Ubuntu is under attack

[Eric Dunbar]

This discussion is more appropriate on sounder (hint).

On 12/17/05, Mike Bird <mgb-ubuntu at yosemite.net> wrote:
> On Sat, 2005-12-17 at 16:29, Peter Garrett wrote:
> > I don't think yelling and conspiracy theories are going to help much, do
> > you?
>
> There are people who believe that limiting user choices to that
> dictated by their personal religion is THE RIGHT THING TO DO.
> (Capitals in their thoughts.)  They have applied their doctrine
> to Gnome and Fedora, and have now started on Ubuntu.
>
> I don't claim that their purpose is to harm Ubuntu.
>
> I do claim that their approach is fundamentally flawed and
> incompatible with software freedom and will harm Ubuntu if
> not stopped.
>
> --Mike Bird

I would suggest you stop and take a look at the following (crude)
break down on page views for the past three months at DistroWatch
<http://www.distrowatch.com/index.php?dataspan=13>:
Rank	Distribution	Hits Per Day
1	Ubuntu	2739
2	SUSE	1891
3	Mandriva	1801
4	Fedora	1030

Hmm. Who's sitting right at the top?

As for the "fundamentally flawed approach"... hmm, the numbers speak
for themselves.

Plus, Ubuntu is still _fully_ customisable, however, it is also
becoming more ACCESSIBLE (one of Canonical's stated goals is
accessibility) by becoming more usable.

Perhaps you didn't experience the whole DOS vs. Mac war in the 1980s,
so, to summarise: the computer "experts" (pundits) derided the Mac GUI
for being simplistic, limiting, not keyboard controllable and simply
not useful (whatever would you do with a MOUSE... drawing pictures?
Use LOGO! Page layout? Only publishers need LinoTypes). What did
Microsoft do the instant they cleared up the legal wranglings they had
with Apple? Copy Mac's GUI down to the last letter (making some pretty
bad mistakes in the process unfortunately). Why? Because GUI and
simplicity WORKS.

Perhaps you haven't heard this before but LESS IS MORE.

You can buy the $200 MP3 player with radio, voice recorder, video
screen and lots of storage, or you can buy the $200 MP3 player that
only plays MP3s with less storage -- which of the two gets used? The
one that didn't break... i.e., the one where the manufacturer focussed
on quality vs. quantity. We all recognise this principle -- in Dutch
there's a great play on words "Goedkoop is duur koop"
(<http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/stoe002nede01/stoe002nede01_0719.htm>)
which translates to "Cheap buys are expensive buys" (or, if you use
auto-translate "Cheap expensive buy is"). You buy a cheap MP3 player
this month. Three months later you already have to buy another one and
another one and...

Seems to me Occam's Razor belongs here as well.

And, let's add a KISS for good measure.

Anyway, it's late.

Eric.