Ubuntu Zombies

Written by Alex Diavatis on May 16, 2012. Posted in Reviews, Software, Ubuntu

The reason for posting this, is because I have the feeling that something isn’t going quite right to our favorite OS. This is strongly my personal opinion and of course I retain every right to be wrong :)

PART I THE MARKET

Some Stats

Statistics is probably the best way to lie, but lies make you wondering…

Linux distros are free products that are not for selling on shelves. Thus there is not a market, so there is no market share. It is a trend share more likely.

It is hard to estimate how many Linux boxes are out there -speaking about Desktop. Statistics shows 1%-5% of all computers run Linux. An average would be 3%. This can be true, this can be false, but it doesn’t really matter a lot as it is low number anyway. What really matters is the growth of Linux.

Following again some statistics @ w3schools and hitlinks we see a constant growth rate of ~0.06 a year, from 2004 till the end of 2011.

I wasn’t able to populate Ubuntu’s trend share among other Linux distributions but my guess is that is somewhere around 60%, or maybe a bit more. I might be wrong, but this number is huge anyway considering there are 100+ distros.

Ubuntu’s growth trend share is superior to the overall Linux growth trend share. Also the Linux trend share growth rate hasn’t changed since the appearance of Ubuntu. It is still at ~0.06%. That leads to the conclusion that Ubuntu actually didn’t bring any new users to Linux Desktop, it just stole users from other Distros.

Why Ubuntu

The question is why. There is a stereotype that beautiful people are more intelligent. I think that applies for software as well. Ubuntu from its very first day (20 October 2004), was the most beautiful distro, starting from installation screen. Yes the installation process that many people think it exists just to get the job done. Wrong, installation is the first impression.

Apart from the fancy installation screens, Ubuntu was also the most solid, stable, user friendly and cool distribution. Today it is still solid, stable, user friendly and has a huge user base, but is it still cool?

: Zombies are cool, so Ubuntu?

Why Linux

Well, the open source factor provides a romantic point of view. The real reasons for me using Linux for first time (in 1998) were that I wanted to be different from others and I also I fell in love with terminal at first sight.
Open Source ideology came after. I loved open source because of Linux and I didn’t use Linux because it was open source.

I think that if today I was 15 years old and had my first Ubuntu PC, I wouldn’t care much for open source. That pretty much happens with people that use Android. Isn’t it a fact?

I guess that Ubuntu has put out a part of the Linux sparkle. Is it because Ubuntu just works out of box? Is it because you don’t need a terminal in Ubuntu? Is it because everyone can easily get and use Ubuntu these days? Well I think there is something more than these reasons..

Open Source

Open source is all about sharing knowledge and ideas in a libre way. People give their knowledge for free to other people, and other people using it, improving it and sharing it also. That circle leads us to awesome software creations and brings people closer through collaboration.

Having a book and not reading it, is a waste of money. Similarly having a piece of open software without having a clue of how it works is a waste of open software momentum.
So, should all the people that use Linux know how to hack Linux kernel? Nope. But for these people having a close source kernel, or an open source kernel doesn’t practically matter.

By getting an open source product over a commercial (except that you save some money) you give your vote to Open Source. But you have to vote for the right reasons. That means that you should be aware that you’re using an open source software, and what Open Source means.

I think that Canonical doesn’t do enough to highlight and spread the Open Source spirit.
And this is the real reason why Ubuntu kills the Linux sparkle.

Linux Desktop doesn’t necessarily helps open source evolution

It is hard to define what actually a Desktop OS is. Is it the kernel? Is it the kernel with a DE? Is it the kernel with DE and some Apps that we can use to do our job?
An architect doesn’t care about the OS but cares for the actual Design App. So if Autodesk products run in Windows he will use Windows, if they run under Linux he will use Linux, but what if Autodesk runs on both platforms?

As Linux grows and gains more popularity, commercial companies invest and publish their software in it. Is that good for Linux? Sure! Is that good for Open Source? Not necessarily…

Just a small average of Windows users use Gimp, because they can have Photoshop. And if they can’t afford to buy it, they can crack it. If Photoshop comes in Linux, Gimp will have serious competition that will not able to follow.
Think about Linux gaming… Open source games will die instantly if big game publishers will release their games for the Linux platform.

So can’t open source compete commercial on desktop? Technically it cans, politically it cannot, but this is another story. The fact is that today open source desktop Apps lack features-completion behind their commercial brothers.

Canonical knows this and tries to build a platform that will run commercial software. Canonical is just using Ubuntu as a mean for promoting their cloud services, same way as Google does with Chrome. Canonical invest more on cloud rather on Desktop, Canonical invests more in commercial software rather in open developing.

If Linux fulfill its dream of 90% market share and 90% of Linux Apps are commercial would that be an Open Source win?

Ubuntu Market Share

Canonical announced that 5% of the total PC sales in next year will run Ubuntu. That automatically creates a market share for Linux. More correctly it is a market share for Ubuntu, as Canonical wants to hide the “Powered By Linux” feature and promote Ubuntu as an independent OS.

It is totally unbelievable that a company wants to promote a software that owns less than 5% of code, as “Our Product”. Wouldn’t it be better if a community distribution such as Arch had been shipped by major manufacturers instead of Ubuntu?

Of course, we can’t be so harsh on Ubuntu, this would be unfair. At the end of the day Canonical will bring millions of users in Linux Desktop, so that benefits the whole open source ecosystem. GNOME developers (and many others ofc!) will be happy that many people will use their work, and more people will get involved with Open Source.

So, what is the reason Ubuntu will be finally shipped on PCs, after 8 years of existence? I seriously doubt that this is an Ubuntu success. That is an open source success that finally in 2012 is on a point that can shout out loud that it possesses the best operating system out there.

Canonical reaps out that success for its own benefit. I just hope that Canonical will contribute back to Open Source a bit more, as it isn’t -for now- a quite important direct contributor.

PART II THE SPIRIT

Losing Skills

In 2004 I had Gentoo and Arch. I also had an LFS. I think I had LFS from 2000 till 2004 when I installed Ubuntu. Back then, two typical procedures that all Linux users had to know, was how to edit their X11 config and how to configure/compile Linux kernel.
I had edited xconfig so many times that I could edit the whole file from scratch without a backup.Kernel configuration was a quite enjoyable activity, by checking and unchecking modules and reading about the new experimental features.

Well, 6 years after of constant use of Ubuntu (I use Fedora since last year), if I have a X Server failure I will be screwed. I wouldn’t know what to do, but starting a live cd and look on forums.. Sad…

Does the knowledge of repairing a broken Linux system worth the time cost of acquiring it? Well, it depends, personally I would say yes.

Beauty

And beauty is the eye of the beholder. That simply means that different people have different ideas about what is beautiful and what is not. In our case we define beautiful as something that delights the sense of sight.

People pick their things -from their kitchen bins and shoelaces, to their clothes and cars- mostly accordingly to “beautiful” and “unique” factors. Even if there are endless varieties of clothes, cars, furnitures etc, people are yet unsatisfied with the options. They say “Beauty makes the world go round”, can anyone argue with it?

: Message is clear, from Freedom came elegance.. and nice wallpapers :)

So, there is absolutely no way that all people fancy the same desktop and also there is absolutely no way that people don’t care about their desktop look – except if they are mentally ill.

Paradoxically the majority of people use their vendor defaults on their computers. That applies particularly for Windows and Mac users, but lately that phenomenon has spread to the Linux Desktop World.

So are all these people mentally ill? Maybe, but the truth is that they are unaware that they can customize their desktop. So they just go with the Defaults..
.

Ubuntu Default

First off, I don’t want to accuse Ubuntu. Ubuntu has to ship some artwork / themes / options / DE that it will be named default by definition.

But I want to accuse all these people that use Ubuntu Defaults to present their tutorials, videos, artworks, software, or anything else to a broader audience. They just harm Ubuntu and they harm Linux in general.

: Isn’t it scary that we might see the same screen on TV?

I am sick of seeing the above image in every Linux blog & Linux youtube. It is like the world has run out of backgrounds.This is a Mac/Windows culture where people don’t even know how to change wallpapers. If you check back a few years ago, there is no way you’ll find a deja vu Linux DE on any screenshot…

In Linux we are lucky to have hundreds of options to customize our -everyday 4+ hours of use- desktop but some people want to steal our freedom of choice in a well set up conspiracy theory by keeping secret the alternative options without even knowing that this is what they are doing.

Besides that, it is offensive to present some commercial company work, instead of presenting the work of the community that is the driving force of Open Source. Please let people know that in Linux there is more than Ubuntu default theme, there is more than Unity, there is more than Ubuntu.

Moreover it is bad for each person’s imagination to watch same thing every day, and that drive us on a pathetic point where we start to get used of it.

Further analysis about why people use defaults is out of the scope of this post, but it worths to google it and read more about.

Ubuntu Zombies

The term Zombie is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli.

: Hypnotized citizens are the best workers and market victims

Well that is pretty much the point of this post. If we keep up like this, in a few years from now, we will see people in Linux World that if they lose a shortcut from their desktop, they will be doomed without knowing what to do. We’ll see people having the same behavior frond of the same computer environments using the same Apps, like hypnotized workers.

Open Source is meant to make people smarter and no zombies. Open Source is meant to give people choices instead of one way paths. There is no such thing as the best and only solution.

Overview & End

I honestly doubt that Canonical has helped so greatly the Linux DE, that people have to promote Ubuntu so much. I also don’t believe popularity of Linux helps proportional the open source ecosystem outside of strictly Desktop.

I want to ask all people that write on public view to stop using Ubuntu Defaults and show to their readers that there are more choices.

Do not forget that software is a 500 billions USD industry and is the engine that drives all business decision making. It is a key factor of all kind of systems: transportation, medical, telecommunication, military, entertainment.. the list is almost endless. Software affects nearly every aspect of our lives, don’t snub it, don’t take it lightly. We have to be fully aware what we using and what are the alternatives. Moreover is better to give this power to communities, to us, rather on faceless companies.

I recognize the contribution of Canonical on formation of strong open source communities that can solve any issue, but not much more beyond that.

Finally I want to advise the guys that start using Linux for first time, to use Arch or Gentoo if they want to taste the joy of open source. Of course love hurts :)

*I tried to keep things as short as possible, without fully establishing my thoughts. You have the freedom to form your own opinion without the influence of tedious justifications :)

For questions please refer to our Q/A forum at : http://ask.unixmen.com

canonical

ubuntu

154 Comment(s)

http://twitter.com/etescartz Etescartz

“I want to ask all people that write on public view to stop using
Ubuntu Defaults and show to their readers that there are more choices.”

