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The Burning Bridges of Ubuntu
jammag writes "According to this article, 'Whether Ubuntu is declining is still debatable. However, in the last couple of months, one thing is clear: internally and externally, its commercial arm Canonical appears to be throwing the idea of community overboard as though it was ballast in a balloon about to crash.' The author points out instances of community discontent and apparent ham-handedness on Mark Shuttleworth's part. Yet isn't this just routine kvetching in the open source community?"
That much has become clear for quite a while now. What's also become clear is they don't know how to do it, what direction they're in and they're unusual recent behaviour is just a bunch of initial death throes.
Ubuntu took a perfectly good Debian and fucks it up.
Ubuntu took a perfectly good Ubuntu and fucked it up. Luckily, there are distros like Xubuntu - which take the good parts, and leave off the bad parts (aka Unity).
Does Mint have an independent millionaire sugar daddy supporting it?
Although I'm not sure if that's a pro or a con right now. ;)
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
Cannonical is another failing company with Steve Jobs/Apple's attitude of "We will tell you what you like, and will like it."
The attitude can be highly effective ---- but there is one minor important detail: You have to actually be right, for things to work out.
If your UI turns out to be a turd, then you will go down.
Seeking innovation is a high-reward, high-risk thing.
What is happening is flavour of the moment in the Linux world is 'Android' and because of that Ubuntu is in the shadows. Rather than fight Android, Ubuntu should embrace Android with an effective USB or wireless remote to enable data input, configuration and synchronisation of Android phones on a full sized desktop screen. Right now the better Ubuntu desktop/notebook plays with Android the more popular it will become, it has a real chance to gain a big chunk of market share by creating a desktop that links well with an Android smartphones and effectively extends it features onto more workable screen real estate.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
I continued this up until Ubuntu released Unity as the default desktop.
I think this is the main point.
No, contrary to OP, this is not "just the usual Open Source kvetching." Successful Open Source operations listen to their users. Now it's going its own way even further with Mir.
Users were happy with Gnome (or KDE). They did not want Unity, and said so.
By now Ubuntu is too proprietary to be considered "open" anymore. It's not just a Linux distro, but rather it has become its own operating system. That is somewhat contrary to the spirit of Linux. What's next? Its own (proprietary, incompatible) versions of the command-line tools?
Users were happy with GNOME 2.x - they hated 3.x. Ubuntu tried to do something about it, which the users didn't like either.
Personally, I feel like you've captured the spirit of current Linux development. Don't like something? Developers don't care. You don't have a choice. Systemd, GRUB2, GNOME3, Wayland, KMS - doesn't matter, you're getting it whether you want it or not. And the old versions (or previous products) are left to die (until projects like MATE and Trinity form later on, if you're lucky).
FWIW, I still can't configure GRUB 2 easily. And KMS broke Linux on several laptops that I was still using. Linux does not run well on old hardware, and really doesn't run well anymore (period).
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
I don't think that's his main target. Shuttleworth is one of the few people (Newell may be another) willing to make fundamental changes to gnu/linux desktop computer to bring it to masses as opposed to just opinionated geekdom. This non-traditional desktop experience is bound to annoy traditional gnu/linux power users who feel their vision is being ignored. What they fail to see is that their vision is not attractive enough for average people.
I for one welcome canonical's changes. For me, the more they deviate from 'traditional gnu/linux desktop', the better. I want to see how far they can push it and how many fresh ideas they can bring. KDE desktop has looked pretty much the same for the last 10 years. Gnome is getting uglier and less useful with each new version (but I do like that they're starting anew). Windows 8's interface, despite its questionable usability, is fresh and people who have used it for more than 10 minutes in a shop, like it.
I agree with your idea, but you got it a bit wrong: Xubuntu it still Ubuntu. I think many people hate Unity (I don't; I just treat it as an "early beta" of an idea that one day might work), but don't realize that things like Xubuntu and Kubuntu are very much still Ubuntu.
The desktop interface is a *very tiny* part of the OS, really. But it's the first thing most users see, and is crucial for PR.
I love Xubuntu. Hence, I also love Ubuntu (if not the Unity package) and the great work done by everyone involved.
Ubuntu should follow the openSUSE way: when you install it, it asks you which desktop you want. There's no realy need for separate distros, IMO.