Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ask Slashdot: Are We Witnessing the Decline of Ubuntu?

Posted by Soulskill on from the too-many-people-running-visigoth-linux dept.

jammag writes "'When the history of free software is written, I am increasingly convinced that this last year will be noted as the start of the decline of Ubuntu,' opines Linux pundit Bruce Byfield. After great initial success, Ubuntu and Canonical began to isolate themselves from the mainstream of the free software community. Canonical, he says, has tried to control the open source community, and the company has floundered in many of its initiatives. Really, the mighty Ubuntu, in decline?"

7 of 631 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yes. by marcello_dl · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ubuntu to arch seems a drastic step (still it is possible and productive). To those who don't like it I suggest to pick among the dozen ubuntu derivatives you find at distrowatch so you can keep using your ubuntu knowledge. Mint comes to mind. Or fall back to debian.

    --
    ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
  2. Re:Yes. by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Informative

    They're making incredibly unpopular design changes without giving people any real option to do things their own way and driving their own userbase away. Unity and other ass backwardsness pissed me off SO MUCH that I learned to use Arch Linux just to get away from it.

    Its the "we're going our own way" decisions - like Mir instead of Wayland, etc. This leaves you thinking - If I keep with Ubuntu I will be out on a limb, forced to use Unity, etc.

  3. Re:Yes. by Christian+Smith · · Score: 5, Informative

    They're making incredibly unpopular design changes without giving people any real option to do things their own way and driving their own userbase away. Unity and other ass backwardsness pissed me off SO MUCH that I learned to use Arch Linux just to get away from it.

    Its the "we're going our own way" decisions - like Mir instead of Wayland, etc. This leaves you thinking - If I keep with Ubuntu I will be out on a limb, forced to use Unity, etc.

    How is anyone forced to use Unity in Ubuntu? There's still Kubuntu, lubuntu etc. And even with straight Ubuntu, you can still install whatever desktop you want, and select it at login.

    I personally don't mind Unity, I can pretty much work with whatever desktop is installed by default, as I use the apps and not the shell. So long as I can switch easily between apps, who cares.

    And I guess most none-technical people just don't care either way. If it works, it works.

  4. Re:Yes. by hawkinspeter · · Score: 5, Informative

    I tried Unity and didn't get on with it, so I just carried on using XUbuntu instead. If you don't like the desktop environment, it's trivial to replace it with a different one.

    --
    You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
  5. Re:Yes. by dmbasso · · Score: 5, Informative

    s/-do were/-do was/

    And just for clarification, I've been using Unity for only around a year because I waited as long as I could before I had to upgrade libraries and stuff. The upgrade to Gnome/gtk 3 broke all my gedit plugins, and I didn't have time to adapt them. Recently I decided to try Pluma (MATE's version of gedit), and it was a piece of cake to make plugins work.

    So I can't thank you enough, MATE crew, you guys are awesome!

    --
    `echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
  6. Re:Yes. by gagol · · Score: 5, Informative

    Been running Xubuntu (XFCE4 desktop instead of Unity) even since Unity was shoved down my throat. Could not be happier.

    --
    Tomorrow is another day...
  7. Re:Yes. by Arancaytar · · Score: 5, Informative

    (like when accidentally launching an application with meta+number)

    HOLY SHIT.

    Mystery solved. I've been dealing with that weird crap forever without realizing what keys I accidentally hit.