What do you think? Is Ubuntu becoming too commercialized? Now featured on Ubuntu’s website: Ubuntu TV. It looks pretty cool, but that’s not what this is about. I want opinions. I want to know what you think. For me, it was Ubuntu that pulled me away from depending on –and actively using– commercialized software. And now, I am questioning if Ubuntu has become a traitor.
Linux: the concept of using open source software. The vision of being able to use a computer efficiently and effectively without having a dependency on Microsoft software. After many years of having this ‘fatal attraction’ it was Ubuntu that enabled this fantasy become a reality.
Screen shot captured from Ubuntu.com
Proprietary hardware and software: Bill Gates — sneaky, manipulative, greedy little troll… and leech. Steve Jobs — amazing artist, control freak and, quite honestly… human. The money went to his brain, just like it would have for me. There’s no denying that. But that’s not the topic.
I think Apple makes great stuff. But seriously, after paying for a product and becoming the legal owner of it, I should be able to go into my garage, pull a screwdriver out of my toolbox and easily have access to the inside of my iPhone. Not the case. Fine! But I should at least be able to purchase a screwdriver that will open it. Again, not the case. These screwdrivers and the screws are proprietary –or as close as Apple can get.
Disappointment. That’s more in-line with how I feel. Ubuntu is becoming the Microsoft of Linux. In my opinion a giant leap forward illustrating this occurred when Ubuntu released 11.04 with Unity. Total garbage. I will continue to use 10.04.3LTS until I can confirm that 12.04LTS will have that garbage of a shell purged from digital existence.
Prediction. Ubuntu is a business. They manage an open source operating system and have been slowly evolving and shaping it into a portal system that is used to solicit their products and services. This is a problem that will not go away. The only solution –assuming this is bothersome– is to pack up and move.
Solution. I always have Debian available in my back pocket. However, I also have my eyes on Slackware. If I do make the choice to move over to Slackware, I will have to learn a lot of new things. Slackware is it’s own base and entity. And everything I have learned so far with Linux –commands, administration, configurations, etc.– is based on Debian. Learning how to use Slackware will be challenging. The best analogy I can think to explain this would be like trying to incorporate U.S. Customary units after using the Metric system all your life. Or in my case, the complete opposite.
In my opinion, everything i am doing is worth my time and effort. It’s all about my goal. I do not want to depend on proprietary software. I am not a resource of profitability for commercial organizations. I am me. And I am the only one who owns me. Computers are not going away. Software systems the bring out the functionality in computers are also not going away. So the way I see it — I have two choices with how I accept computer technology as a major part of my life.
One — I let it control me. I willingly and voluntarily allow commercialized products to create limits, set boundaries and dictate what is and what isn’t possible.
Remember, I’m the guy who wants to get a screwdriver out of my garage just to open up my iPhone to see what it looks like on the inside — It’s harmless. I am curious… This is how I learn. I am not a threat to Apple. I am not going to steal their design and create a gPhone — g stands for Garry btw.)
Two — I put myself in control. I choose whether or not I want to limit myself or set boundaries. I dictate what is or what is not possible.
You can not live by option two using Microsoft products. Nor seemingly can you do the same using Ubuntu. They cashed out. And soon, I will be checking out. Ubuntu has officially become too commercialized for me to continue to use.
It goes against my values. It goes against my goals. In many ways Ubuntu has morphed itself into the oppositional force I stand against. And while undoubtably, Ubuntu is not Microsoft. –Ubuntu maintains an open source linux operating system. Microsoft sells a proprietary operating system– Ubuntu does have many strong similarities to Microsoft.
Unfortunately these are similarities that I do not like. Ironically my choice to soon abandon Ubuntu was ultimately caused by the creation of their product they called Unity. It was the final push that tipped me over the edge. With over 700 various linux distributions to choose from, there is no reason for me to continue using a commercialized by-product of one of the most amazing free and open source operating systems ever created –Debian. My choice with considering Slackwareis completely based on my desire to try something different during a pivot-able point in my journey of learning the most as I can about linux.
Tags: Apple, Bill Gates, Debian, iPhone, Linux, Microsoft, Open Source Software, Operating Systems, Proprietary Software, Slackware, Steve Jobs, Ubuntu, Unity
Dead on right on every point.
Mint with cinnamon is the only thing keeping me from having to take it a step beyond into, “create your own” land. This was all supposed to be, at one point, a part of my stress-free lifestyle and now has become a war of frustration. I want to say that I don’t care about it either way, but I really do so much that I think that’s what the developers and owners are not realizing. The battle against “the stupids” on a daily basis is often in being able to show others a better way, not the reverse.