This quote is what I’ve been looking for since I started using Linux.This is something that i can actually relate to. I sincerely hope that more and more people follow this principle. Thank you, for posting this!…
http://www.facebook.com/people/Stephen-Green/100001808911369 Stephen Green

another geeks lament. users want usabilty. do you really use ubuntu.? i ask because i can not imagine some who can use arch/gentoo etc: would fine anything in ubuntu. it’s
made for the rest of us. ubuntu opened up linux and open source for the rest of us. me?
i’m 66 yrs. old and i like using linux..
- 2eurocents
  
  i think mint is made for the rest of you. ubuntu was that thing, before “unity”.
julien lengrand-lambert

“Finally I want to advise the guys that start using Linux for first time, to use Arch or Gentoo if they want to taste the joy of open source. Of course love hurts”
If I had done that, I would never had kept using Linux. I finally reached Arch after some time, but Ubuntu definitely played some kind of “Linux for dummies role” that helped me a lot.
For people that never tried Linux yet, I would more advise the Fedora alternative than directly Gentoo.

Also, using the default desktop and environment for people creating screencasts is a good way to ensure their viewers that no special setup has been done prior to the video. This way, they can “feel like home” and just focus on what they want to see/learn.

For the rest of the article, I completely agree with you :)
- Alexis Diavatis
  
  You say “feel like home” but every home looks different :) People adapt to Facebook, Google+, 500+ option-orientated games and programs, but can’t adapt to another theme, or DE? I don’t think that’s the case with defaults.
  
  On your first point, you can use Linux via Ubuntu, or you can love Linux via Arch. As I said love hurts :)
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Kenneth-Andrews/100001545193150 Kenneth Andrews
    
    I don’t know about anyone else but i like the default theme on ubuntu. its the only desktop i won’t change. it gives a different look rather than the overplayed “look at my dark screen, I’m a hacker look”
    - Alexis Diavatis
      
      Well you will change it, when Canonical decide that you have to like something else.. You know what I mean.. And you will still like it.. for some unknown reason…
    - http://twitter.com/ifuckyourmind podshot / Smartie
      
      “Geeks” – and especially Linux ones – HATE everything simple. They dislike friendly assistant, new easy UI concepts, simple settings and everything that Joe Average would welcome.
      
      Why is that ? because their value of “wisdom” and “terminal command knowledge” is of no real interest anymore. They can’t impress anyone with their “hidden knowledge”.
      
      Speak of self delusion or midlife crisis.
      
      The same phenomen will be visible in all the Microsoft certified Admins that think of themself as the Windows-Gods. Windows8 is so dumbed down, there is nothing to “hack” anymore ;-)
      - Alexis Diavatis
        
        This is not true, everyone likes simplicity. And terminal makes your life simpler. For example, you want to rename 300 files that include the string “abc**f” to “abcdef”.
        Without terminal you have to rename one by one.. It will take you 2-3 hours instead of 10sec with terminal. And that’s a simple example.. Other procedures with terminal saves you months of work. That’s why industry moves to Linux.. terminal is an important reason..
S Divinitas

Nice article. I stoppet using Ubuntu after 10.04 and change to Arch and freeBSD.
The reason was that i have the same mind about what you write.
Yei Quiahuitl

These arguments are poorly conceived and even more, weakly linked. What prevents you from customizing any aspect of Ubuntu, Slackware, Arch or Mint? Why is it so important that someone change, for example, a wallpaper? I can’t understand your argument and how you are tying this to the importance of software freedom relative to any distribution. What prevents you from using gcc to compile something on any of the aforementioned distributions?

As for your recommendation for users to use Arch and Gentoo? This is great for people who like tinkering and students; no argument there, but what about the other 95%? It’s not relevant what linux distribution they use as long as it is free software.

I simply cannot understand your argument and how (why?) you are connecting the dots the way that you are. Is this another attempt to bash Ubuntu?

I use GNU/Linux 12 hours a day. At work my team uses Ubuntu for most of our software development work and we are all very competent users. Ubuntu is awesome, it works and it’s fairly stable. At home, I have a desktop that runs Ubuntu and a laptop that runs Gentoo. My wife is a graduate student and loves Ubuntu. It works and she can focus on her work, not configuring X or worrying about the init process. She loves the fact that she is supporting free software and getting work done. I like the fact that I can tinker with software and love supporting the movement.
- Alexis Diavatis
  
  You’re saying changing a wallpaper isn’t important, but software companies spend millions on graphic design (that includes the wallpaper).
  
  Your wondering if this is another attempt to bash Ubuntu. I am wondering if other people attempt to deify Ubuntu. Advertising and 24/7 promotion proselytize people to wrong directions, even inside Open Source community.
  
  Well, I just encourage people to try alternatives and your opinion is an alternative to mine. So is respectful :)
Kaninfaan

and that linux mint wallpaper as an attempt at showing elegance in design is sexistic. juvenile, dumb and sexistic.
- Alexis Diavatis
  
  I call it sense of humor. You call it sexistic. Every coin has two sides :)
  - Democratic Republic Of Dave
    
    It’s not appropriate, and if you want Linux to increase it’s market share then it’s not a good idea to alienate 50% of the population with wallpapers like that.
    - Alexis Diavatis
      
      There is no reason to take so seriously that image. It’s a just a funny mix of open source and a shy girl :)
      
      If Nicole Kidman had done a sexy shooting for Linux I don’t think that this would alienate people from Linux :)
    - Sicofante
      
      What 50% of the population? Have you taken a look at the front page in magazines like Cosmopolitan or Vanity Fair lately? My wife is a compulsive consumer of that sort of magazines and they’re covered with beautiful models all over the place.
      
      You have a very old idea of what sexism means.
    - Desmohenry
      
      Why is it inappropriate? There is nothing wrong with it. It shows a beautiful woman and that’s it.
      
      People are getting sick and tired of someone always being offended by something and pulling the “offended” card out. If you’re offended by it don’t put it on your desktop.
      
      It’s really as simple as that….
      - Michael Hall
        
        Oh what sweet, sweet irony.
      - Conchira Fesnbek
        
        Wrong … if offended commit suicide .. even better.
    - Conchira Fesnbek
      
      I definitely don’t want your kind of people coming in greater numbers to Linux … even if you were the best developer that ever existed .
      
      So author please post as much “inappropriate” content ass possible … hopefully we can keep the imbeciles and hypocrites off.
      
      SEX IS LIFE.
      
      And you comment is disgusting . You are disgusting. And that girl is a GODDESS.
- tracyanne
  
  I think it looks great. I wish I still had a body like that.
- Conchira Fesnbek
  
  I’m sory but i really think i should remember you that you’r mom has boobs too and probably … made some oral sex too you pop … and maybe you pop did it back to your mom … and maybe they even had some anal … maybe you should ask them if they aren’t dead … please if you are disgusted commit suicide.
  … OH and Yo mama
http://twitter.com/ifuckyourmind podshot / Smartie

Ubuntu since v10 “ever since it turned purple” looks to me very aesthetic and now in v11/12 it is consistent “branding”, purple/orange is a nice on the eye theme. Even their own font is used throughout the OS., something that no other distro has achieved.

I change the wallpaper and I like the “faenza” icons more, but that’s about it. Actually I use the apps that are available in ubuntu, so why should I bother with the rest of the system.

And concerning “screenshots” and “turorials” : It is wrong to show off customized Desktops in these areas. Because newbies will watch them and wonder if you run something different then their OS. Depending on customization you can also distract peoples attention away from what you want to demonstrate or even cause upset because what to you might be “beautiful” is to others a disgust. For instance the “mint” wallpaper with that Lady : I am gay, and I would surely not feel comfortable to be confronted with such a hetero’s own sexistic image as my default wallpaper.. Replace it with a georgeos shirtless guy and we can talk about such wallpapers .. but then again I am sure, the hetero men and the lesbians will outcry. Lesson learned : don’t do that at all, be nautral. No religion,no politics, no sexistic stuff. That’s why wallpapers in Win/Lin and OSX usually feature flowers,colours or landscapes : nobody feels discomforted with such. Animals are also wrong : some are afraid of cats, while others might hate coala bears and a third one sees dogs and kittens as “sweet” while in china they will wonder why ubuntu has placed “food” on their desktops.

;-)
- Alexis Diavatis
  
  hahaha best comment ever, I really laugh!! Well, I think that you have to watch movies always on the same theater & eating at the same table at the same plate, so you won’t be distracted :)
  
  Come on you can review a software (eg World of Goo) in every platform, in any theme, you just showing the software. I can’t get that madness with always using the default theme. You know that people use different themes and they switch back to default just to review a software.
  Well on wallpaper you have a point.On the other hand you don’t have to compromise your beliefs just to be pleasant (or neutral) to others. However your point can be right depending the circumstances.
  - sfantu
    
    No actualy his point is madness. If you are afraid of CATS you are INSANE.. The normal folks don’t have to mold to your insanity … that is not just stupid but INSANE.
Esteban

Why, oh why “Open Source”?
The right term is Free Software!!!
- Alexis Diavatis
  
  You can’t be free of gravity, but you can still have an open mind to release it :)
  - freeweaver
    
    Alexis, I love your article, but this comment is very short sighted. let me correct it for you.
    
    “You can’t be free of gravity, but you can still have a free mind to release it :)”
    
    Open Source = Does NOT guarantee its continued freedom
    Free Software = Does guarantee its continued freedom
    
    Open Source is the term used by people who want to force boring wallpapers on everyone, and want to brand desktops to the point that you can’t change them.
    
    Open source is a term used by those people who can’t understand why their beloved
    linux has been usurped by corporate interests. Who suddenly wake up to realise that their beloved free software OS now comes with a pricetag and no way to change it.
    
    By the sounds of your article, that doesn’t sound like you.
    
    So why open source and not free software?
Hail to the penguin

I’ll admit that when I first started using linux. (Ubuntu 10.10), I loved to see all the different desktops while doing my learning of the OS. I spent HOURS searching for the icons, wallpapers and penguins, but the best was seeing TV shows with this cool rotating cube thing on a computer behind the actors. After more searching, I found out it was compiz and that I could do that too! To me, that was the coolest thing that set linux apart from windows (back a few years). Linux wasn’t a canned OS. You could tweak it into what ever you wanted.

I agree with a few of the posts here about Ubuntu becoming ‘branded’. I was really really hoping and excited for a new default background or even a completely different theme set. Come on Ubuntu (and others) step away from the norm and push the envelope a little more. What’s wrong with having a mascot or theme that matches the code name for each release?
Steve Schuller

Unity is the first default desktop that I have NOT seen need to “customize”. I like it as it is; I used to spend a couple of hours on every Gnome 2 install getting things right. Now I don’t need to do that.
http://opinadorcompulsivo.blogspot.com Miquel Mayol i Tur

Sabayon for using Gentoo based distro is faster to install and “as easy as Ubuntu” and is fast as hell.

Arch package selection is no KISS, if you select conflicting packages you must reinstall, and some config files must be edited. Archbang KhaelOS, even Chakra – only Kde fork – are better for newbis.

And if you use Fedora – an excellent distro too – it must be for some reason i miss you recommended it.
- Alexis Diavatis
  
  I haven’t used Sabayon, I’ve seen it a bit on VBox, but its specs seems great. I think that all Distros are “as easy as Ubuntu” once you install them.
  
  I recommend Arch cause it has amazing documentation and amazing community. Is a bit tough but these guys have documented everything.
  
