Re-imagining

[Ralph Janke]

Haha Darcy.. I really like this subject.

I think reset or re-imagining is what we need (not only in the Canada LoCo, 
but on the broader community, but this is the Canadian mailing list, so
focus on that).

I think enthusiasm is draining away when things are done that are not in
people's hearts. You say promoting Ubuntu is hard work... but is it really?

It become hard work when you try to do it in a way that is not in your heart,
that you are not passionate about. Without taking this particular point
to divisiveness (because it is not for me), I am interested in a Qt based
Desktop, hence why would I be passionate to promote Unity. I have no idea
why I should promote Mir. However, that is fine. I have no problems that 
other people who have the passion do it. I see no harm in it.

I see nothing wrong with what Bob and Charles doing. If it works, it does 
not need to be fixed. I think we need to think about adding to the pie
--- not taking away. And Bob and Charles are adding. Good job!

I am also not sure if promotion is really the issue anymore. Quite frankly,
bug #1 called for breaking M$'s world domination, not for replacing one
world domination with another one. I think Ubuntu today is well established,
so the question is what the promotion is really about. Some people talk
about crossing the chasm, but is this really the point? Crossing the chasm
for me, is more a issue of market share than becoming established.

I think it is very clear, Linux and Open Source are here and are not going
away for a very long time. Growth of market share will occur irrelevant
of the promotion. How many people are there that do not know?

So maybe it is rather the question of what is missing and what can be done 
about it. There are usually two ways that cause progress. One is to fix
something that is a hinderance, the other is to do something of vision.

I, personally, do not see a lot of reason for promotion at this time, so
I am looking for other ways to contribute. This does not mean that other 
who see either a hinderance that can be fixed by promotion or have a
vision of promotion should be stopped by my assessment.

On the other hand, I see things that need to be fixed (at least for me),
and I may have a couple of things that might turn into a vision in some
time in the future.

However, most of those things are more on the technical site, rather than
the promotional or social site, but this does not mean I would to exclude
anybody. So if I come from the side of hinderances.. I see the following.

My number one problem is communication. Jorge wrote in one of his blog posts
that the e-mail problem is solved. Thunderbird will not be actively developed
in the future anymore (baring fixes and security issues) making it look like
everything works. However, the only thing thunderbird does for me is crashing
and shutting down my laptop. I actually use mutt again as my e-mail system. 
So here is something I would like to fix. Additionally, I believe, e-mail
cannot be seen any more in isolation. I would rather have communication from
different sources combined.

Secondly, I would like too be able to use a desktop and applications solely
based on Qt. Again, this does not exclude people using other stuff, but it means
for me, that only because something exist in GTK, my problem is not solved.

Thirdly, I think package management needs to be taken to another level. It is 
really time not to always download 3-4 Gb of binaries every time we have a new 
release (actually often multiple times if you move forward long before the
release is officially published). I also envision more control (and easier
use) for rolling back or selecting versions of applications. I can do this 
with ruby gems, so why is it so impossible with my distro packages?

Well.. these are 3 of my pet peaves.. If anybody is interested in collaboration
in those, my door is always open for discussions....


Ralph
On Sat, Apr 06, 2013 at 01:38:17PM -0400, Darcy Casselman wrote:
> Inspired by Ralph's comments, I thought I'd open the floor to discussion
> about where you want to see Ubuntu Canada go.
> 
> I know a lot of enthusiasm has been drained out of the community by the
> near-constant succession of divisive controversy.  Which is a bit of a
> downer.  But I think Ubuntu is still the best desktop out there, and the
> *buntu ecosystem more than gives users, 1337 or otherwise, the flexibility
> they are asking for.
> 
> I've been pulling back a bit lately, mostly because I've been overwhelmed
> with work and my personal life and then Kwartzlab (http://kwartzlab.ca/, my
> hobby not-for-profit corporation) more urgently demanding my attention.
> 
> I'm very grateful for Bob and Charles stepping up to run Ubuntu hours and
> especially to Bob for taking over IRC meetings and the re-approval.  I
> don't want to diminish their contribution.
> 
> But sometimes I gotta ask myself: what's the point of all this.  I think
> promoting Ubuntu is important, but it's hard work and not something I'm
> particularly well suited to and not something I'm seeing much traction on
> after being at this for about 5 years.  (Sure, Ubuntu's making traction,
> but I'd be hard-pressed to say Ubuntu Canada is contributing to that).
> 
> My goal for Ubuntu Canada was always to foster an enthusiastic community
> that could spread across the country, growing like a weed, doing promotion,
> working together for the greater glory of free software.
> 
> It hasn't quite worked out that way.
> 
> And, I mean, that's okay.  I think I can lay some of the blame at the feet
> of Canonical, for failing to understand (or simply choosing to abandon)
> what keeps their community together.  But honestly, I can't say I've done
> everything I could have done to achieve those goals.
> 
> I'm enthusiastic about Ubuntu, but I can't shake the feeling that Ubuntu
> Canada could use a new focus or purpose.  And I don't know what that is.
> 
> Do you?
> 
> Darcy.

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