Forking (was Ubuntu Under Attack)

[Old Rocker]

Since I started this thread, a number of people have contacted me off 
list and basically asked:

"Does it matter if Ubuntu/Kubuntu is a fork of Debian?" or "What do you 
mean by a fork anyway?"

As most people have probably realised, it matters to me and I hope it 
matters to the whole of our community.  The best explanation I have 
been able to find is in the book "Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source 
Revolution" by Glyn Moody.  Although published first in 2001, the book 
still stands up today.  Here is the quote:

"Large-scale forking is generally regarded as a kind of fratricidal 
civil war, the worst thing that can happen to a hacker community and to 
be avoided at all costs.  Forking is quite different from the 
ideological differences that exist between the original free software 
movement and the newer open source: it is not only possible but common 
for people from different backgrounds to work together on a single 
project.  In effect, there may be a rainbow of ideologies in a given 
project.  A fork, however, is an either/or matter, and until those two 
camps can effect a coming together, a process called "healing the 
fork", the divergence between them is likely to grow and become ever 
more unbridgeable."

(Here the term "hacker" is used in its original form as a person who can 
hack together some code, rather than the more pejorative description of 
"cracker" which in fact people who break code, write viruses, etc. 
should be given.)

In terms of Linux distributions, there are various Debian based distros 
"out there", and most of these provide a better installer that the 
Debian installer or specialist software.  These are part of the 
"rainbow" to which Moody refers and add to the total benefit of the 
whole Debian Project community.  However, Ubuntu/Kubuntu has its own 
repositories and code base, which are close to Debian, but not 
interchangeable with it.  Simply, you can't guarantee that Debian code 
will run with Ubuntu, its has to be code recompiled for Ubuntu.  This 
situation is similar to the way in which Gentoo sets up its binaries.  
The difference is that Gentoo doesn't claim to be part of the Debian 
community, whereas Ubuntu does.

A fork duplicates effort (why should two set of people be developing 
essentially the same software?) and holds back development (we should 
be working together, not apart).  It may be my opinion (as one poster 
has said) that this situation is to be deprecated, but that opinion is 
shared by many others in the open source community.

As yet, I don't think Ubuntu/Kubuntu is a fork, just a difference of 
ideology.  Ubuntu developers work with others in the Debian community 
it is true, but the vibes coming out of what I've read and seen, is 
that there is no close developing of software, and this worries me.  
Far better if Ubuntu could use the software developed in the various 
Debian repositories than going off on its own.

I like Ubuntu/Kubuntu.  Mark Shuttleworth has put his money where his 
mouth is, and produced for we users, a one-disk distribution that has 
based its philosophy around the sharing of software.  However, it has 
the seeds of becoming a fork and with it the possibility of dividing 
the whole Debian community.  That is the threat I see, and I am giving 
warning.

Please could we have some word from the Ubuntu developers?
-- 

Old Rocker