Standing down as release manager for Kubuntu

[Michael Hall]

Thank you for all of your work as Kubuntu release manager.

Michael Hall
mhall119 at ubuntu.com

On 10/23/2015 04:52 AM, Jonathan Riddell wrote:
> With 15.10 successfully released I'm standing down as release manager
> of Kubuntu.
> 
> Making Kubuntu over the last 10 years has been a fantastic journey.
> Even since I first heard about a spaceman making a Linux distro using
> Debian but faster release cycles I've known this would be something
> important and wanted KDE to be part of it.  Bringing together KDE and
> Ubuntu has created the best operating system we can and the best
> community to work on it.
> 
> The life of an international freedom fighter is a fun one, I've
> travelled the world on private jet to meet extraordinary people and
> see amazing places.  I watched monkeys swing from the network cables
> of Bengaluru and raced motorcycles through the slums of Kano. I was a
> a bit put out to be attacked by pirates in the Carribean but the help
> of the Kubuntu community and wider Ubuntu community helped me come
> back.
> 
> Community made open source software needs people to be able to take
> out what they've put in.  Ubuntu's licences and policies enforce this.
> However for the last three years Ubuntu's main sponsor Canonical has
> had a policy contrary to this and after much effort to try to rectify
> this it's clear that isn't going to happen.  The Ubuntu leadership
> seems compliant with this so I find myself unable to continue helping
> a project that won't obey its own community rules and I need to move
> on.  I won't be going far, I'll be helping out in KDE more, the
> original and best end-user free software community who have always
> been wonderful.
> 
> Ubuntu now needs to work out if it still wants to be a community made
> project.  I've heard from too many people who feel they have been
> bullied out of the project for this to be a personal problem.  It
> needs a community council who will stand up for the third party and
> volunteer developers, who will criticise when money is collected for
> additional use of community but not used for this and who will ensure
> the Ubuntu policies on copyright licences are not in question and
> above all one that does not cause people to leave the project being
> felt they have been bullied out.  Good luck.
> 
> In Friendship
> 
> Jonathan
>