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Ubuntu Software Center Criticized For Mixing Free and Non-Free Software
An anonymous reader writes: Tony Mobily has been watching the evolution of the Ubuntu Software Center for quite a while now. He had doubts about its interface and its speed, but liked the fact that it offered an easy, down-to-earth interface that allowed users to install software conveniently. However, the evolution of USC is worrying him a lot. Mobily is against confusing proprietary software with non-proprietary software, which USC seems to be doing. USC plays an important role — especially for newbie users, who can use it to discover new software more readily than via the package management system. But is there room for improvement?
> Tony? Who the fuck is Tony?
I feel the need to introduce myself. I am Tony Mobily. I started Free Software Magazine back in 2004 (!). I wrote about 200 articles on FSM (and many others for Linux Journal and other magazines); some of my articles were published here on Slashdot a few years back
I am also a very active free software coder. Amongst my repos, the most exiting one is Hotplate. I am in the process of documenting Hotplate as we speak. However, I am especially proud of JsonRestStores.
I have been promoting free software since 1994, and have installed Ubuntu _countless_ times for friends, relatives, and for people I didn't even know.
The overlay ad was there because I am rebooting Free Software Magazine, and I am considering _all_ venues in terms of financing articles -- articles which are then released under a free license. However, since I am not here for the quick buck and I anticipate a lot of hits from Slashdot, I turned the ad off.
I love Ubuntu as a distribution and I think Canonical is doing a lot of things right. However, I feel very uncomfortable with app stores confusing free, zero cost, in app purchases, etc. Seeing such a confusion un _Ubuntu_ itself is particularly painful to me.
I hope that answers the question. I happen to be travelling right now, and comments will come during my night time.
I cannot work out how to link to specific comments.
Dumb? Maybe. I care because I actually write free software.
There's no "maybe" about it. You can't handle a simple HTML hyperlink and yet you also expect us to believe you also write software? In what language? Logo? You, sir, are a joke.
Do not type and hit a bong simultaneously.