?
  Boy, that's quite ironic, isn't it?
  Shuttleworth's very first bug was Microsoft's dominance on the desktop.
  But then, just when he was finally given his best chance to convert those Windows desktop users to Ubuntu, Shuttleworth alienated almost every desktop user by forcing Unity on them.
  And to compound the irony, Unity's mistake was exactly the same as Win8's mistake: unnecessarily forcing desktop users to adopt a touch-mobile paradigm.
  Just imagine how different things would have been if Shuttleworth had focused like a laser on bug #1 by giving those WinXP/Win7 users an upgrade path to a great Ubuntu desktop experience, saving them from Win8's crappy UI mistakes.
  Shuttleworth is the one person who most feasibly could have given us a true "year of the Linux desktop" if only he had gotten serious about fixing bug #1, instead of letting Apple and Google fix it for him.
Closed how? "Wontfix?" by Animats · 2013-05-30 05:38 · Score: 4, Insightful
The typical "bug fixing" strategy for open source seems to be
- Ignore bug unless many other people confirm it.
- After a few years, claim that some change probably fixed the bug, and ask the bug reporter to reproduce it again.
- Close the bug without actually fixing it.
Re:LMFAO, seriously? by xvan · 2013-05-30 05:42 · Score: 5, Insightful

I mean, I agree that their monopoly is/was a bad thing, but I find it ironic and funny that it was classified as a bug.
BUG DESCRIPTION
Binary package hint: launchpad
Description: Slashdotters seem to not understand sarcasm.

To reproduce the bug follow these steps-
1. Raise a sarcastic bug
2. Make some reference to it in slashdot
Add Sarcasm tags to the bugtracker:

Possible Fix:
Add sarcasm tags to the bug summary
the 80s are back by Anonymous Coward · 2013-05-30 05:44 · Score: 2, Insightful

Microsoft + IBM and then cheap Compaq clones were a natural reaction to the closed nature of the computer market pushed by the likes of Apple in the 80s. The closed software was a problem of the PC, with the expectation that it would be replaced with either Linux or some other laxly licensed, source and support available OS.
And now we're supposed to celebrate we're back in the 80, only that instead of Amstad, Amiga, Apple, IBM, Sinclair, Attari, ... etc. all we have now is Google and Apple.
A slight problem with bufix by WaffleMonster · 2013-05-30 06:04 · Score: 3, Insightful

"enables malicious anti-features such as DRM, surveillance, and other monopolistic practices."
Apparently so does ubuntu's integrated search by default.
WONTFIX: Works on my machine by moderators_are_w*nke · 2013-05-30 06:17 · Score: 3, Insightful

Not sure why this wasn't closed ages ago.

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Re:Ubuntu? by Nerdfest · 2013-05-30 06:45 · Score: 4, Insightful

More money follows 'more evil' more frequently than it follows "smarter". Adolph Hitler had plenty of followers as well if you're looking to get this thread appropriately Godwin'd. Mr. Jobs was a marketing genius and general douche-bag. I don't think Mr. Shuttleworth's greed is at nearly the same level if it exists at all. He may want to be famous, but what he wants to be famous for seems a little more altruistic. I've questioned that a bit lately, but I think it mostly still applies.
Re:Microsoft has a majority market share by gl4ss · 2013-05-30 07:04 · Score: 3, Insightful

The ratio of 650 Windows 7 boxes plus 75 Windows 2008 R2 boxes at work to 3 Unix machines tends to swing the balance in favour of Windows where I am.
well.. only if people had the bright idea of redefining smartphones as pc's earlier!
Then shuttleworth could have just skipped the whole fucking ubuntu. because in 2004 if you counted java running phones as computers then ms wouldn't have had the majority share to begin with.

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Re:Let me be the second by readingaccount · 2013-05-30 13:05 · Score: 4, Insightful

In my experience, the only people who laugh at Windows Phones/Tablets are people who feel the need to define themselves by the products they use or don't use (also known as fanboys).
Such people are fucking pathetic and aren't worth caring about.