View Full Version : Is Ubuntu a democracy ?
swoll1980
March 23rd, 2010, 05:48 AM
It was remark made by the developers about the direction they're going in. Your input is more than welcome, but in the end they will decide the direction it will go. "Ubuntu is not a democracy."
aysiu
March 23rd, 2010, 05:55 AM
Your input is more than welcome That's not what I've seen. I've seen an unexplained unilateral change that Mark Shuttleworth later said he wanted feedback and data on, but when people gave him actual constructive feedback and data, he just ignored it and said the only objection he was seeing was that "we're used to it."
That looks to me as if he either has a reading problem or a sincerity problem. Either is disturbing to me.
If someone says "This is how it is. I've made the decision," then she should make a decision and stick with it. It would be nice to also explain the reasons behind the decision.
If, however, someone says, "I'm leaning strongly toward this and would like feedback and data on how this has affected people," she should actually take that feedback into account and counter any concerns people bring up that she feels are invalid.
Mark Shuttleworth has done neither of the good practices in the latter two hypothetical scenarios. He has 1) decided on a major default interface change without explanation of its benefits 2) asked for feedback and not really read it or seriously considered or countered it and 3) continued to perpetuate a false dichotomy of "I either am a strong leader or I listen to the masses."
A strong leader can be decisive while also appropriately soliciting, responding to, and taking into account constructive feedback. My hope is that Mark is a strong enough leader to say "Hey, I made a mistake. I and the design team got overzealous. We implemented a change without thinking it through. We would still like to move in that direction for 10.10 for X, Y, and Z specific reasons [whatever those are], but we realize people have brought up good usability issues with the window control move and so will hold off on implementing that in an LTS release like Ubuntu 10.04."
I'm not holding my breath, though.
ndefontenay
March 23rd, 2010, 05:57 AM
No companies are based on democracy. It's all monarchy.
Canonical is no exception.
They certainly listen to what we have to say but if it goes against the direction they want to take they can choose not to.
The big difference between us and them is that we don't know where they want to go. There are things they simply can't tell just yet because they want to keep some competition advantage.
swoll1980
March 23rd, 2010, 06:03 AM
Mark Shuttleworth has done neither of the good practices in the latter two hypothetical scenarios. He has 1) decided on a major default interface change without explanation of its benefits
I thought something was said about adding new functionality to Nautilus. I could be wrong though.
KiwiNZ
March 23rd, 2010, 06:05 AM
This is not the place to raise this issue. If you have an issue with Ubuntu Governance the Community Council is the appropriate place to raise it .
I am closing this thread.
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