So what happened? First kde, then gnome, then ubuntu all supposedly open source community driven, all one after another told the communities that created them and brought them to life to go blow it. And look what we are left with, xfce? i.e. starting over from scratch? I show up at a noobs with a win 98 looking machine talking like its the gift from the gods and they think I’m mental. They want to see kde(windeers) or gnome(the useless click machine) or the famous ubu (which I do not doubt will go down mandriva road). This is what they give us? That or we’re left on downgrading the system to unsupported software just to make it usable. And to think, I was once proud of seeing a linux at walmart computer and thinking, “at last, it’s begun”, and now its, “here we go again”.
It’s my money, my computer, and I’ll do with it as I please, and currently, it’s going to CinnaMint. (I made that name up, So I guess I own the copyright, now to make $$$ off other peoples love and work, ohhh yeah…)
Wait, what did I just say? ;p
Why so much hatred? That’s not really in the spirit of opensource to trash someone’s product like that.
History… that’s why they started creating Unity, the Gnome project started to delay the release of Gnome3 and it seemed that they were going to redo the same mistakes as the KDE project (and they did to a lesser extent, you just have to look at the reactions at the release of Gnome 3.0).
Opensource is about choice, you don’t like Unity you can just swap to Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu or even just install Gnome Shell on your desktop (or just swap distro altogether).
Is Ubuntu turning into Microsoft? Of course not, try to make money with opensource doesn’t turn you into Microsoft, it turns you into Redhat, or Novell (Attachmate?).
“Why so much hatred? That’s not really in the spirit of opensource to trash someone’s product like that.”
Yes, why are this mob running around trashing others work? Are they doing this for MS, knowingly or not?
“Opensource is about choice, you don’t like Unity you can just swap to Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu or even just install Gnome Shell on your desktop (or just swap distro altogether).”
Amen!
If you don’t like it, you have some choices. Non wich have anything to do with whining about the distribution.
1) Adjust settings on the software. There are a lot you can do.
2) Change Window Manager if you don’t like it. It’s not like there is no other choices in Ubuntu. There are, plenty.
3) Just say “Thanks for the fish” and go to another distribution. Salute the good times you had and walk. There are lots of choices. Debian, Mint, Suse, Mint, Fedora, CentOS, etc etc
In short acknowled the good times and that you and the distribution has grown apart.
Ubuntu has been great. I’ve acknowledge them to many people. Put their banners on my site off and on thru the years and have distributed hundreds of discs — at my expense. I don’t need to thank Ubuntu on every post I write about them. But your point is well taken. I do not like the direction they are headed. It is about the money. There’s nothing wrong with being compensated for excellent work — and they should be, rightfully so. But, rather than degrade the quality of their operating system they should really consider throwing a reminder out more often that donations greatly help.
So basically Unity was created just to maintain an existing standard that also sets them up for failure… 6 month releases, on the dot. There’s been quite a few instances when the six month clock starts ticking towards the end and they start scrambling. Debian, you don’t get that. They’ll release when they’re ready to release. And also, what was so wrong about staying with Gnome 2?
Remember that you are the screwdriver guy, so you can simply trash the Unity and commercial things and switch to GNOME Shell or other such community products using Ubuntu as the platform. It is possible and easy.
Frankly, these days I see people leaving Ubuntu because of Unity. It is wrong. Give the platform not the GUI a chance to prove itself. It has proved itself by facilitating major user wishes into the Linux Desktop by providing the installation of codecs during system install and such other minor details that makes a system comfortable to use.
If you would be moving to Debian, you would be facing GNOME Shell in a few months. If that’s what you are trying to escape you cannot because ultimately it will dawn upon all distros. Please give GNOME 2 a proper farewell.
As in my case, I too do not like Unity but like GNOME Shell but why should I move from Ubuntu to Fedora or openSUSE when I can have the complete Shell experience on Ubuntu. Plus it gives me the comfort of a good system – easier installation of software, and all the things I want to choose. If I want Cinnamon it’s available for Ubuntu a few clicks away. If I want Synaptic it’s a click away.
So basically, if you don’t like commercialization identify them and throw it away which you can’t do with Apple but can definitely achieve on Ubuntu. Be the screwdriver if that’s your nature. Don’t be a nomad.
I apologize for any harshness unknowingly inflicted on you.