  I switched from Ubuntu to Fedora for having GNOME 3. I was between Arch and Fedora, I picked Fedora by random, it was OK and I kept it :)
Live2011

Ubuntu will be perfect soon as they success with gaming and that is sooon
I like linux
- http://profile.yahoo.com/UHM3V56Z2VF34C34FGYVWIQL3U Donnie
  
  Actually gaming is one of the key things that Ubuntu devs need to address. Why do I have to switch into Unity 2D or GNome fallback to play a game properly?
  
  I have a GTX570 (not bragging). In Unity games are choppy because of compositing issues. If I login into 2D or fallback GNome session, then they run fine.
  
  Why does Unity not detect or ask when I go fullscreen and make things work together? Someone testing Linux out is going to see the abysmal performance and think that is how Linux gaming is.
  
  As for you Unity itself, that is my biggest complaint. The rest of it, I don’t care either way. I use a lot of KB shortcuts in my workflow, Unity doesn’t really slow me down. In fact, when not using Unity, I find myself trying to use the dash or the ALT key.
  
  The biggest mystery to me is why all the personal attitudes. If you don’t like something, get another distro, there are plenty out there. With other operating systems, you are truly stuck with what they give you. Here you can have it however you want it. You don’t even have to switch distros, you can still install fallback, Mate, Cinnamon, KDE, etc.
  
  However, if people don’t like the direction Ubuntu is heading and you really feel devs arent listening, switch distros. I think there is fear by many that Ubuntu is getting so popular that it will be the only choice in the future. Look at history, it isn’t happening. Even if Ubuntu was to get as popular as other operating systems, there will alway be alternatives.
  
  I can understand people being upset when they have been with something for so long and now they feel that they are being betrayed. Dropping to the level of personal insults and name calling only weakens your stance.
  - http://opinadorcompulsivo.blogspot.com Miquel Mayol i Tur
    
    changing compiz to metacity at the Unity3d problem solved.
    And if you install the low latency kernel – 2 boots – for FPS gaming it will run faster.
    
    But Sabayon is the faster for gaming with any of their default desktop installations, better the light XFCE one for me.
    - http://profile.yahoo.com/UHM3V56Z2VF34C34FGYVWIQL3U Donnie
      
      I know the solution, change to metacity, but if Canonical wants to
      attract gamers, they need to sort this out, a user should not have to do
      something that basic to get a game going.
      
      As far as gaming is concerned, especially FPS, there isn’t a game available for Linux (native) that is taxing my setup. Now if we had access to games like Crysis or other graphically demanding titles, then I could see the need for a faster kernel. Ubuntu or any distro is fine with a good vidcard with the current games available.
      
      Most of the twitch games for Linux are based on Q3 or some variant. 300-400 frames per second with everything maxed currently, I really don’t need more or even that much performance. With Unity though, they chug because of Compiz.
      
      I have noticed with Wine that low latency kernels and lighter DE’s are an improvement, as you mentioned. I dual boot Win7 for most gaming, however. While I think the work that the Wine guys have done is amazing in many respects, I don’t have the time to sort through getting things working with every title that I own.
      
      Lately, I have been purchasing a lot more titles for Linux through Desura. Steam is most likely coming soon too. (I know we have heard that before)
      
      My main point is that Unity should either detect that I going to play a
      game or have better support out of the box. As much as many complain
      about Windows, I don’t have to login into a “lesser” demanding session
      there to play a game. Unity needs to work the same. Why add an extra
      step if I want to play a game.
      
      Low latency kernels at the moment are not a real concern for me, nor is a lighter DE. Failure of an DE to properly detect a gaming session or other full screen activity is.
http://twitter.com/howesteve Steve Howe

Ok you look like a betrayed adolescent. Grow up.
2eurocents

dude, be reasonable. there isn’t even an option to change icons in ubuntu. what are people supposed to do, spend a week trying to tweak the defaults? by the way, nice writeup.
- Alexis Diavatis
  
  hahaha what an excellent point, you just ruined my whole post :(
  By the way there is that MyUnity App to customize Unity. They have included it on repos and if you install it, appears on Control Panel.
Jlane01

Nice article. It’s difficult to find good articles on how to really customise your desktop instead of using the defaults. I love that with linux you can really customise things to your liking, but it can be hard to find out where to go to learn how to do this.
reza mochamad diannagara

i stop using ubuntu because it’s already to popular and mainstream. now i use fedora and it really fit to me. i think, it’s matter of choice… :)
jonobacon

Sounds like sour grapes to me.
- Neil Warcock
  
  And you sound just like those old hippie farts who did all kinds of shiat and then warn youngsters not to do what they did. in other words, you criticized lots of free software programs, were insulting and demeaning most of the time and now you cant handle when your distro is criticized?
  Eff you old man, you are a hypocrite and a troll with a thin skin.
  Thats a pretty hard combination to beat.
  
  This article is right on the money about zombies following mindlessly as well as defaults.
  I work by only one rule when switching someone over to Linux: the user is ALWAYS right. Not some pinhead dev who thinks he’s found the cure for cancer by switching min-maximiize buttons on the other side. Change for the sake of change.
  - Shane
    
    The reason your using any linux disto is because of “pinhead devs”,
    so be a little bit grateful most of the devs do it for free,its a gift to you they dont have to release there code.
    
    Mark shuttleworth doesn’t listen to devs, Im a developer ,And what you get is a big REJECTED without logic or reason or explanaition,This isnt opensource its dictatorship with one guy running the show, LEECHING
    of devs and making money of them is not open let alone opensource its an illusion. I disagree with not changable icon sizes, themes,removing configuration of user groups, sound system setting dummified, removal of dodge, minimize on click, global menu. I am also a user and this garbage affects me aswell. Im 41 and i dont agree with jonobacon ,So
    dont fall into the same Trap as Mark and stereotype people.
    
    I Think an OS should make you smarter not dummer, something you can grow into. OK?
    - Sicofante
      
      All of which would be fine if they just admitted it upfront. But on top of all that disrespect you have to listen to Jono spreading the “good will” of the company and how much they’re listening and embracing the community.
      
      It’s plain disgusting.
      
      The funny thing is that, unless they spend tons of money into marketing, the very people that used to spread the word for them (which is called “user base”) will stop doing so when they get tired of all this. I’d say it’s already happening.
      
      EDIT: Oh, and by the way, to all those who think Ubuntu needs the community for the applications you’re wrong. Almost every app out there is being developed for Linux, not “for Ubuntu”. Ubuntu can and will keep -in a perfectly legal way- leeching as much as they see fit. Those parts of the OS that are “purely” Ubuntu are developed in-house (what do you think those 400 employees are doing every day?). The rest is taken from somewhere else, including Debian and of course RedHat and Novell (who are understandably upset).
      
      The “other” community, the users, is not needed at all, and that’s why Canonical shows us the finger every other day. They are throwing away one of their assets (an army of evangelists) but I understand they’re planning to replace it with pure and simple advertising and ordinary marketing.
      
      Good luck with that, Jono and Co.
  - jonobacon
    
    Why do you need to be so disrespectful? We are not talking about curing cancer here, we are talking about software. My hunch from this article was a little sour grapes, but I have respect for the author who wrote it in sharing his views.
    
    Lashing out and calling someone you disagree with a “hippie”, an “old man”, telling him to “eff you”, and a “hypocrite” makes you just sound like a petulant teenager.
    
    We clearly have differing views, but let’s keep things civil.
    - Emil Karlsson
      
      I’m not saying that Ubuntu does everything right, but I must say that I respect you for having the least rewarding job in the world. Most of the time you get mocked and hated by anonymous strangers on the Internet.
      
      I like Ubuntu, but dislike the GUI. Instead of complaining about how you do things wrong, I use Linux Mint. The core system is awesome and I thank you guys at Canonical (and of course the Debian devs, who have done a lot for Ubuntu) for it.
      
      I realize that Canonical is a company, and need to make profit. I’m not going to judge you for it. As long as Canonical doesn’t join Microsoft and Apple on the dark side known as “patent infringement lawsuits” and you keep Open Sourcing your products, I’ll still like you guys.
  - tracyanne
    
    Somehow a post I made in reply to jono bacon was posted in reply to Neil Warcock as well as Jono Bacon. Sorry about that.
- Sicofante
  
  Jono: until Ubuntu goes back to caring about its community (if that ever happens again), you might as well ask for a long vacation. The way things are today, your very job is an insult to that community.
  - jonobacon
    
    Can you provide some examples of where we don’t care about the community? We invest millions of dollars in building an entirely free Operating System, we hire hundreds of developers to create Free Software, we fly community members out to our annual developer summit, and we host a development forge (Launchpad) to enable 17,000+ Free Software projects to build their software as well as countless Ubuntu flavors.
    
    Now, you may disagree with some of our decisions…there is nothing wrong with that…but I don’t we could be accused of not caring about our community.
    - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_H6FMILMZXICI3F2VGRTS63B26I sleep
      
      That isn’t caring about a community. That’s showboating. That, and I don’t see any employed developers “creating” any software besides a layer on top of Gnome and an apt front-end.
      - jonobacon
        
        If it is all for show, why would anyone do this? do you honestly believe that all of the investment, hiring, infrastructure, and passion behind Ubuntu is purely for show?
        
        Have you considered instead that you just don’t like Ubuntu and prefer other distros (which is obviously fine) but you might just have a bit of a chip on your shoulder about Ubuntu?
        
        I am not telling you how to think or what to choose, but what I find mind-boggling is that you equate not liking Ubuntu to “everything Ubuntu does must be for show”. This is pretty short-sighted and does not speak well to the kind of diversity that we are proud of in Open Source.
        
        Speaking personally, while I would always welcome someone to the Ubuntu family, if someone chooses another distro such as Fedora, OpenSuSE, Arch etc…that is awesome, because they are still using Free Software, and that is what counts. Personally I don’t prefer those other distros for various reasons, but it doesn’t mean I am going to accuse them of showboating or question their intentions; they are just like Ubuntu, they are doing the best they can to build an awesome distro.
        
        Let’s have a little more tolerance.
      - Sicofante
        
        “If it is all for show, why would anyone do this? do you honestly believe
        that all of the investment, hiring, infrastructure, and passion behind
        Ubuntu is purely for show?”
        
        The show is for business. Again, I like Ubuntu as a product. I loathe it as a “free, community driven, open source project”, because it is nothing like that and people lying all the time make me mad.
      - Michael Hall
        
        I’m sorry, I must have missed where you were involved in the community.
      - http://opinadorcompulsivo.blogspot.com Miquel Mayol i Tur
        
        I do like Ubuntu PPAs and almost state of the art.
        
        Sabayon is faster I would copy its kernel default settings, – it can be done in Ubuntu, but I would prefer at least a metapackage – but Sabayon lacks a lot of packages that we can find at Ubuntu.
        
        i would add a unity3d+metacity / Unity3d +compiz selection at menu and a low latency kernel as the ubuntu studio flavour plus xfce xubuntu-desktop configured in a XP look and feel with the panel down and the dock at the right unity style.
        
        i do it, I know how to do it, and with this configs i am very satisfied.
        
        But the default that is what “zombies” use can be improved a lot.
        
