Ubuntu going in the wrong direction?

[goodbye-windows(tm)]

Hi All,

What's happened to linux lately?? I used to support linux totally, but lately I find myself wondering if I should just go back to ******* like everyone else.

In the new 13.10, I see links to ubuntu one, amazon!!!!(WHAT the frick??) and to sign in to this forum now, I must also associate my account with other services that I don't need and don't want.

Earlier this year, I wrote to canonical as I needed some commercial support for ubuntu, and they didn't even have the decency to acknowledge my message!!!!

The software center is loaded with pay for speciality items and seems to contain out of date software in MANY MANY cases! Shouldn't we be able to use the software center to download software only?

Who allows these commercial interests to rape and pillage the newer versions of Ubuntu?? Do the users care, or am I the only one who finds this trend to be disturbing?

I know linux is free, supplied with no warranty. I think it (ubuntu) should not be free though. I'd much rather make a donation than to have to worry about commercial enterprises buying their way into the later releases or having to take countermeasures to remove commercial ads and apps manually.

I think users should be able to download an ad free/non contaminated/non privacy violating version of the OS. How many of this commercial contamination represents a security issue or a (lack of) privacy issue?

I just ordered a new laptop because it guaranteed ubuntu compatibility-but, perhaps I should have just ordered a ******* system instead?

Will this trend allowing commercial enterprises and privacy violating software into the ubuntu distribution .iso get worse with later versions?

I expect this message to be deleted by those who run this forum-so anyone wishing to reply might want to email me directly.

Enjoy.

Art

[QIII]

It won't get deleted, but it has been moved to Recurring Discussions, as this has been discussed ad nauseum.

If you don't like that stuff, just turn it off. You can also use a different DE since what you are talking about only applies to Unity.

[monkeybrain20122]

BTW Linux != Ubuntu.

[craig10x]

You can turn off the amazon stuff in the privacy settings...just hit the off switch in the online searches...takes 5 seconds and you are done...and most apps in the software center are free so have no idea of what you are talking about...

[varunendra]

BTW Linux != Ubuntu.

+1

Different distros have different priorities and what Canonical is trying to do with Ubuntu (I can only guess) requires a lot of financial support. Obviously the donations have not been sufficient to meet those financial requirements.

Apart from above, I think one more reason behind letting commercial products in is that there has been a substantial number of users who wish/demand an option to choose from commercial products thinking that those are usually better than the free ones (which is *sometimes* true, although mostly not IMHO).

[3rdalbum]

Sorry if you were under the impression that Ubuntu is not-for-profit, but it has always been a commercial distro.

As mentioned, there's no need to flip out and rant about Amazon searches - it's trivially easy to turn them off if you don't want it. Software Center can be ignored and you can use Synaptic and Gdebi instead, if you want to limit your software selection to what is free and open source. You can also remove the Ubuntu One icon, although it is usable for free. It will take about a minute to make those changes. Or you can install a totally different distro out of spite. This will take twenty minutes, plus download time.

[buzzingrobot]

To address your complaints in sequence:

1. The Amazon icon is easily removable, as is the Ubuntu One icon, and as is any icon in the Launcher. Ubuntu One is a Canonical product so the default display of its icon doesn't surprise or annoy me.

2. The forum sign-in procedures were put in place to enhance security several weeks ago after the compromise of much account data. The site was offline for a long time and reinstated with the new procedures in place.

3. The only way for software to get from Canonical servers to your hardware is for you to download it. If you do not like the Software Manager, Synaptic is worth a look. Same software, other than the relatively few items that are for sale, and which seem to offend you.

4. Ubuntu is not a bleeding edge rolling release and is not presented as such. So, no, the absolute lastest versions are often not in the repos. (For good reason.) The fact that a given package is not the latest release doe not mean it is outdated. You'll need to substantiate the assertion of widespread "out of date" software. If you want access to the most recent releases software, then you need to look at distos like Arch or Debian Sid or Experimental, or pull the latest source from Github and elsewhere and build it yourself.

5. Canonical is a for-profit business. Opinion is divided on their efforts to monetize Ubuntu. If Canonical is to continue to sponsor and fund development of Ubuntu, then Canonical must survive. If it makes no profit, it will not survive. Users have been able to submit donations for Ubuntu for a long time, but I think it's naive to expect donations to provide adequate and stable funding.

6. Hundreds of Linux distributions are available to you. If you are unwilling to use Ubuntu due to what you describe as the "rape and pillage" of "commercial interests" then perhaps you would be more comfortable with one of the more ideologically driven distributions? Fedora, for example, is an excellent product that is adamantly free of the things that bother you, as well as codecs, Flash, etc.

[monkeybrain20122]

To address your complaints in sequence:

4. Ubuntu is not a bleeding edge rolling release and is not presented as such. So, no, the absolute lastest versions are often not in the repos. (For good reason.) The fact that a given package is not the latest release doe not mean it is outdated. You'll need to substantiate the assertion of widespread "out of date" software. If you want access to the most recent releases software, then you need to look at distos like Arch or Debian Sid or Experimental, or pull the latest source from Github and elsewhere and build it yourself.

There are ppas. It is one of the best features of Ubuntu. It allows you to selectively upgrade to the latest and greatest. It is a happy medium between rolling the whole os like arch and sticking with museum grade end user software like Debian (SID is rough and it is not even that up to date,--comparing to Fedora, e.g. it is 'bleeding" only in the sense of being a bloody mess)

[help_me2]

"Linux going IN THE WRONG DIRECTION?"

Since when does linux = ubuntu? If you don't like unity, you can still use another desktop environment with ubuntu. Or use another distro altogether.

[Resistent]

Hi Varuendra,

The donate button "pay by paypal" on http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/questions
gives me back: "You are not authorized to access this page."

Does not matter if loggin SSO or not. So is donation deativated?

I wanted to donate now..