Am 19.04.2010 13:36, schrieb Chris Woolfrey:
Definitely agreed! It seems an odd omission, and i wonder if it has anything to do with their fairly 'commercial' approach to spreading their OS? They do often seem to be 'fighting' Mac and Windows on the other two's terms.
Yes. But then again, as far as I see things, Ubuntu's the only GNU/Linux distribution out there to have somethin akin to the "Ubuntu Code Of Conduct" or the Ubuntu philosophy outlined on the web site. No "open community version" along with an "enterprise version enhanced by proprietary add-ons", and yet not a "free" platform leaving most of the users it is aiming at out in the cold because, after doing the first boot, they figure out all of a sudden that some (or, in worst cases) most of their hardware is not working anymore.
No, it's _not_ good from a software libre supporters point of view. But the approach of #1 goal being making a "smoothlessly usable, streamlined, well-thought-out" distribution seems sane from a pragmatic point of view. Yes, there's an active crowd out there knowing about the advantages of software libre. They know about the four freedoms, and they know why they would want that. And the rest? As I have to over and over again experience within my environment (being surrounded by a lot of people who "just work" with their computers), people don't know and, at least at their given state of mind, don't _want_ to know/care. They go with MS Windows et al simply because "everyone's using it so it can't be all that bad".
Give these people an idealistically crafted "libre" GNU/Linux distribution which doesn't even allow them to connect to their home WLAN because their notebook features some arcane WiFi device and, after that, tell them to please buy a piece of hardware which doesn't require "proprietary" (you'll have an interesting effect using this term in such a conversation) drivers is the surest ever possible way of making them stay the **** away from software libre and never ever touch it again.
I mean, after all, shouldn't we face it? While we are fighting whether or not Ubuntu is "software libre", people seem to just rush out to get an iPad which, talking about its software, it neither "libre" nor just "open source". Or they go for that cheap discounter-next-door box coming with a bare-bones Windows 7 version because at the very least they know this world somehow. Making people who don't care (yet?) about "software libre" interested or even enthusiastic about this idea surely won't work by providing them with something that "feels better" (to us) but actually, eventually works worse (to them). From that point of view, I think software libre community indeed should embrace Ubuntu / Canonical as someone (maybe the first) GNU/Linux based company so far aiming at making a platform with a smooth, straightforward, comfortable and convenient end user experience, to (as I have seen quite sometimes here on LinuxTag events...) attract people who would have never even touched a GNU/Linux system before...
K.