        Last but not least Multisystem is an excellent tool that, in my opinion, should be preinstalled and at least at USC, better for USB installations and repairs than unetbootin, and it only works in Ubuntu Unity – at least not in xubuntu-desktop – as well yumi for MS WOS must be recommended as a cheap USB ISO install method. This will save the ISO CD size restriction, I have my DVD unplugged because of problems with the power and i do not miss it.
    - tracyanne
      
      Actually jono, those millions of dollars were invested so that Canonical can create a commercially viable business around Linux (and more power to you if you do). However, in now way do they demonstrate a caring about a community, all they really demonstrate is that Mark Shuttleworth wants to succeed in a Linux and Free Software based business.
      
      If he, and you, as Community liaison (basically a Marketing position), can convinced enough members of the community that you care, then your marketing strategy (as a means of gaining community support) was the right one, but that still does not demonstrate that you do, in fact, care.
      - jonobacon
        
        Having worked with Mark for quite some time now, I agree that he
        wants to “wants to succeed in a Linux and Free Software based business”
        as you put it. You simply can’t succeed in this business without caring
        about community, investing in it, and growing it.
        
        My job, and the role of my team is not a marketing function and is
        not about “convincing members of the community we we care”; it is about
        building strategy and growth in the community and helping to empower our
        community to be successful. We focus on growing developers, app devs,
        Juju contributors, QA members, advocacy groups, and more. My team has
        five community managers working for me, and I am not sure Canonical
        would bother investing in a team of this size if the organization did
        not care about community: surely they would just hire one person?
        
        I am not suggesting Canonical, Ubuntu, myself, or my team is
        perfect…far from it…there are plenty of areas we can improve, but I
        find this sense of “I don’t like Ubuntu, therefore you have sub-optimal
        community intentions” disappointing.
      - tracyanne
        
        Jono given that you are in Marketing, this is exactly what I expected you would say.
        
        Seriously, I hope Mark succeeds in building a profitable business, but it really is disingenuous of you to claim that any of the money you have spent is because you actually care.
        
        I agree you have to grow a community, but really, growing that community is what you need to do if you are to succeed, not because the community in and of itself is something you actually care about.
        
        Perception is everything.
      - Sicofante
        
        A 1000 times this.
      - Michael Hall
        
        Jono in Marketing? Well…..you certainly seem to have everything figured out
      - Sicofante
        
        Of course he’s in marketing. Evangelizing is his job. Ask Apple and Guy Kawasaki if you don’t know the concept.
        
        However, Canonical is failing badly at evangelizing. A big part of their user base is up in arms because of all what’s been commented here. Ignoring the users and pretending you care about them at the same time can only go so far.
      - Michael Hall
        
        Yup, all figured out
      - jonobacon
        
        As I said, I am not in Marketing. My position at Canonical is not to deliver a product to new market segments.
        
        Now, don’t get me wrong, a big chunk of my job is getting people excited about joining the community and the work the community is doing: but I would not call this conventional marketing.
        
        Most of my role though is helping the awesome guys on my team to be successful and build strategy around how we can best serve the community. As an example in the 12.10 cycle we will be working on a strong push to attract application developers, grow wider leadership in the community, expanded Charm creation, building efficiencies in the QA community, expanding our LoCo teams, helping our documentation team, and growing the Ubuntu Accomplishments system.
        
        What I would be keen to see is what your evidence is that I or Mark don’t care about community? I have given you plenty of examples (e.g. millions of dollars of investment in building Free Software, completely open governance (the vast majority of our council positions are community-held), all our releases are fully community ones (not weird locked down ‘enterprise’ releases etc).
      - A J Buxton
        
        The majority of council positions are community held. They are also powerless figureheads who exist merely to placate the community, much like yourself. I couldn’t even name a single council member. That’s how important they are. If Ubuntu was really a community run distribution with open governance, Unity would not exist.
        
        As for evidence of you not caring, well let’s start with the mocking tone of your first post in this thread.
      - jonobacon
        
        Right, so because you lack knowledge of Ubuntu governance it means they are powerless. Gotcha.
      - A J Buxton
        
        Ubuntu is run by fiat by Mark Shuttleworth. You know this. I know this. I realise that it’s part of your job description to try to hide this, but seriously, you could try to be a little bit more subtle when you’re making stuff up like “Ubuntu has open governance.” Can the council fire Mark?
      - Michael Hall
        
        How can you credibly claim anything about the Ubuntu community when you can’t name a single member of any council?
      - tracyanne
        
        Yes you keep saying, but we both knoqw that what you do is a Marketing/PR job. It’s all about creating the perception you want “the Community” to believe and to maintain that perception, so that the community will deliver as much no cost and low cost labour and software as possible. The money you do spend is part of that exercise.
        
        Canonical needs a strong community behind them, without that community Canonical will likely fail. If that community wasn’t needed you simply wouldn’t bother. So when you say you care, that in a way is true, you care because you need that community.
      - tracyanne
        
        PS: I don’t, as it happens, dislike Ubuntu, after all I use Linux Mint, for the most part, which is based on Ubuntu, because the codecs and other necessary proprietary libraries are installed by default, not as an after the fact option. and XUbuntu and Ubuntu Studio. I merely dislike Unity which means i won’t use that desktop.
      - Sicofante
        
        “You simply can’t succeed in this business without caring
        about community, investing in it, and growing it.”
        
        You are showing you can. Congratulations. Maybe you wanna stop pretending now?
        
        The rest is your usual marketing speech I’m not even trying to answer, the same way I don’t reply to an advert.
      - 2eurocents
        
        actually he’s right. you can’t succeed without it, and they’re not successful.
      - Sicofante
        
        So you think there’s a more successful Linux _desktop_ distro, right? Which one is it, according to you?
        
        Ubuntu is second to none at the Amazon cloud.
        
        Ubuntu is also -as this very article rants about- the absolute number one when it comes to public perception.
        
        That is success. Now they’re on their way to a full marketing blow and trying to be on TVs and tablets (because we all know the desktop will soon become a second class citizen in the consumer arena). Communities provide a good public image, that’s why Canonical and particularly Jono insist that their community is great and the most important thing under the sun, no matter how much they really ignore it besides their closest developers (the free labor).
        
        And I’m happy for that success. I just find it disgusting that they have started to lie in public about their real goals and means.
      - Michael Hall
        
        So we shouldn’t listen to those who do the work? Or should we give equal authority to those who do nothing as we do to those who do something?
        
        It’s very easy to tell other people to do something, it’s very hard to actually be the one who does it. If you are willing to put in the work, we are willing to listen to you. But if you aren’t willing to put in the work, don’t be upset when we continue listening to the ones that do.
      - Randy
        
        I’m sure Canonical believes what they are doing is the right way to go, but, as the author points out above, this is not how they are persceived by the community. Perception is reality. That why there is a huge advertisment industry and professional spin doctors to make public figures look good irregardless of the truth.
      - http://twitter.com/oblivaddict Christopher Ridgers
        
        Hmm I would love to see this back and forth continue. Real room for debate, and a nice post with lots of opinion thats made me think.
        
        Having used Ubuntu on and off now since Ibex, (i dropped out after a few months of frustration due to Wireless Network card issues) I now feel I have used enough of it to have a valid opinion.
        
        What struck me as an interesting point in the original article was the impact that commercial development may have on open source projects. I myself have often looked for ways to get Photoshop running on linux (none to my satisfaction), and find myself hesitating in purchasing graphics tablets for fear of getting them working within linux (inc ubuntu) to their full potential.
        
        If Adobe were to bring there software to linux, I would definitely consider acquiring it, to the expense of Inkscape and GIMP, maybe creating a commercially viable linux platform would be to the detriment of Open Source development?
        
        Similarly though, I find that the articles exasperation of seeing users using default appearances and GUI’s a little unfounded. The more I use ubuntu, the more I find myself using terminal, and the less important how the GUI looks and behaves seems to me. That being said, I too have mixed feelings of the direction the desktop appearance is going…. though I no longer oppose unity, I find myself constantly accidentally accessing the Unity side bar when mousing for the back button in google chrome, and I have yet to find a use for the App store… though I see its function, I use apt-get to install packages, and see no reason for me to stop doing so.
        
        Finally, though I applaud Ubuntu’s goal of “it just works”, I have on occasion found it has lead to me having a less capable understanding of how my system works… which is why I switched to linux in the first place. Wireless Networking prevented me from finding the answers I needed in the first place, and the idea of re booting from live cd in the event of an X server window pains me.
        
        Ubuntu really has taken strides away from the “we know are systems better” userbase, and sometimes I think that is not a good thing.
      - http://twitter.com/oblivaddict Christopher Ridgers
        
        Hmm I would love to see this back and forth continue. Real room for debate, and a nice post with lots of opinion thats made me think.
        
        Having used Ubuntu on and off now since Ibex, (i dropped out after a few months of frustration due to Wireless Network card issues) I now feel I have used enough of it to have a valid opinion.
        
        What struck me as an interesting point in the original article was the impact that commercial development may have on open source projects. I myself have often looked for ways to get Photoshop running on linux (none to my satisfaction), and find myself hesitating in purchasing graphics tablets for fear of getting them working within linux (inc ubuntu) to their full potential.
        
        If Adobe were to bring there software to linux, I would definitely consider acquiring it, to the expense of Inkscape and GIMP, maybe creating a commercially viable linux platform would be to the detriment of Open Source development?
        
        Similarly though, I find that the articles exasperation of seeing users using default appearances and GUI’s a little unfounded. The more I use ubuntu, the more I find myself using terminal, and the less important how the GUI looks and behaves seems to me. That being said, I too have mixed feelings of the direction the desktop appearance is going…. though I no longer oppose unity, I find myself constantly accidentally accessing the Unity side bar when mousing for the back button in google chrome, and I have yet to find a use for the App store… though I see its function, I use apt-get to install packages, and see no reason for me to stop doing so.
        
        Finally, though I applaud Ubuntu’s goal of “it just works”, I have on occasion found it has lead to me having a less capable understanding of how my system works… which is why I switched to linux in the first place. Wireless Networking prevented me from finding the answers I needed in the first place, and the idea of re booting from live cd in the event of an X server window pains me.
        
        Ubuntu really has taken strides away from the “we know are systems better” userbase, and sometimes I think that is not a good thing.
      - http://twitter.com/oblivaddict Christopher Ridgers
        
        Hmm I would love to see this back and forth continue. Real room for debate, and a nice post with lots of opinion thats made me think.
        
        Having used Ubuntu on and off now since Ibex, (i dropped out after a few months of frustration due to Wireless Network card issues) I now feel I have used enough of it to have a valid opinion.
        
        What struck me as an interesting point in the original article was the impact that commercial development may have on open source projects. I myself have often looked for ways to get Photoshop running on linux (none to my satisfaction), and find myself hesitating in purchasing graphics tablets for fear of getting them working within linux (inc ubuntu) to their full potential.
        
        If Adobe were to bring there software to linux, I would definitely consider acquiring it, to the expense of Inkscape and GIMP, maybe creating a commercially viable linux platform would be to the detriment of Open Source development?
        
