What's wrong with Ubuntu and Canonical?

[Skara Brae]

What is wrong with Ubuntu/Canonical?

- I remember a clip that I saw, many months ago, about some guy (didn't/don't know him) mocking Canonical. I don't seem to find that clip right now.

- Just a while ago, a friend, himself a passionate Linux adherent, sent me a link to some guy's blog (don't know him) criticizing Canonical on his blog:

http://dehype.org/2012/ubuntu-design/

My friend (who himself keeps on drifting from one distro to the next...) seems to find my using and liking Ubuntu almost unethical and selfish...

The author of the article in the link called me, kind of, choosing Ubuntu because I was following a hype. (Following a hype is standing in line in front of a store for hours and hours, only to buy a cellphone--no offense to the iPhone users here who did so.)

-oo-

I must be missing something, because I don't get the fuss.

Ubuntu (10.04) is free (to download, to install and to use) and it is good.

I have tried OpenSUSE at my laptop (a Samsung R519); it gave me a few (probably minor) issues. It ruined the Vista Home Basic install, but I was able to 'save' that.

I have tried OpenSUSE at an old PC (I'm talking Pentium 4 & AGP here), and that computer was too slow/old. Xubuntu worked fine on this PC.

At work (federal government of my country) we use SLED 10. It is Linux, but sometimes it behaves a lot like MS Windows (yikes!). Or maybe it's just that it's KDE 3.5 and not Gnome. Ubuntu clearly eats both OpenSUSE and SLED 10 for breakfast...

I have never tried other distro's (yet). Oh, a live-CD of Debian, a few years ago.


-oo-

I don't care what Canonical is up to "behind the screens" (it seems that I should have to care?). As long as Ubuntu keeps on being free (to download, to install, to use) and as long as I like Ubuntu, I will keep on using Ubuntu, period.

I don't care that Mark Shuttleworth is to Ubuntu what Steve Jobs was to Apple (is he?)

I don't care (well, not much) that Canonical doesn't contribute much to the general development of GNU/Linux (that does not concern men, does it?).

I don't care that Ubuntu is developed "top-down" (that does not concern me, either). The day that for some reason I don't like Ubuntu anymore, then I will switch to another distribution.

All I care about is that Ubuntu is free and that it is good.

So, what's all the fuss about?

[eddier]

+1

Well said Sir!

So some users dont like Unity(me too !!),use something different

I find Unity interesting but clumsy-a bit like KDE4 when it first appeared,but look at KDE4 now!

Please dont run around like headless chickens yelling "Ubuntu sucks",thats damn rude.

Getting a useable linux onto tablets seems like a good way to promote linux,and thats what Gnome3/Unity/Ubuntu seem to be doing. The general community has found its own way round their dislikes with such as Cinnamon etc.

Getting Linux useable by lesser Geeks can only be good for Gnu-Linux in the long run.

ed.

[collisionystm]

I think the argument about Ubuntu is more of in depth than just Unity.

Some say there are stealing from debian because they dont give back what they take. Canonical takes code from debian, re-brands it and adds their own tweaks but does not give the same amount of work back to debian.


There is also the never ending argument of 'free software'.

Its all a bunch of rubbish. Personal choice. Everyone robs peter to pay paul in one way or another.

Your computer. Use what you want. End of story.

[Skara Brae]

I think they are nothing more than "purists"...

The GPL allows Canonical to use (parts of) Debian for Ubuntu, so I don't really see how Canonical is doing something wrong. Unethical perhaps if you search hard enough, yes - but as long as I don't have to pay for Ubuntu, I don't care much (this is the part where the friend that I was/am talking to calls me "selfish").

[collisionystm]

lol. An argument you will never win.

[IWantFroyo]

Everyone can find something to criticize. Operating systems especially. Something will always change and someone will always not like it.

Anyways, I look at all the criticism as a positive thing. The more people there are criticizing, the more people there are using Ubuntu, right?

[rg4w]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome


Edit: Just finished reading the comments from the first link in the OP. Jo-Erlend Schinstad's comment on 20 February 2012 at 19:47 pretty much undoes the article, politely enough to avoid the appearance of a public spanking, but no less decisively.

[winh8r]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_think

[JDShu]

To answer the question rather literally, what's wrong with Canonical is that it's been 7 years and they're still not profitable. Nor have they solved Bug #1. Any other business would have shut down by this point, but luckily for Canonical, they get to be Mark Shuttleworth's expensive toy.

[collisionystm]

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Ubuntu