Freespire's Google ads: "What is Ubuntu Missing?"

[Eric Dunbar]

On 02/10/06, Melissa Draper <melissa at meldraweb.com> wrote:
> Joel Bryan Juliano wrote:
> > clearly what' their doing is calumny and defamation of character.

Clearly, eh? Have you bothered to read their advertising materials?!

I just looked over their 15 points list and I didn't see anything that
is slanderous, libellous or defamatory regarding Ubuntu.

If anything, they were articulating their strengths, and, by the
process of showing their strengths they also expose weaknesses in
Ubuntu* -- UBUNTU IS NOT THE PERFECT SOLUTION FOR EVERY PERSON. Get a
grip on yourself. Let me repeat, UBUNTU IS NOT PERFECT, nor is the
Debian-style licence perfect!

*Whether or not you necessarily agree with their strengths is your prerogative.

Another consideration is this: they see Ubuntu as sufficiently
successful as to warrant comparison with Ubuntu, and NOT Debian (even
though they say they are a Debian-based distro). Perhaps this
indicates that they are indeed learning from Ubuntu, and, as the
discussion on the Debian naming hang-up on FireFox indicates, it's not
the name that matters, but what's inside and WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH IT.
Yeah, you might see all the code in the world, but, if you can't USE
that code effectively, it's worthless (witness all the dead DOS-boxes
-- their software was useless because it wasn't readily usable. Find
an equal vintage Mac and it can still be used by today's computer
users!)!!!

> I'm not stating that the actions of freespire are ethical. IMHO, they
> are not. Smart? Yes. Ethical? No. Quite often, these sorts of campaigns
> are not ethical, and for a reason. The potential defamation compensation
> might well outweigh the benefit that the unethical technique generated.

Why are they unethical? They aren't distorting the truth.

> In my opinion, this is the second time freespire has gone
> below-the-belt. This time, they can't call it an accident [2].

Why has freespire "gone below the belt"? Simply because their
comparing themselves to another distro, albeit a popular one? They
were presenting themselves in a positive light (it might behove you to
read through their list). I see Fedora-core bashing all the time by
Debian purists and vice-versa (and, then there's Debian-bashing by
Ubuntuites and vice versa and...). The response on sounder seems to
suggest it's the same kind of jealousy at play here too :-( :-( :-(

> Canonical is, no doubt, aware of this. They're the ones who can decide
> what the effect of the campaign has been and they're the ones that will
> sort it out, if they deem it necessary.

I'd be surprised if Canonical is shaking in their boots.

> In closing, I repeat. Please, leave this topic alone. Please, do not
> give them what they want.

Why? You're the one that appears to be making wild statements
regarding an OSS-based distro that actually don't seem to follow from
the public actions of said distro.