        Similarly though, I find that the articles exasperation of seeing users using default appearances and GUI’s a little unfounded. The more I use ubuntu, the more I find myself using terminal, and the less important how the GUI looks and behaves seems to me. That being said, I too have mixed feelings of the direction the desktop appearance is going…. though I no longer oppose unity, I find myself constantly accidentally accessing the Unity side bar when mousing for the back button in google chrome, and I have yet to find a use for the App store… though I see its function, I use apt-get to install packages, and see no reason for me to stop doing so.
        
        Finally, though I applaud Ubuntu’s goal of “it just works”, I have on occasion found it has lead to me having a less capable understanding of how my system works… which is why I switched to linux in the first place. Wireless Networking prevented me from finding the answers I needed in the first place, and the idea of re booting from live cd in the event of an X server window pains me.
        
        Ubuntu really has taken strides away from the “we know are systems better” userbase, and sometimes I think that is not a good thing.
      - http://maco.myopenid.com/ maco
        
        (I used to be an Ubuntu developer, and I was never employed by Canonical)
        
        I get the impression Mark cares, but not in an RMS kind of way. He’s more pragmatist, like Linus. I think the people on the developer end of things care too. I don’t think that means everyone in Canonical really cares about community stuff though. Hell, I know someone who used to work at Canonical and was once told by her manager that she couldn’t go to UDS because the manager is sick of hearing about this community crap. So the Canonical employee flew herself to UDS and used up her vacation days on it. Mark found out about that manager’s attitude and sent a none-too-happy email (I don’t know if it was just that team, the managers, or everyone) explaining that without the community there is no Ubuntu.
        
        I can totally see where the cynicism comes from, but I think the disconnect between the hackers on the Engineering team and those businessy people with their MBAs is a good chunk of it.
        
        I can still point to the rejected merge proposal that made me a Kubuntu user though.
    - Sicofante
      
      Are you just deaf or reading impaired? If it was just me who pointed you to the fact that you don’t give a damn about the community -except for free labor- you might ask “for proof”. It’s been a few years already since Ubuntu just takes decisions no matter what reasoning the community members argue against them.
      
      You are producing a product to get commercial benefits and I’m OK with that. As a matter or fact, I use Ubuntu and recommend it because it’s alternatives (Fedora and OpenSuse) are just beta versions of paid-for (real things) and I don’t beta test for free. But that’s one thing and another is going around like a saint praising a community you just use for your own goals, ignoring whatever they have to say.
      
      Just check any critical bug report since the infamous -and idiotic- moving the buttons to the left to check how this project is mainly and foremost Shuttleworths’s playground and you are one in his marketing team, not a “community manager”.
      
      Canonical would be wise to call its distro a commercial product, just as Gmail is a commercial product, no matter how free it is. You should be called “PR”, not “community manager”. When all that hypocrisy is gone, maybe we can have a nice talk.
      - jonobacon
        
        Well, we are going to need to agree to disagree. My take here is that you have an axe to grind with Canonical and Ubuntu, and the tone of your emails suggests that.
        
        Sorry we can’t see eye to eye: I hope one day you want to come and be part of the Ubuntu family.
      - Sicofante
        
        Of course I have an axe to grind. One for each hypocryte out there.
        
        Your boss loves to pretend he’s cool, but he got just sick and tired of having to take into account what their users demanded, so one day he told the community something along the lines of “this is not a democracy, the decision [to move the buttons to the left is here to stay], whether you like it or not”. And that was the end of it. The communitiy’s demands have never been listened to, even if they have been genuinely argued, far above the simplistic “because I say you” Mr. Shuttleworth can articulate about all those decisions (in fact the real answer is “because _I think_ this will help me selling my stuff better and I don’t care about your opinions”). Since then, there have been many -many, many, many- decisions that went the same way. The community counts exactly zero when it comes to usability and design issues and every single time the dictator reply is: “it’s settled, don’t waste your time protesting”.
        
        He won’t reason about things. He will even laugh or ridicule deeple reasoned comments at bug reports. Then you, Jono, will come along and say in the press “we care”. Bullshit! I say.
        
        I love Apple’s design, but I wouldn’t let the late Steve Jobs or anyone in that greedy corporation approach my home from a 10 km radius. I wouldn’t have a face to face meeting with people like you guys, for the same very reason. At least they (Apple) are clear about their motives and goals, unlike you, who pretend to be the very best friend of the community while insulting your users every other day at bug reports or public forums.
        
        Enough is enough. Be brave and either admit the truth (you’re in marketing) or leave.
      - jonobacon
        
        We are not a democracy, and never have been. We are a meritocracy. We base our decisions on the viewpoints of the people who do the work and user testing, and not on ranty comments such as yours on websites. If we based our decisions on such ranty comments we would be stuck with the same software for years and never innovate because typically change generates reactions such as yours on comments boards.
        
        There are always going to be design decisions that people like and that people dislike, but just because you don’t get your way doesn’t mean that we hate community or don’t care about community: it just means that we disagree with you. What makes you feel like you are so right? Did you consider the fact that Ubuntu just might operate sometimes in a way that doesn’t meet your specific needs? Fortunately, you can install other desktops or software on it to make you happy. And if you are not happy, there are plenty of other Free Software options out there for you.
        
        I would argue that Ubuntu is one of the most open communities in Open Source – we have extensive open governance (we don’t require Canonical employees to be on our councils with the exception of Mark on the CC/TB), we have open bug tracking, mailing lists and IRC, we design and decide on the next release in the open at UDS, we sponsor community members to events, support a global network of user groups, provide infrastructure for thousands of projects and countless flavors, we have very liberal trademarks etc.
        
        Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some decisions that Canonical makes sometimes, but remember, we are meritocracy: Canonical invests the vast majority of engineering time in Ubuntu and as such these active developers and designers will often make decisions to move the project forward. This is the nature with pretty much all Open Source projects: the same happens in Linux, Fedora, OpenSuSE, Apache, and elsewhere.
      - Sicofante
        
        “What makes you feel like you are so right?”
        
        The fact that when confronted with deep reasoning, replies by your boss and other people from Canonical usually don’t include even the slightest reasoning, just what amounts to “because I say so”. (I understand they have discussed them internally and have come to a conclusion. It must be boring to confront the real world once you expose your laboratory experiments to real users. But that’s hardly an excuse.)
        
        I never asked you to listen to my rants on websites. I do, however, not only expect, but require an honest director to reply with arguments to questions on bug reports. Mark Shuttleworth and the design team just don’t do that, and when they’re faced with huge amounts of reasoning and logical proof, they just ignore all of it and go their way.
        
        I’m not -and will never be- part of any design team at Canonical, mailing list member or any developer of anything developer related, so you might as well save your time about how much you care about developers (you do make an excellent job at getting free labor from young enthusiasts, I already applauded that before). I happen to know a lot about development, programming and design (we old people have had a long time to learn things). I’m noting that just in case you feel tempted to say I might not know what I’m talking about when I’m arguing for something on a bug report.
        
        I am, however, in the users part of the community. You know, those who will tell others to use or not use Ubuntu. I’m a very exigent user and when I demand something I don’t just “ask for it”. I proof, with reasoning, why you’re doing it wrong. You (Canonical) never come back with why you are indeed doing it right, but only with “it’s settled”.
        
        That’s called disdain.
        
        You don’t expect the object of your disdain to be nice and friendly to you and not rant against you.
        
        PS: I said it all started with the idiotic “move the window buttons to the left”, but that has happened with almost every questionable decision in the past few years. Just check every bug report with more than 200 supporters and you’ll see what I’m talking about. (Well, you know too well what I’m talking about already.)
      - Michael Hall
        
        I can come up with a well reasoned proof as to how it would benefit the community if my neighbor was to mow my lawn. That doesn’t mean that he should be expected to do it, or that he doesn’t care about the community when he refused.
      - Sicofante
        
        Thanks for showing exactly what I mean. Absurdity to confront reasoning.
      - Michael Hall
        
        Oh, so anything that points out flaws in your reasoning is absurdity. I get it now.
      - A J Buxton
        
        This is exactly what Mark Shuttleworth does every 6 months in his UDS keynote.
      - Michael Hall
        
        Except for the fact that Mark has put up millionsof dollars to pay people to do the work.
        
        Other than that minor detail, yeah, they’re the same.
      - tracyanne
        
        In fact what you describe is exactly what Jono Bacon has already done ion this very comments list.
        
        He ended several replies to myself and others with a comment to the effect that he was arguing with Ubuntu haters.
        
        a totally dismissive and inaccurate comment, designed to poor scorn on the person he is responding to, and an attempt to discredit that person’s argument by inference.
        
        Yes disdain definitely describes the attitude towards those who don’t agree with and are not fooled by his marketing/PR misinformation.
- Alexis Diavatis
  
  @jonobacon:disqus In Canocical you’re quite confident that you have a dedicated community that you will never lose. However this is can be easily change. Do not forget that is the community that supplies you with the 10k+ Apps on Software Center, is the community that supplies the 100+ PPA’s and I won’t even mention about all 3rd party technologies that you use for free grace to communities.When Mark announces that Ubuntu Server overtaken Red Hat he has to be aware that Red Hat builds software instead of building marketing… Software that Ubuntu uses…If Canonical wants to turn out to a commercial company that’s fine. But you need to have the assets and the manpower, and you haven’t either. So as long as you’re depended on communities is good idea to listen to them even if you disagree. And by listening I mean to accomplish some of communities wishes just to keep us happy. I am sure you know how easily a project can fail. And Canonical a no strong established company has huge competition and it’s only advantage is its dedicated users (what else you got?). So before you criticize by “sour grapes” think twice cause Ubuntu might be “sour grapes” in one year or two. However I really wish you do fine and I hope you to be less arrogants :)
  - Alexis Diavatis
    
    Sorry about the format, I blame disqus :)
Kev Quirk

What a load of rubbish. how can you possibly say that Ubuntu has hurt the Open Source community? It has done fantastic things with the tools it has available too it and it is leading the way in making Linux a household name.

Using the default imagery for screen shots isn’t a bad thing either. It shows what users will be getting right out of the box. If I blog a review of 12.04 and show all my screen shots with a heavily customised version of Unity that barely even looks like Unity any more, any perspective new users to the community would feel robbed as they would be confronted with a totally different DE than the one on shoe in my blog.

This also allows users to learn how to customise their DE’s themselves thus taking a lot from the brilliant community that we are all a part off. Why don’t you format your hard drive and go back to Windows Vista. You don’t deserve Linux. :D
Kev Quirk

Wow, did you seriously delete my post? What a tool.
Ned Flanders

hehehe… loved the zombie angle, so true.
and i dont get people who stay with the defaults forever… must be a proprietary OS habit people have. if anything, the desktop truly becomes yours when its configured how YOU want it to be.

