Lies and FUD about Ubuntu by Mandriva boss?

[Eric Dunbar]

On 2/14/06, Christian Jensen <cj2003 at debian-news.net> wrote:
> That's what this blogger means:
>
> http://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/incinerator/weblog/comment_mandriva_ceo_disses_ubuntu
>

> Here some examples:
>
> "One possible worse case scenario is that Ubuntu's plan is to use money
> to put all other community-based distros out of business and then start
> monetizing the installed base."
>
> 1.) Ubuntu pledges on it's website that it will never do what
> Mandrake/Mandriva has done, offering a so-called "Premium" version for
> money.

> They might break this promise but how likely is that, really?
> Therefore, this is a dodgy argument, others would simply call it FUD.
> Aha, A CEO of a so-called Open Source company taking refuge to FUD then,
> isn't he? Well, we all know who the usual culprits are, what does that
> tell us about Mandriva and Francois?"

At the risk of poking the hornet's nest whilst convered in honey and
blaspheming at the same time ;-) (or holding up cartoons at the same
time)...

Elements in the open source community do quite a good job of diving
into FUD themselves. How often does Microsoft get lambasted for things
that aren't factually correct, or are hypocritical by pundits and by
zealots (and by non-zealots).

How often does Microsoft Internet Explorer get labelled as an insecure
browser and people are told not to use it by the OSS pundits and/or
zealots (sometimes one and the same)? Or, MS gets lambasted for not
doing anything about security? Yes, I'm sure there's a religious
conviction in some that IE is the ultimate in insecurity (perhaps
reflecting something about the insecurity of those screaming loudest
about IE's insecurity ;-) and MS doesn't care about security, but, the
reality is that IE can be locked down as can Windows. But, I guess
it's the same as in all political battles. The whole truth isn't
particularly interesting since it's nuanced and weakens your
arguments. Selected and selective "truths" (or simply downright lies)
are far more useful ;-).

As a whole, the OSS community should be above diving to Microsoft's
depths, but, I guess the old adage, "monkey see, monkey do" holds true
even in some elements of the OSS communit.

Disclaimer: I do happily take pot shots at Microserf as well and am
not fond of the GUI quality or design of their flagship software :-).

Eric.