Dead List Walking

[Liam Proven]

On 19 April 2011 23:55, David Sanders <dsuzukisanders at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Whatever the reasoning, it's disappointing for those Ubuntu users who
> found this list useful for general chit-chat.

Agreed.

> For the last few years I've been a near-evangelist for how great
> Ubuntu is, not just as an OS, but as an example of free and
> non-corporate development. Mark Shuttleworth has always seemed to
> take a real interest in running the show and being approachable. This
> is what originally gave me the impression that Ubuntu was a "friendly"
> project which could contain real people.

Absolutely, very strongly agreed.

>  If we're to see a corporate
> lock-down on communications a la Apple or Microsoft (or Oracle, or
> Cisco etc ad infinitum) then I really forces to me to re-evaluate what
> the project stands for.

Definitely. For me, the first sign of the corporate rot setting in was
when the Ubuntu Lite project received a warning that it must change
its name or face prosecution for infringing a trademark.

I understand the need, but that kind of behaviour is not being a good
citizen to my mind.

> If it was originally intended to put better software than Windows in
> the hands of the masses then it's currently failing, as Unity is
> frankly far worse than the windowing system in Windows 7 (and yes I
> have been using it - it's basically a worse version of Gnome 2.x +
> Global Menu + AWN, thanks for ignoring these other excellent
> projects), and it is literally light-years behind OS X, despite
> stealing the ideas. The Windows 7 quicklaunch dock-ripoff is a much
> better implementation than the default left-bar in Unity in terms of
> dragging, dropping and clicking. as is AWN.

Agreed again, actually. Reluctantly and slightly to my surprise, but
yes, it's true.

> If Ubuntu was also intended as a way of breaking a dull, corporate
> hegemony in software then the project should also be careful that this
> isn't what it turns itself into.

Hear, hear!

> So the software has now become rather poor and the structure seems to
> be getting worse by the day, and I seriously think it's time to
> change. With that in mind, I'm off to use Debian unstable, like I used
> to. My commercial work is Ubuntu-based (and indeed gets quite a few
> Ubu-based boxen out into the wild) so it'll be a bit of a switch, but
> if you're not listening to users then you're on a path to nowhere.
>
> It's been a ride Ubuntu.

I am going to give 11.04 a try, but I suspect that Mint is where I am heading.

If I don't start a fork myself. ;¬)

-- 
Liam Proven • Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven
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