Has Ubuntu lost it's Ubuntu?

[ki4jgt]

Although Linux is defaultly network-based by nature (so it could never lose it's humanistic character completely), these were the images and movies originally distributed with the distro.

http://ubuntu.ecchi.ca/wallpapers/4.10//1.png
http://ubuntu.ecchi.ca/wallpapers/5.04//1%20ws.png
http://ubuntu.ecchi.ca/wallpapers/5.10/1.png
http://ubuntu.ecchi.ca/wallpapers/6.04/1.png
http://ubuntu.ecchi.ca/wallpapers/6.06//1%20ws.png
http://ubuntu.ecchi.ca/wallpapers/6.10//2.png

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HED4h00xPPA

Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm not downing/hating Ubuntu but it appears to be heading away from it's simplistic, humanitarian beginnings and moving towards corporate goals like every other OS before it. All the images and wallpapers used to be so simple and the desktop was so configurable to the user. Everything that was distributed with it, inspired community and sharing, creating, and shown out sparks of inspiration went into the wallpapers and images. Ubuntu had goals that it said it wouldn't violate and it has (trying to maintain a single CD image in size). It had plans that it's stepped away from. If you look at past distrobutions of Ubuntu they were way more configurable with compiz and a decent amount of creativity you could create stunning desktop effect. Desktop images weren't just like every other high quality image you could find on the web today that made your desktop look "pretty". Now everything's been locked down. Sure, the code's free and open but the average user is stuck with the desktop if they don't understand that code. The "Circle of Friends" used to be distributed with the distro of three people (supposed to be friends) holding each other's arms to form a circle. The distro itself made you feel like you were a part of something special and bigger. Now it's all privatized and corporatized. This is awesome that it's come this far but it just seems like every new release add just a few more features for corporations and nothing for the little guy and his/her community.

EDIT:
Are we still allowed to say we have Ubuntu, even though we're slowly moving away from a community driven OS and towards a private, locked down, desktop?

EDIT:
I know this propably went a little far but I did this about the time I created this thread. It's a bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...a/+bug/1193978

[Porcini M.]

I agree - Ubuntu used to have that "Operating System for the People" feel to it, bringing free & powerful computing to the people of the world. It's still free & all, but it's lost that pleasant vibe.

[leecheroflife]

Another way to look at it though, if Ubuntu never evolved, it would have gone stale. Ubuntu is a business and businessess have to turn a profit, if it was just throwing out un-innovative releases every six months rather than taking risks and promoting new things, we would be complaining about it being behind the times.

As for no longer fitting on a CD? So what? things get bigger, more technical and 700mb is quite limiting, by increasing this size they are able to package a bigger, better and higher quality OS that they want to be accessible and usable by everyone (Unity not withstanding)

Ubuntu doesnt want to be the best linux distro, they want to be the best distro for everyone, they have to take risks and stand on toes.

From a personal standpoint? I'm just happy they got rid of the brown!

[monkeybrain2012]

As for no longer fitting on a CD? So what? things get bigger, more technical and 700mb is quite limiting, by increasing this size they are able to package a bigger, better and higher quality OS that they want to be accessible and usable by everyone (Unity not withstanding)

I never understand this complaint. Seriously, who still install with CDs?? The CD is bulky, slow and has low data capacity, it is going the way of the floppy(who still know what is a floppy?). I don't get the idea that if an OS does not conform to the limitation of an obsolete medium then there must be the fault of the OS,--being too "bloated".Most computers made in the last 10 years support booting from usb and many netbooks don't even have a cd rom. Linux supports booting from usb for a long time (which Windows only recently does) I have never installed a Linux distro with a cd, I would rather keep a few of multiboot usbs than a stack of CD's, too fragile and take up too much room.

Whenever I read guys in forums and tutorials telling others to "download the iso and burn a CD" and matter of factly talking about the fine points of burning speed, I feel like slapping these people over their heads. Hello?? burning a CD? It is not 2005 any more!!

[Copper Bezel]

I've not found the process of making bootable USB drives as reliable as burning the CDs, personally, but that's probably not universal.

Should note that it's not just netbooks that don't come with optical drives anymore - a lot of high-end machines, including most portability-conscious notebooks and even some desktops, don't, either.

[t0p]

From a personal standpoint? I'm just happy they got rid of the brown!

I wasn't a fan of the brown either - but I was able to change that without having to change everything else too.

The OP's right about the "corporate" thing. Yes, Canonical wants to own that market, it's $$$. But Ubuntu is used by people too, and it's evolving in a way that indicates Canonical and Ubuntu don't really care about the user anymore. Stuff isn't so customisable anymore - or at least not so easily customisable. It's all locked down. Ubuntu used to make my computer feel like my computer. Now, my computer is my computer - but not mine.

[Copper Bezel]

Bah. Half of that's Gnome's new way of handling settings, and then there's Unity, which couldn't possibly be as featureful (and useful) as it is with a lot of config options built in. There's still tweaking to be done under the hood - though I admit that I'd never had to recompile anything for a tweak before using Unity. = /

[kurt18947]

I wasn't a fan of the brown either - but I was able to change that without having to change everything else too.

The OP's right about the "corporate" thing. Yes, Canonical wants to own that market, it's $$$. But Ubuntu is used by people too, and it's evolving in a way that indicates Canonical and Ubuntu don't really care about the user anymore. Stuff isn't so customisable anymore - or at least not so easily customisable. It's all locked down. Ubuntu used to make my computer feel like my computer. Now, my computer is my computer - but not mine.

I'm not sure how much of "It's all locked down" is Ubuntu/Canonical and how much is Gnome. Remember the hated Unity runs on Gnome. Gnome-shell has the same lack of custom options as Ubuntu/Unity though gnome-shell does support extensions which help. As long as Xfce, KDE and LXDE are viable options we can customize away and still enjoy the refined aspects of Ubuntu like hardware support & huge repository.

[The Cog]

Ubuntu had no choice but to change. It was based on gnome2, which the gnome team have abandoned.

I suspect that canonical went for unity rather than gnome3 for the same reasons that microsoft went for not-called-metro. They want to get the same interface across all types of computers, from 24 in desktop screens to 4 in phones.

As is happens, I had already changed from gnome2 to xfce by the time all the upheval started, so I barely noticed. I prefer xfce to unity, lxde and kde for a number of personal aesthetic reasons along with particular usage habits that feel to fit best with xfce. But different people have different tastes and usage habits. It's good to have that kind of wide range of choices. And xfce on a 5 inch phone probably wouldn't be too good.

[Dragonbite]

I tend to agree that Ubunut is evolving and becoming more corporate-like.

I understand why they are doing it (to become self-sufficient) but that doesn't mean I don't long for the simplicity, flexibility and basically "fun" that Ubunut elicited in the beginning.

The logo used to be multi-colored before, and the animal names were "fun" and "quirky" and made Ubuntu stand out from the rest. When you pare down Linux distributions enough, there is really very little difference. Ubuntu brought ease of use to Linux and was just like a party more than a platform.

I would love it if Ubuntu Gnome would try to "go back to its roots" with making Ubuntu fun and quirky again (no necessarily brown) and bring back the multi-color logo. While Gnome isn't as flexibile as it used to be, the Classic Session should elicit some nostalgia (enough Red Hat, not Fedora, will be using it when shipping their next version).

I still miss my old Ubuntu cap which was black and with the multi-color Ubuntu logo on it.