I work by only one rule when switching someone over to Linux: the user
is ALWAYS right. not some pinhead dev who thinks he’s found the cure for
cancer by switching min-maximiize buttons on the other side. Change for
the sake of change.
The first thing you do for a user, give him 2-3
different desktops to try. If you can, have them more pimped out intead
of the default LIVE CD look.. Then when you find a desktop they like
(secret: the distro isnt important anymore since there is plenty of good
ones, your choice is the desktop.) and hope its one that believes in allowing users to make their desktop how they like and then you go to town.
I have yet to see someone be shown a default desktop and prefer it to lets say a picture of their grandkids, or outer space or Stewie from Family guy or anything THEY like (not to mention the ability to change the wallpapers in slideshow mode using the previous months/years pictures. I think that the day my friends found out years ago that you could click on Use Image As Wallpaper in Netscape was the last day any of them has ever used a stock wallpaper.
Users are ALL different, they have different tastes and preferences. Sure, YOU might not like icons on the desktop but some people do. You might not make it a default option but you should always leave it there for those that prefer it.
that of course is not what Canonical pushes now, they push the single option as the best one that ever lived and zombies will just nod and agree with them because what else are they going to do? theyve put in a lot of involvement in the perfect OS and by reneging on its perfection, they are also reneging a bit of who they are (yes, some sad people with all OS have this sense of self in an OS and unless youve actually worked on it, is just sad.)

Someone told me recently that Ubuntu is like David Beckham, most soccer fans know that he is a massive brand more than he was ever as a player (in his prime he was never the best player on his team, never mind country or planet) and his mediocrity here in America proves it but they think that getting people to talk about Becky will somehow rub off on the rest of the league. (quick, ask the average MLS fan who Chris Wondoloski and few could tell you he is teh best scorer this and last year…they know only Thierry Henry). THey think that any Ubuntu press is good for Linux in the same way.
I think that its a good analogy but its wrong on both accounts.
Ubuntu got annoying or should I say the fanbois (who picked up a lot of their cues from the fruit loving fanbois) preaching how Ubuntu invented everything in Linux got annoying really fast. It caused quite a backlash and people just moved on to another distro because thats the beauty of it all, same programs, different paradigms and desktops means you are bound to find a distro or more than you like.
Just like most soccer fans who kind of just let Bekcham talk just pass them by, the Linux world will do the same. Therefore the zombies and Cult of OS fanbois will have to work twice as hard. Just wonderful. People will get to hear about these new concepts like Bliss or HUD which Canonical ‘invented’. And why not? Most of the mainstream press believes that Jobs invented MP3 players, music stores, apps stores, smartphones, tablets and so on, Im sure that making people believe that Canonical invented something new could take too.
Its not hard to fool people.
Sicofante

I understand your point, but showing defaults at tutorials is only logical and good. It just helps most people.

You might have shown how to change Ubuntu defaults -you missed a great opportunity to criticize Ubuntu for its lack of customization- or you might have shown how beautiful other desktops out there are… are they?

I’m one of those who believes Linux suffers from “too much choice at the wrong place” (that place being low level software such as destkop environments, APIs, etc.; also directory structure, binary incompatibility from distro to distro, package management, etc., etc., etc.). It was only a matter of time since one distro emerged from that chaos and “ruled them all”, because that sort of choice is of no help to ordinary users (on the contrary, it scares the hell out of them and rightfully so); it only attracts some geeks.

You’re still free to choose Arch, Fedora or Debian, aren’t you? Are you asking for mainstream coverage and exposure for them? Then ask them to focus on mainstream users instead of geeks.
wtfisdisshiiit.jpg

This is was an interesting read. I just don’t understand how you left arch, gentoo and a lfs install for Ubuntu. Are you serious? Shenanigans.
Clay Weber

It is a hard road to go trying to be exciting, fresh, and unique while still attracting *new* users. Some amounts of gaudy and flashy simply turn a lot of people off.

Also, as has it has been throughout at least my 12 years of Linux usage, there is a noticeable and often vocal segment of our community that doesn’t want Linux to actually gain users per se. They do not accept the needs and wants or basic usage patterns of the masses of normal users. It’s not as if this is ruining any existing users’ ability to run their systems as they see fit.
http://profile.yahoo.com/UHM3V56Z2VF34C34FGYVWIQL3U Donnie

W
http://twitter.com/RogerParkinson Roger Parkinson

I switched to Ubuntu because of Vista. Everything I heard about Vista
was bad and I needed to upgrade my WinXP laptop. I installed Ubuntu
(which was easy) and it ran 7x faster than WinXP on the same machine. So
no upgrade needed. I’m still using that laptop every day.

“Open Source is meant to make people smarter and no (sic) zombies.” No
it isn’t. It is meant to make better software available to more people.
If they don’t want to understand how it works that’s fine. It used to
be Linux was hard to drive, now it isn’t. How could that be wrong?

BTW I’m not a fan of Unity but Gnome3 is fine, and it is easy to turn off Unity.
Praveen Thivari

What you have said may be true. But this is how things work in reality. Because not everyone is capable of dedicating time to know indulge in OS exploring. For Eg: A lawyer, doctor, businessman would need his PC/laptop for doing some ‘useful’ work related to his field. It doesn’t matter to him which wallpaper is in background, or which music player is installed, or which theme is being used. They would be wasting their precious time trying to explore the possibility of finding some options to tweak something. Also they are fearful that it might break the system.

So they just want a OS which can get their work done. It is unlike for Linux enthusiast who is bent upon finding a tweak to change the default. For that kind of person the ‘main WORK’ with OS is keep on tweaking and find new wallpapers , themes, applications. It’s their daily routine( OK, that was a bit of exaggeration :)) So, using computer DOESN’T mean you have to change the defaults. Defaults are provided so that they save time for the people who want their OS to be used for real work related to their field of interest and NOT to the field of OS exploring.

On a side note: And that kind of wallpapers wouldn’t be the good choice for many people. Think of grandpa, employee’s work desktop, Offices.etc.
Fernando M

Two comments for me:
1. Yes that Mint screenshot is offensive, actually I find it childish and typical of a what you would expect from a geeks desktop (and I don’t want to talk about the fact that it is demeaning, I hate the use of nudity or partial nudity to sell)

2. While you are arguing amongst yourself, Microsoft and other companies against opensource are laughing…
tracyanne

I should point out here that Ubuntu is is not the first Linux to make the command line redundant for general desktop use. Mandrake (now Mandriva), from at least 2000, when I started using Linux, offered full GUI based configuration editing. In fact it wasn’t until I moved to Ubuntu in 2007 that I even started using the CLI for anything non trivial, and related to configuration.

During the time I used Mandrake and later Mandriva it was every bit as stable as Ubuntu.

The only reason I moved to Ubuntu was because of the abortion that early KDE4 was, and the GNOME desktop on Ubuntu seemed to be able to give me much the same functionality as KDE 3.5.10 had given me. I later moved to Linux Mint, because of the inclusion of media codecs etc at install time rather than as an extra configuration step that Ubuntu requires. And now that KDE4 has finally got the functionality back that the devs left out in earlier versions I’ve gone full circle to , back to KDE.

But remember Ubuntu DID NOT create the user friendly Linux, Canonical may market Ubuntu as the first, and only, but that is simply not true.
jonobacon

Having worked with Mark for quite some time now, I agree that he wants to “wants to succeed in a Linux and Free Software based business” as you put it. You simply can’t succeed in this business without caring about community, investing it, and growing it.

My job, and the role of my team is not a marketing function and is not about “convincing members of the community we we care”; it is about building strategy and growth in the community and helping to empower our community to be successful. We focus on growing developers, app devs, Juju contributors, QA members, advocacy groups, and more. My team has five community managers working for me, and I am not sure Canonical would bother investing in a team of this size if the organization did not care about community: surely they would just hire one person?

I am suggesting Canonical, Ubuntu, myself, or my team is perfect…far from it…there are plenty of areas we can improve, but I find this sense of “I don’t like Ubuntu, therefore you have sub-optimal community intentions” disappointing.
- tracyanne
  
  Jono given that you are in Marketing, this is exactly what I expected you would say.
  
  Seriously, I hope Mark succeeds in building a profitable business,
  but it really is disingenuous of you to claim that any of the money you
  have spent is because you actually care.
  
  I agree you have to grow a community, but really, growing that
  community is what you need to do if you are to succeed, not because the
  community in and of itself is something you actually care about.
  
  Perception is everything, and that is your job, to create and maintain that perception.
  
  And before you go accusing me, or anyone else who actually understands what it is that you do, of being Ubuntu haters.
  
  I use Xubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, and Linux Mint KDE, I did try Kubuntu, when I decided to go back to using KDE, but I had problems with it (it worked fine from a USB stick but failed to boot properly after install), Linux Mint KDE, on the other hand worked just fine.
Nikitasbrb

Hello everyone! :) I am a New to Linux and ubuntu intoduced me to it! To tell you the truth i didn’t know what opensource means, i’ve never heard about it before when i was using Windows! And from the moment that i joined the Linux comunity i see that the Linux Distros have a school fight between them. Aren’t we in the same team? I don’t know! I don’t want to piss anyone off. Sorry if i am saying anything wrong, as i told you i am a new member and bad in English! :D
- Andreas Soellner
  
  Welcome to the world of Linux (-:
  Seriously though, like in any community / family there are tensions and fights and some people handling thing more maturely than others. Unfortunately people can get very religious and over zealous about their distribution of choice (this applies to all camps) and sometimes decisions are made that rub each other the wrong way and various accusations (sometimes justified, often exaggerated) fly around … in other words it is life, so I would take these things with a pinch of salt and enjoy using the software you use.
  
  Disclaimer: I used to use Ubuntu and switched to Fedora, mainly because I prefer Gnome 3 Shell to the Unity Shell and we are using RED Hat for servers … I still think Ubuntu is a great Distro and the more they can succeed in the market the better …
Bloodflame87

Great article. You made some good points. Now, I will admit that I do currently run Ubuntu (and occasionally play with Linux Mint), but at the same time, I’m far from being a zombie. Well actually, I would place myself somewhere in the middle of these two extremes of a Linux user – those being the uber-smart code junkie and the generic default-parading zombie. Am I a coder? No, at least nothing beyond HTML and basic PHP, which is nothing compared to Java, C, python, etc. Do I know how to compile my own kernel? Not at all, but I do understand the basics of what it does, why it’s there, and how much it really is the brains behind Linux itself (which I mostly learned from Android tweaking). I spend a lot of time on Google, figuring out how to make my desktop and OS something I could call my own. I hate Unity. I’m not a huge fan of KDE Plasma or Gnome 3 either, but I do spend a little time trying to get used to them. To me, Gnome 2 was perfect, hence why I mainly use Mate now. Even then, the first thing I did with Mate was customize my panels and menus. Also, I tend to remove a bunch of Canonical’s shipped apps and replace them with ones I find better. I’m also not afraid to jump into configuration files either. So if I feel the need to customize my desktop so much, why is it I use Ubuntu? When it comes right down to it, Ubuntu makes using Linux easy for people like me. One of my favourite features is the PPA (although that damn “sudo apt-get update” can get really annoying when there’s a lot of repos, but I understand why it’s needed). Another reason, even though I feel useless when it comes to contributing to open source, I really like the idea behind it, and giving my support and donations to the developers makes me feel good. It’s the least I could do. Of course, Linux still isn’t as fluid and simple as Windows or Mac, but for me, that’s a good thing. I love hitting Ctrl+Alt+T to do some things manually. While I may be more advanced than the average computer user, I’m still far from being a model Linux user. This is where Ubuntu fits in, though. It provides comfort for any level of Linux user, whether they wish to use it as it is out of the box, or jump right into the deep end. For me, I sit comfortably in the middle knowing I have a system that works without needing to be a coding genius.
http://www.paolinoalessandro.com/ Alessandro P.

