Flavor Review Request of UbuntuKylin

[Scott Kitterman]

On Monday, February 18, 2013 02:33:58 PM Mark Shuttleworth wrote:
> On 02/18/2013 02:31 PM, Scott Kitterman wrote:
> > On Monday, February 18, 2013 01:54:44 PM Mark Shuttleworth wrote:
> >> On 02/18/2013 01:48 PM, Jeremy Bicha wrote:
> >>> Hi! I'm not a member of the Tech Board but I hope you won't mind me
> >>> asking one question that I've had since the first I've heard of the
> >>> Ubuntu Kylin project. How does this differ from Ubuntu Chinese
> >>> Edition? (Although I guess the fact that I'm having trouble finding an
> >>> official 12.10 release may indicate that the Canonical-sponsored
> >>> Ubuntu Chinese Edition is no longer being maintained.)
> >> 
> >> Hi Jeremy
> >> 
> >> Ubuntu Kylin is the successor to the Project Qin work that became the
> >> Ubuntu Chinese Edition.
> >> 
> >> The team behind Kylin are keen to extend Ubuntu to integrate Chinese
> >> social media, content streams, payment systems, and the like. We agreed
> >> to support this work and collaborate with the team, to ensure that the
> >> result can be supportable and installed by OEMs. If this works, we
> >> imagine government teams in other countries would want to do the same
> >> thing, and our role is to ensure that quality and consistency and
> >> security are robust across all flavours of the platform.
> > 
> > What is the relationship between the Chinese government and this project?
> > Canonical can do whatever it wants in it's OEM space, but I don't think an
> > official connection between the Ubuntu project and the Chinese government
> > is in any way appropriate or consistent with Ubuntu values.
> 
> The Chinese government funds some of the teams that work on Kylin.
> That's no different than the funding of the US government on SE Linux.
> Our involvement is in part to ensure that the result is consistent with
> Ubuntu values (as we do in OEM engagements, too).

I do think working with authoritarian regimes is different than working with 
democratic governments, but in the terms you put it, I think it's fine.  I 
don't think it's the Ubuntu project's business how contributors are funded (so 
it's absolutely not an issue, in my opinion that some contributors my be 
funded by the Chinese goverment).  From your initial reply it sounded to me 
like it might be a formal relationship with an arm of the Chinese government 
and that would, I believe, be inappropriate.  I'm glad to see that's not the 
case.

Scott K