Re: Down with Canonical - Boycott Ubuntu Spyware

Hi,

This has been discussed here many times. Please consider if you're adding
anything new to the discussion before posting. Please also realise that
several people who work for Canonical, on Ubuntu, are on this list
(including me). Picking the language you use more carefully can help
prevent insult and flame wars.

More on this below...

On 27 January 2013 05:08, Danyl Strype <[email protected]> wrote:


> The final nail for me is the bundling of the Amazon spyware in the
> standard distro.
> http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/ubuntu-spyware-what-to-do
>
>
Ahh yes, RMS and his "spyware". There's another person who really ought to
pick his words more carefully. When he wrote that article, he was
commenting on a feature that was in an *unreleased* operating system. Since
before the quantal release was finalised you've been able to configure
Unity dash lenses to search the local machine only. RMS effectively threw
his toys out the window over an unreleased, still-in-development feature.
The general rule of thumb here is that if you run a pre-release operating
system, you're going to get packages that are under active development. If
you can't handle that, don't upgrade.


> This is unforgivably Microsoftish.


I assume by "Microsoftish" you're referring to the desire to make money
from our software. If so, then yes, yes it is. I'm very glad Canonical
makes money. It means they can continue to employ me, and hundreds of other
engineers. It means they can continue to pay talented developers to
contribute to open source projects. It means they can fly community members
around to world to UDS events (certain DunLUG members have been flown to
San Francisco and Copenhagen for UDS events - possibly more Dunedin/New
Zealand people as well). Sure - sometimes we keep our code closed source -
either because we want to control the media splash when we do release it
(as in the Ubuntu phone case), or for other reasons (I'm not involved with
Ubuntu One in any way, so I really cannot speculate as to the reasons the
code isn't open - are you even sure that's the case? Did you look? Or are
you just reporting what you read on the 'net?).

It's worth pointing out that if one believes the typical, breathless blog
posts about Canonical, Unity, Ubuntu One, or <Canonical scandal of the day>
you might leave with the impression that we're trying to steal the contents
of your wallet, your first-born son, your house, and everything in-between.

That is simply not the case.

Canonical is a company of six hundred-something people. So far, *everyone*
I have met has been passionate about making an open source operating
system. Our point of difference (this is my interpretation here - not any
"official" company line) is that we have a modicum of business sense. We
try and release new features often. We try and innovate and push the Linux
Desktop/Server/Cloud/Phone/TV/Whatever as hard as possible. The sheer
amount of effort we've put into the Ubuntu phone over the last six months
is staggering. Buy me a beer sometime and I'll tell you about it.


> I'm removing Ubuntu from all my
> machines, and researching alternatives to recommend to anyone I've
> ever helped migrate to Ubuntu. At the moment I'm using Debian stable,
> which reminds me of Ubuntu circa 2009/10.


This is, of course, entirely your prerogative. It's interesting that you
find that Debian stable is 2-3 years behind Ubuntu. That's how I feel as
well. You may not like the changes we've made (in which case, by all means
- change), but it's obvious that we're at least innovating and changing
things as we go.


>
> I will not even consider using or endorsing Ubuntu again until
> Canonical hands over control of the Ubuntu trademarks to the
> Foundation, and all nasty proprietary tie-ins and spyware are removed.
> There are many, many alternatives, let's use them.


I sincerely hope you find a distribution that fits your needs - whether
it's Arch, mint, Debian, or Fedora. I hope you are able to contribute in a
positive fashion, and that the distribution benefits from your
contributions. Canonical, and Ubuntu have chosen their path. If it's not to
your liking, please leave, but quietly. Spreading fear, uncertainty and
doubt doesn't do anyone any favours. Sending emails like the one I'm
replying to aren't constructive. It feels a bit like someone leaving a
party that they don't like and trying to drag the other guests away with
them - it's just rude.


> I'll be interested
> to see though, if resellers like ZaReason keep selling their gear with
> Ubuntu as the default OS.
>
> <http://dunlug.kallisti.net.nz/>


I suspect ZaReason want an operating system that just works with their
hardware. Ubuntu us demonstrably more user-friendly than most (some might
say "all") of the other linux distributions. I obviously don't work for
ZaReason, so I'm only guessing.


Before I go, I'll be honest - I've tried really hard to write a rational,
non-emotional email reply here. I hope I haven't offended you. If I wrote
the email reply I feel like writing, I suspect this thread would go
downhill very quickly. It'd be really nice if we could avoid these sorts of
posts to DunLUG - who knows, perhaps we can even pull this list out of it's
very own Eternal September?


Regards,
-- 
Thomi Richards

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