vBulletin?

[itzfritz]

I find it quite strange that this website uses a closed source / proprietary product (vBulletin).
Given that it is officially affiliated with Ubuntu (see 'Forum Council' links), I find this fact to be disturbing.

Is there any work underway to convert this forum to an open source product? Does Canonical know that you are using a closed source product to promote Ubuntu?

Not that I don't appreciate this forum, I do; beside the fundamental philosophical disagreement that *I* have, I just find that your affiliation with Ubuntu and by extension Canonical, coupled with the fact that you are a high-traffic website devoted to open source but not 'eating our own dog food', could be seen by some to be a blemish on UBuntu's name.

Thanks for reading,
Robert Waters (itzfritz)

[forestpiskie]

Quote from forum FAQ (http://ubuntuforums.org/announcement.php?f=48)

Why does a forum for free software use a proprietary software?

While we would love to use an open source solution, vBulletin provides all that we need right now and also much of what we want. Other software does not. Serving this community well is our main priority and so we can/will not use something that does not provide what we require. If anything else provided what we must have and what we really would like to have, we would be using it instead; at this juncture, there is no viable alternative.

[emigrant]

thanks for the question and the reply.

[itzfritz]

I get it, but the longer the wait the more difficult the transfer process becomes. I understand the amount of work involved, so I'll just leave this where it is and wait until I hear a request for volunteers to help develop or test the new O/S forum system...

[NoaHall]

Using mysql and php? Something that big? I'd be happy to help develop it - as long as there was money to be earned from it. Otherwise, I'm afraid it'd take too long for me to be bothered. I'd be happy to help test it out and suggest things, though.

[itzfritz]

Using mysql and php? Something that big? I'd be happy to help develop it - as long as there was money to be earned from it. Otherwise, I'm afraid it'd take too long for me to be bothered. I'd be happy to help test it out and suggest things, though.

I think it would be more realistic to use an existing framework; for instance, Drupal, or Vanilla.

[NoaHall]

Hm, perhaps. I'd feel bad if it wasn't all my work/fellow team's shared work though.

[dmizer]

One further note:

vBulletin isn't really closed source. Once you pay for a license, you get access to the entire codebase. It's not free and it's not released under the GPL, but it's not closed source either.

[Zimmer]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/30/vbulletin_defends_forum_bans/

How does this situation affect the future of the Ubuntu forums ?

Maybe there is a case for considering other options in the near future ...

[jpeddicord]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/30/vbulletin_defends_forum_bans/

How does this situation affect the future of the Ubuntu forums ?

Maybe there is a case for considering other options in the near future ...

It's disappointing to see, but I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[itzfritz]

It's disappointing to see, but I wouldn't worry about it too much.

This is why we use and contribute to open source software! To fight this kind of bullying!

So, if this forum does not move away from V-bulletin, and give in to the coercion to upgrade to v4.0 (at a cost of several hundred dollars), it will lose access to security updates and bug fixes. This is *classic* "bully" proprietary software company behavior, and it is one of the reasons why free software exists in the first place. Allowing it to happen to this community would be a shame.

Now, I understand the cost and difficulty involved in a project of this magnitude, so I have to temper my argument with reason. Perhaps, since this site has become a de-facto representative of Ubuntu itself (it is by far the most used and most useful Ubuntu help and discussion forum), the community might offer to help?

At the very least, this matter should be made visible to the community so that it may be discussed - it reaches into the very heart of free software ideals.

[Ms_Angel_D]

I have to agree with itzfritz, after hearing that the company is going to begin bullying people into upgrades, I think the official Ubuntu forums should not be using this software. While I like VBulletin as a forum system, the company seems to be going downhill fast with that kind of customer treatment. There are plenty of other options out there. Shouldn't The Ubuntu community be doing all it can to promote FOSS? Using proprietary software doesn't support this.