No apology needed… That was a great comment and you communicated your point across well.
i would like to congratulate you on the great diplomacy you display in answering your blog i have discovered it today and have read true your debian vs ubuntu, linux mint 11 and now this one post and all the comment associated with it and i must say i am trully impressed with the quality and input i gathered here. again thx you know have me poundering between linux mint 12 and debian and i am still stuck i feel like in a open buffet with to many choice with linux or if you prefer in a distro menu with to many point of view to decide clearly but i guess i am now down to those two. thx again and keep up your good work…you got bookmarked.
I went to school as an engineer, said schooling required me to switch back and forth between US customary units and metric units, depending on the calculation, and many drawings had both units incorporated.
Working with computers, I have both FLOSS software and commercial (Windows, OS X) software. You use whichever your customer requires or is the best for the present job.
Needless to say, I am neither a complete FLOSS zealot, nor am I a Windows fanboy. My present desktop quintuple boots in Windows XP, Windows 7, Linux Mint Debian Xfce (default), Xubuntu 11.10, and Debian Squeeze (Xfce). I don’t run Unity because my desktop doesn’t support Compiz, period. No other reason. I may not run Windows 8 on this 7 year old system for similar reasons, so I am looking to upgrade my computer.
I support the software that my customers use, I don’t impose my value judgements. I will continue to use on my home system whatever makes sense for me to use, which means an upgraded computer will probably not support Windows XP, but that doesn’t mean the fellow down the street still using Windows 98, not connected to the Internet, will be abandoned by me or anyone else.
With all the different O/Ss that you use I would suggest that you get a new machine, install whatever base O/S you want to run and then use virtualization to run others. I am currently using a Win-7 based computer. In virtualization I have run, Fedora 16, Win XP and various Servers. The only reason I had to take them down was HD size, which will be soon rectified.
I know! Let’s draw attention by creating us-and-them arguments that polarize the open source community, turning all discussions into shouting matches, paralyzing progress while destroying cohesion! After all, that approach has worked so well in politics.
Slackware? Yikes ….. how about switching to Fedora core instead? It also adheres to FOSS principles, but I would think it’s less nasty than Slackware …. especially when transitioning from Debian …. http://fedoraproject.org/
I use AntiX myself … based on Debian
http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
Well, you don’t have to use now, do you? Remember, that is the beauty of Linux, freedom of choice.
Of course fanboi rants like this just serve to create a wider divide between Linux users and Windows or Mac users. Really, there is advocating and a professional manner, and then there is ranting in a fanboi manner.
I believe rather than advocate, you chose to rant instead. Yeah, that’s going to win fans.
” I will continue to use 10.04.3LTS until I can confirm that 12.04LTS will have that garbage of a shell purged from digital existence.”
That is what I’m doing, too. It better be good or I’m heading fir Mint or CrunchBang linux (#!)
That Mr. Mark Shuttleworth is a clever man there is no doubt. And in a way I admire him for what he is doing. As he himself always stated and also on the Ubuntu website: Ubuntu will be always for free! That Mr. Shuttleworth tries to make a business with Canonical again I can only applaud him for that. Red Hat Inc. is doing nice business too with Opensource software.
Ubuntu has put Linux on the mainstream map, of course some may not like this. Today BSD is more elites but that will change also over the years. The bottom line is that Ubuntu (for everybody) cannot be free if there is no money coming in and so we Canonical Ltd. Mr. Shuttleworth is by no means a Mr. Bill Gates or the late Mr. Steve Jobs. But with the same breath he has a great vision like they have or had. Also I resisted first by not using Ubuntu however now I can see the logic and Ubuntu is my main platform. (Ubuntu 10.04, so to speak ).
Have said this, Unity I cannot really understand or appreciate and favour Gnome 3 in that sense. In my eyes the biggest traitors towards Linux are the one’s who try to keep Linux elites and in that way the great underdog and basically a no-hoper. I salute companies like Canonical, Red Hat and Novell in their effort in making Linux a big name. And above all I salute Mr. Shuttleworth!
Mr. Shuttleworth will be the next Steve Jobs and that basically all for free.
First, stop whining and do as you say. Just say “Thanks for the fish”, think about the good times with Ubuntu and change to another distribution, if you don’t like the way Ubuntu has choosen to go. Don’t behave like you have been betraid in a relationship, because you have not. And whining about it isn’t doing you any good…
Linux was about Linus Torvalds wanted to run Unix at home, but it was to expensive. He started to play with a scheduler, which with GNU software turned out to be a small Unix-like system. Like the OS Minix. He sent the source with it, and some others contributed. He used GPL license, and the rest we know.
Free Software and Linux, and to some extends Open Source, is all about choices. And Ubuntu gives you that too, they don’t lock you into their system, like the other two you mentioned. If you don’t like Unity, install Gnome-shell or any other window manager. If you don’t like Ubuntu, chose some other distribution.