I think that all other distro’s users feel threatened by the future Ubuntu’s success.

Ubuntu is becoming an OS that a normal user would have, in the grub choice my mum prefer Ubuntu to Windows, my brother prefer it to Mac OSX and they are not computer addicted like me, people love to have simplicity and a nice OS, properties that at the moment only Ubuntu has.
For many years Linux was for geeks, but now that Ubuntu is becoming more user-friendly they are afraid to lose “their Linux exclusivity”.

@jonobacon:disqus please continue on your way, don’t be influenced by Unity/Ubuntu’s haters, Canonical is doing a fantastic job and we all trust in you.
Thanks for Ubuntu 12.04.
- tracyanne
  
  Based on what you’ve written it’s clear to me that you are fairly new to Linux based operating systems. I’ve been using Linux since 2000, currently I use Xubuntu, Ubuntu Studio and Linux Mint KDE.
  
  But I did not start with Ubuntu. I started using Linux in 2000 with Mandrake Linux (now Mandriva). Mandrake (8.2) had all the same sort of GUI based functionality built into it as Ubuntu does today. It was every bit as easy to use as Ubuntu is today… If it had not been I would not have found it so easy to transition from Windows to Linux.
  
  Just as with Ubuntu today, it was unnecessary to use the Command line, in Mandrake, to perform system configuration, there was a full suit of GUI tools. In fact the only real difference between Mandrake then, and Ubuntu now (other than the improvements in the software in general) is that Mandrake required a separate root password, rather than using sudo.
  
  Up until I moved to Ubuntu in 2007 (I think it was), I rarely used the CLI, once I was using Ubuntu, it seemed that almost every instruction on how to configure the system required the command line, in spite of the fact that there were GUI tools for most ofthe configuration options. Since using Ubuntu I’ve actually used the CLI much more often than I ever did on Mandrake and Mandriva. In fact in many ways, at least until the last few iterations of Ubuntu, I think mandrake was much less geeky and “user friendly”
  
  As to why I moved to Ubuntu, KDE4 was released and it lacked most of the functionality I depended on in KDE3.5.10, and the GNOME desktop plus a few extras like compiz gave all that back, and Ubuntu seemed as easy to use as Mandriva.
  
  So before you run off half cocked blaming people for being Ubuntu haters, just consider that many of us are actually Ubuntu users, we actually like the OS, who been around for more than a littler while, and actually see through the marketing speak of jono and Mark.
http://tbuitenh.livejournal.com/ Tanja

I remember when Ubuntu had wallpapers like that Mint wallpaper. I’m not sure what that means except that I’ve been using Linux for a long time. I think the Ubuntu artwork became more and more mature/professional, with which a sense of fun was lost… but if you bother to look you’ll still find a very fun cartoonish wallpaper in PP, it’s just not the default.

Let’s face it, Ubuntu is now meant for the majority of computer users (rather than the majority of current home linux users), and the majority will always be zombies as long as people care more about other things than their computers. That’s fine, and helpful to convince hardware manufacturers to write Linux drivers. Meanwhile I’ll be using a more fun distro (and not with a half naked woman on the wallpaper, much too distracting :P ).
Ken Ash

You have a point, there are many other wonderful distro’s to be advertised and your right everything is ubuntu, ubuntu, ubuntu. Its getting old. One thing i learned and again see here in the comments, if you ever dare give your personal opinion negatively in a ubuntu environment you have a better chance of survival walking through the streets of Bronx NY at 3am in the morning. Sad but very true. Just watch what happens to reply’s to this comment. Lets Advertise Vector Linux!
Alexi Helligar

@Jono, I think your glib dismissal of the article as “sour grapes” is what leaves a poor impression. There is a implicit hubris in the “sour grapes” comment; and it this hubris that gives the impression that you don’t care.
- jonobacon
  
  I do care, but I am not going to lie. This article did not present what I consider a particularly objective position: it sounded like sour grapes.
  - tracyanne
    
    You care only in the sense that the community is necessary for Canonical to survive and hopefully make a profit, the community to Canonical is, and always has been, a means to an end. You and Mark are no different from any other marketing/PR people.
    
    In other words if you did not need the community behind you, you wouldn’t bother pouring that money into Community relations, or community building. It is disingenuous to say any different.
    - Michael Hall
      
      Fedora’s community is necessary for Fedora to survive, does that mean everybody involved in that project is a hypocrite and/or marketing?
      - tracyanne
        
        No, but Redhat don’t make the make a huge marketing speel about how they care about community. There is a huge difference. The community grew organically around Redhat/Fedora because of what Red hat does and how they work within the greater Free Software ecosystem.
        
        Canonical set out from the start to create a community separate from the general Free Software community, from which they can benefit, the exercise has been a deliberate Marketing PR exercise from the start.
      - Michael Hall
        
        So…..building a community and saying we care about it == bad
        But *Not* trying to build a community and *not* saying they care about it == good?
        
        You know what, you have fun with that.
      - tracyanne
        
        No building a community and using that community, for your own ends, while not actually doing anything other than what you were going to do anyway ie Unity. While at the same time creating PR that makes out you actually listen to the communities desires and needs === bad.
      - Michael Hall
        
        Unity has over 4000 commits from over 100 community contributors.
      - tracyanne
        
        In what way does that provide evidence that what you and jono , and the rest of the team do, is anything other than marketing/PR. And in what way does it provide evidence that you actually care about the community are a community, rather than as a source for freebies for Canonical to mine?
      - Michael Hall
        
        I’m curious what exactly you would see as evidence that we care about the community. Can you give me an example?
      - tracyanne
        
        Quite clearly you are here to defend your boss. What you are saying here is as much Marketing/PR as anything he has been saying.
      - Michael Hall
        
        Defend my boss? lol, Man, you really have no idea do you? I tell you what, come actually *join* the Ubuntu community, then you’ll understand. Despite what’s being said around here, it’s actually a very nice and friendly place.
      - tracyanne
        
        I was once a member, I got out as fast as I could run. The PR Hype and Bull5h1t was more than I could stand. In comparison Mandriva’s attitude towards it’s community was down right honest.
      - tracyanne
        
        Of course you are defending your boss, you’ve been tag teaming with him on almost every post, where he’s been in disagreement with someone.
        
        That’s why I did an IXQuick search to see if you might be another Canonical employee… and there you were.
      - tracyanne
        
        Are you by chance the same Michael Hall that works for Jono Bacon on the Canonical Community Team?
      - Michael Hall
        
        Yes, doesn’t it say that in my Discus by-line?
      - Michael Hall
        
        Apparently not. Strange, it does on omgubuntu.co.uk
      - tracyanne
        
        No.
  - Onishchaudhary
    
    i do agree wth you sir. The author of this article is just a ubuntu fan who shifted to other distros but still can’t stop thinking about ubuntu. More power to you guys :)
  - Onishchaudhary
    
    i do agree wth you sir. The author of this article is just a ubuntu fan who shifted to other distros but still can’t stop thinking about ubuntu. More power to you guys :)
http://maco.myopenid.com/ maco

Disagree about that Mint wallpaper being “nice.” I really hope they aren’t shipping something so unprofessional as their default wallpaper. That’d never fly in an office or school environment.
Erik Anderson

This poorly-argued editorial is ultimately premised on a false dilemma: “Open Source is meant to make people smarter and no zombies.” So either you’re an ubuntu zombie who doesn’t know how to change his/her wallpaper or restore shortcuts or you’re a smarty who is power using Arch and Gentoo in all the possible configurations. That’s just ridiculous. And even if this article’s premise weren’t a false dilemma, it is certainly untrue because open source has multiple purposes–only one of which is educating users. This editorial is 100% misplaced ressentiment.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_V3XNG77FQ4YYCBBD5BQFVAZJTE by

Sorry for unixmen for this post…
You can support any distro you like but you shouldn’t destroy others.
Ian

Ubuntu actually started off with Debian’s text based installer. Ubiquity (the Ubuntu GUI installer) was not developed until 2006. Even after the installation, Ubuntu had a rather plain, brown Gnome look. It succeeded in spite of being one of the ugliest distros around when it was released. It also was less user friendly than Red Hat and Mandrake when it came out. You only think Ubuntu was easy to use because you were Gentoo land.
Ubuntu got successful because it emphasized the warm fuzzy parts of Linux which got more vocal people involved. It was perfect timing because Red Hat had just announced that they were ditching their free distro in exchange for RHEL and Fedora which turned a bunch of people off. Mandrake was the other big distro and they offered a free version and a premium one for money which of course the vocal OSS people hate. So there was a void for a free hobbyist distro that got people excited and Ubuntu filled it.

Later on Ubuntu did become as easy, and easier, to use than Red Hat and Mandrake were, but by that point it was already the most popular distro. It was not due to looks, or user-friendliness, it was due to marketing. The “Linux for Humans” (whatever that even means), the Nelson Mandela quotes, the pictures of people hugging, all of it helped pull in the vocal, idealist FSF types. The bug #1 thing pulled in the Microsoft haters. And the fact that it became the de facto beginner distro pulled in beginners and casual users.

Even now Canonical pays people like Mr. Bacon here to push their brand. It all comes down to the marketing.
http://twitter.com/oblivaddict Christopher Ridgers

Hmm I would love to see this back and forth continue. Real room for debate, and a nice post with lots of opinion thats made me think.

Having used Ubuntu on and off now since Ibex, (i dropped out after a few months of frustration due to Wireless Network card issues) I now feel I have used enough of it to have a valid opinion.

What struck me as an interesting point in the original article was the impact that commercial development may have on open source projects. I myself have often looked for ways to get Photoshop running on linux (none to my satisfaction), and find myself hesitating in purchasing graphics tablets for fear of getting them working within linux (inc ubuntu) to their full potential.

If Adobe were to bring there software to linux, I would definitely consider acquiring it, to the expense of Inkscape and GIMP, maybe creating a commercially viable linux platform would be to the detriment of Open Source development?

Similarly though, I find that the articles exasperation of seeing users using default appearances and GUI’s a little unfounded. The more I use ubuntu, the more I find myself using terminal, and the less important how the GUI looks and behaves seems to me. That being said, I too have mixed feelings of the direction the desktop appearance is going…. though I no longer oppose unity, I find myself constantly accidentally accessing the Unity side bar when mousing for the back button in google chrome, and I have yet to find a use for the App store… though I see its function, I use apt-get to install packages, and see no reason for me to stop doing so.

Finally, though I applaud Ubuntu’s goal of “it just works”, I have on occasion found it has lead to me having a less capable understanding of how my system works… which is why I switched to linux in the first place. Wireless Networking prevented me from finding the answers I needed in the first place, and the idea of re booting from live cd in the event of an X server window pains me.

