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Re: Ubuntu DOES create somethingRe: Ubuntu DOES create somethingPosted Oct 20, 2008 10:06 UTC (Mon) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167)In reply to: Re: Ubuntu DOES create something by ekj Parent article: Fedora and long term support
From the dawn of time there have been people telling us that we should be /grateful/ that somebody is causing us problems because at least they're showing an interest. Sure, the boy next to you keeps pulling your hair, but it's because he likes you and doesn't know a better way to show affection. This won't wash.
Ubuntu is terrible at doing half of what a distribution is supposed to do (mediating between users and upstream). That's not the fault of Ubuntu users, it is Canonical's fault. And the Ubuntu fanboys respond to every criticism with "But Ubuntu is popular" as though somehow "popular" makes it all OK.
There is no reason Ubuntu can't fix their mess and stay popular. There's no reason to believe that people who don't like Ubuntu because it is /causing them problems/ will still not like it if those problems are fixed. Characterising everyone who doesn't agree with you as a "half-troll" doesn't fix anything.
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Actually that's not true... Posted Oct 20, 2008 11:01 UTC (Mon) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] Ubuntu is terrible at doing half of what a distribution is supposed to do (mediating between users and upstream) But Ubuntu's business model practically depends on this. If you'll look at Ubuntu's site you'll find that they sat that "every computer user should have the freedom to download, run, copy, distribute, study, share, change and improve their software for any purpose, without paying licensing fees" - and they follow on this promise. Yet they don't say "every computer user should have the freedom to whine to us and we'll help him". This feature is sold separately. How many users who complain that bugreports are ignored and communication is one-sided are actually paying for support? Ubuntu quite explicitly separated these two issues - it has nothing to do with being popular or unpopular. Since Ubuntu is popular they can offer you palliative: ask users for help - sometimes it helps, sometimes does not. But if you want to have non-zero priority for your bugs - you should pay for the privilege. Looks pretty logical to me. There is no reason Ubuntu can't fix their mess and stay popular. But can they fix their mess and still be profitable? That's the question. There's no reason to believe that people who don't like Ubuntu because it is /causing them problems/ will still not like it if those problems are fixed. But there are reason to believe that people who are happy with free support will not bother to pay. P.S. I'm not saying Canonical created this problem on purpose. But since they have no incentive to fix this problem and every incentive not to... Why bother? IMO sensible approach for them will be to ignore bugreports for most of the cycle then early after release check if they still persist and fix them if they do for the next version of Ubuntu. Unless these are security-related problems, of course.
Re: Ubuntu DOES create something Posted Oct 20, 2008 12:33 UTC (Mon) by ekj (guest, #1524) [Link]
Nobody is saying you should be grateful for problems. What I'm saying is that maybe, just maybe, some of the actual users of Ubuntu, of which there seem to be a few, use it because they perceive it (rigthly or not!) to be a *good* fit for their needs ?
There's a large difference between harm and too-little-help. The real critique of it has been mostly the second variety; not ENOUGH is done to ensure bug-reports are efficiently communicated upstream, and bugfixes make their way upstream etc. I can agree with this. But that doesn't mean the hyperbole. I don't see anyone pulling anyones hair, frankly.
I didn't say being popular made anything ok. I said being popular may sometimes be a sign of actually getting some of the things that matter to USERS right.
I do agree it should be possible to do right onto users and at the same time ALSO do right unto upstream.
The trollish aspect is the typical open or hidden claim that anyone who uses Ubuntu is somehow clueless or harmful or doesn't know his own best. That's frankly insulting, and certainly nonconstructive.
I've run Slackware, Debian and Fedora for years. Frankly I don't think which distro I ran made much difference at all to how useful (or not!) I am to the overall Linux ecosystem. The few things I *did* trough Launchpad (some minor translation-work and reporting a single bug) are both present upstream today (in Gnu nano and nautilus-actions), so though things aren't perfect obviously some stuff is working some of the time.
In short, "ubuntu should do X" is constructive. "ubuntu-users are idiots, ubuntu is similar to the bully you knew in highschool" isn't.
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