Free Software, and its founder RMS, do aprove you being commercial with Free Software. That is why GPL looks like it does. RMS even encourage you to earn money on Free Software, like Ubuntu and RedHat does. But you have to give all source code to your customers, so they can change it or hire some other coder to fix it. That was why RMS stated GNU in the first place. Because he been denied access to the software of a printer so he could adjust it to fit their needs.
The difference between Linux distributions isn’t that large… It isn’t like moving from MS Windows to Debian or Ubuntu. You might want to look into Gentoo or DSL. The last might be what you want to try of you are into learning new stuff.
Any way it isn’t fair to compare Ubuntu to Microsoft. It’s plain wrong, as there are no connections. Not fair to Cannonical or Ubuntu community (or Linux and Free Software).
I can feel and understand your frustration, but please… Ubuntu has obviously given you lots of good times, as you get so upset by their change of a bloody window manager (which you easily can change by installing say gnome-shell, twm, xmonad, 9wm, aewm, afterstep, awesome, clfswm, ctwm, e17, dwm, evilwm, fluxbox, fvwm, i3, icewm, jwm, larswm, lwm, miwm, olwm, pekwm, scrotwm, tririum (you got the idea, these are from Debian but most/all are found in Ubuntu) or any other window manager to your likeing in the Ubuntu repository. Heck, you can even change desktop environment to KDE, Lxde or sucrose (most of these I have not tried, but you could).
By the way, you should start using metric systems, it makes sence, which feet and thumbs doesn’t.
Suggestion: try Arch Linux. Moved 4 years ago frorm ubuntu and never looked back. It is rolling-release and has a package manager. Packages consists of the vanilla programs’ without any modifications from arch packagers.
I have always wondered how a good, quality product like any-Linux distributions can be given for free, because I know how much pain and effort involves behind the development of such great softwares. Later, I realised, these products are collaboration of developers who love technology and open source softwares. I, myself waiting to enter the IT industry, is willing to contribute to some open source technologies. That is likely to be Qt because I use it and know it. So the story goes on like this.
For me Ubuntu is what made me chose Linux. It really stands for its caption “Linux for human beings.”. I have already used Red Hat and it was too complicated to be common men’s product. But, behind all these things, I think, everything needs a a Financial support. It really needs to.
IMHO, Donations, Branded Tee-Shirts, Branded Accessories are highly acceptable and I will choose any of these methods for the sake of my contribution. But Ubuntu, being a high quality product needs further financial support. For that, they can commercialize Ubuntu Server Editions and Industry related stuffs. As far as desktop editions are considered, they should remain free & open.
“I am not a resource of profitability for commercial organizations.”. I highly agree, if alone we are contributing something to any free product. Otherwise, I highly disagree.
My last word, even if Ubuntu thinks of commercialization, then they have to have good hardware support in the future. Needless to say, they are GPUs and Printers. These drivers should work as good as they work on any commercialized OS like Windows or Mac. They need to have lot of commercial softwares like Photoshop, etc.
From my POV, Ubuntu will not be commercialised, as it uses Linux Kernel which is open source and cannot be a part of commercial software (my guess). I don’t know about the licensing traditions. Again, there will be contributors who don’t work for Ubuntu, whose work cannot be stolen, just by a price tag. Even if they do commercialise, the contributors will fork the project and continue to develop and evolve the OS, again a hopeful guess. At last, as you have said, why would I choose a costly Linux distros when there are 699 free Linux distros.
Android, anyone? uses the linux core!
Actually Ubuntu is coming out with Android substitutes for free, for devices that have shipped with Android, which has all the commercial crap on it. The Unity interface will be quite useful for this type of device, and it won’t have all the commercial/proprietary stuff loaded by default.
Canonical are a commercial company. Who have still not made a profit. They need to do something to start making money. Is Red Hat too commercial? Is IBM? Is Intel? The “FREE” in Free Open Source Software means “FREE” as in “freedom of speech”. Not Free beer.
What’s wrong with Slackware?
Been with it since 2007.
KDE ,Gnome and now XFCE are starting to bloat.
Looking for a C++ neutral desktop sans GTK or QT.
Two of the things it is possible to do with open source are choose and modify. If you don’t like a distro, choose another. If you can’t find what you want, choose the closest and modify it until it is what you want, we may get another distro to confuse us even more.
Life is to short to endure needless frustration, that’s why I do not use Apple anything or MS anything unless I have to because someone else needs the help.