Ubuntu really has taken strides away from the “we know our systems better” userbase, and sometimes I think that is not a good thing.
http://twitter.com/oblivaddict Christopher Ridgers

Hmm I would love to see this back and forth continue. Real room for debate, and a nice post with lots of opinion thats made me think.

Having used Ubuntu on and off now since Ibex, (i dropped out after a few months of frustration due to Wireless Network card issues) I now feel I have used enough of it to have a valid opinion.

What struck me as an interesting point in the original article was the impact that commercial development may have on open source projects. I myself have often looked for ways to get Photoshop running on linux (none to my satisfaction), and find myself hesitating in purchasing graphics tablets for fear of getting them working within linux (inc ubuntu) to their full potential.

If Adobe were to bring there software to linux, I would definitely consider acquiring it, to the expense of Inkscape and GIMP, maybe creating a commercially viable linux platform would be to the detriment of Open Source development?

Similarly though, I find that the articles exasperation of seeing users using default appearances and GUI’s a little unfounded. The more I use ubuntu, the more I find myself using terminal, and the less important how the GUI looks and behaves seems to me. That being said, I too have mixed feelings of the direction the desktop appearance is going…. though I no longer oppose unity, I find myself constantly accidentally accessing the Unity side bar when mousing for the back button in google chrome, and I have yet to find a use for the App store… though I see its function, I use apt-get to install packages, and see no reason for me to stop doing so.

Finally, though I applaud Ubuntu’s goal of “it just works”, I have on occasion found it has lead to me having a less capable understanding of how my system works… which is why I switched to linux in the first place. Wireless Networking prevented me from finding the answers I needed in the first place, and the idea of re booting from live cd in the event of an X server window pains me.

Ubuntu really has taken strides away from the “we know our systems better” userbase, and sometimes I think that is not a good thing.
- http://opinadorcompulsivo.blogspot.com Miquel Mayol i Tur
  
  try NDISwrapper, that allows MS WOS network drivers, including wireless to work with Linux
http://twitter.com/oblivaddict Christopher Ridgers

Hmm I would love to see this back and forth continue. Real room for debate, and a nice post with lots of opinion thats made me think.

Having used Ubuntu on and off now since Ibex, (i dropped out after a few months of frustration due to Wireless Network card issues) I now feel I have used enough of it to have a valid opinion.

What struck me as an interesting point in the original article was the impact that commercial development may have on open source projects. I myself have often looked for ways to get Photoshop running on linux (none to my satisfaction), and find myself hesitating in purchasing graphics tablets for fear of getting them working within linux (inc ubuntu) to their full potential.

If Adobe were to bring there software to linux, I would definitely consider acquiring it, to the expense of Inkscape and GIMP, maybe creating a commercially viable linux platform would be to the detriment of Open Source development?

Similarly though, I find that the articles exasperation of seeing users using default appearances and GUI’s a little unfounded. The more I use ubuntu, the more I find myself using terminal, and the less important how the GUI looks and behaves seems to me. That being said, I too have mixed feelings of the direction the desktop appearance is going…. though I no longer oppose unity, I find myself constantly accidentally accessing the Unity side bar when mousing for the back button in google chrome, and I have yet to find a use for the App store… though I see its function, I use apt-get to install packages, and see no reason for me to stop doing so.

Finally, though I applaud Ubuntu’s goal of “it just works”, I have on occasion found it has lead to me having a less capable understanding of how my system works… which is why I switched to linux in the first place. Wireless Networking prevented me from finding the answers I needed in the first place, and the idea of re booting from live cd in the event of an X server window pains me.

Ubuntu really has taken strides away from the “we know our systems better” userbase, and sometimes I think that is not a good thing.
http://twitter.com/rathervague Del Sozou

What good is open source if no one uses it?
Onishchaudhary

don’t agree wth u dude….i am a newbie to linux. but once i tried ubuntu this month on my desktop, i fell in love wth it. :D
JonnyS

A confused article that appears to tries to encompass a lot of different areas (a lot of which not specific to Ubuntu) of the Linux Distro “stack” (while messing up a lot of the basic terms), but mainly appears to be in its simplest form having a go at Ubuntu / Canonical for some unspecified reason.

From the comments, it looks like one person is actually taking on multiple aliases too to try and confirm the content of the article without being able to present anything besides opinion and conjecture with no air of research put in.
http://www.facebook.com/tom.s.rand Tom S Rand

i started with Debian then went to Ubuntu as it was polished & well presented Debian based distro better than the others at that time (2004) over time i got fed up with having to correct the errors caused by upgrades & at times just re-installed the latest version. Then came Gnome shell & unity & so i changed to Xubuntu but still upgrades broke more than just a lot!
Now i have moved to Arch & have never had such a streamlined linux installation & am beginning to see all the extra cludge that is added to *ubuntu which i now no longer need or want as it feel’s to me am back on to learning Linux correctly & keeping upto date.
Yes Ubuntu is a good stepping stone but Canonical’s focus changes over the years has made Ubuntu become something i no longer like & when compared to the previous versions makes me wonder what it is they really want.

All this is a real shame as i still like Mr Shuttleworth’s vision & ideal’s.

Move over Ubuntu
http://www.facebook.com/tom.s.rand Tom S Rand

i started with Debian then went to Ubuntu as it was polished & well presented Debian based distro better than the others at that time (2004) over time i got fed up with having to correct the errors caused by upgrades & at times just re-installed the latest version. Then came Gnome shell & unity & so i changed to Xubuntu but still upgrades broke more than just a lot!
Now i have moved to Arch & have never had such a streamlined linux installation & am beginning to see all the extra cludge that is added to *ubuntu which i now no longer need or want as it feel’s to me am back on to learning Linux correctly & keeping upto date.
Yes Ubuntu is a good stepping stone but Canonical’s focus changes over the years has made Ubuntu become something i no longer like & when compared to the previous versions makes me wonder what it is they really want.

All this is a real shame as i still like Mr Shuttleworth’s vision & ideal’s.

Move over Ubuntu
- epikvision
  
  Agreed. Mark’s vision is still very solid.
http://www.facebook.com/tom.s.rand Tom S Rand

i started with Debian then went to Ubuntu as it was polished & well presented Debian based distro better than the others at that time (2004) over time i got fed up with having to correct the errors caused by upgrades & at times just re-installed the latest version. Then came Gnome shell & unity & so i changed to Xubuntu but still upgrades broke more than just a lot!
Now i have moved to Arch & have never had such a streamlined linux installation & am beginning to see all the extra cludge that is added to *ubuntu which i now no longer need or want as it feel’s to me am back on to learning Linux correctly & keeping upto date.
Yes Ubuntu is a good stepping stone but Canonical’s focus changes over the years has made Ubuntu become something i no longer like & when compared to the previous versions makes me wonder what it is they really want.

All this is a real shame as i still like Mr Shuttleworth’s vision & ideal’s.

Move over Ubuntu
http://fredrikfritte.se/ Fredrik Andersson

Good read :)
epikvision

The developer summit showed otherwise, skeptics. Although it was my first time, I felt a wonderful presence of arduous community members, still avid and enthusiastic to make Ubuntu better. There may be flaws, but the community always keeps trying to improve and blossom.
WolfHalton

The community of Desktop Linux Users is getting larger and larger. The vast majority of computer users actually want a computer to do stuff, to write stuff and to get spreadsheets done. This demographic has interests and desires almost 180 degrees away from the hacker mentality. They do not know or care how their computer works, as long as it works and lets them get their work done.
For instance, when I am writing, cutesy animated cruft and beautiful backgrounds distract me. Writing is so hard and takes so long that I have to turn off all distractions, sit in a quiet room and crank out the words. When I was writing my part of “Computer Security and Penetration Testing” (750 pages double-spaced text), I turned to the xfce desktop, set it to shades of gray and worked steadily for about a year.
I have been an Ubuntu alpha flight tester for 7 years or so, and when I am doing that, I turn on the animated window treatment and whatever else I can to try to shake out the bugs, but the main focus of my own testing is to make sure OpenOffice works on the new version of Ubuntu, so the people who use Ubuntu to get work done can be assured of getting their work done.
The author’s use of the word “zombies” in the context of people who get their work done with Ubuntu and do not worry about the pretty desktop images is really somewhat insulting. As an analogy, the people who run backhoes rarely paint murals on their backhoes. They are not heavy-machinery zombies because they do not get their visual artistic cues from the backhoe.
Speaking of zombies “AOL Zombies” is a term security writers sometimes use for Windows machines that are infected with trojans from bot-nets. These are second-order targets, upon which the performance is not usually compromised much. The term does not denote the users, who are generally unaware that their machine has been infected. The controllers of these infected machines usually direct them to crank out spam emails to millions of first-order targets. These zombie nodes can also be directed to send an attack denial of service to any given primary target to set up some other related attack vector. It is possible to refuse packets from a single node or from a range of nodes, as in the old-style DOS attacks, but randomly-scattered IPs from hundreds of IP ranges and geographical locations is much harder to defend against using old-style strategic blocking.
Calling these new desktop users themselves zombies seems like a “Tea Party” back to the past tactic. Once the user community increases past the people who build Linux and who are power-users of all the features and configurations that are so important to those of us who were using Linux before Ubuntu, there may be a number who like the author are becoming bitter because “things are too easy” for new users today. This is living in the past and by all means, people should be allowed to live in the past if they want to, but the rest of us do not have to make the trip with them.
WolfHalton

They don’t ship that thing as default. :-)
WolfHalton

Well Jono, you certainly started a hailstorm of a comment thread.
Illferris

Yet another ridiculous post from this blog. Personally, I like the default Ubuntu UI a lot. Honestly, what are we talking about here? Wallpapers? Icons? The color of your taskbar? Who cares? Good grief!
- Alexis Diavatis
  
  and yet another ridiculous comment to this blog. This is not about wallpapers icons etc. It’s about people’s attitude to use the defaults without even know the reason. Moreover is about showing people that there are alternatives.
  
  “Who cares?” Well if you don’t care you just have no opinion, so why you comment? By the way some small companies like MS, Facebook, Google, Apple care about every inch of the wallpaper, icons etc..

Nova

May 20, 2013 | #

I wonder if there is a way to create your own themes.

Red Adaya

Thank you! This worked for me!!!

SK

Andrew look into your httpd.conf file at line no 350. There might be a syntax error.

andrew

hello I have this error

[root@cloud html]# /etc/init.d/httpd restart

then this appears

Starting httpd: httpd: Syntax error on line 350 of /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf: without matching section.

plz tell how to fix this.

Maximiliano Schultheis

May 19, 2013 | #

this was amazing, thank you so much! Tip 3 did the trick!

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Ubuntu Zombies

Some Stats

Why Ubuntu

Why Linux

Open Source

Linux Desktop doesn’t necessarily helps open source evolution

Ubuntu Market Share

PART II THE SPIRIT

Losing Skills

Beauty

Ubuntu Default

Ubuntu Zombies

Overview & End

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