Shuttleworth: Unity shell will be default desktop in Ubuntu 11.04 (ars technica)

I'm not sure the actual differentiation is upsetting. Its actually quite typical for a consumer device oriented company to want to differentiate. Everything about Unity and the Canonical desktop technologies that came before it scream Meamo to me in terms of strategic position as differentiated GNOME.

Before Hildon was gifted to GNOME it essentially made it possible for meamo (2.x 3.x 4.x) to have a _tablet_ oriented interface (N800 and N810 owners represent!!!!!)...with a global menu..and full screen apps..and a sidebar. All of it as a little walled garden in the form of Hildon sitting ontop of a GNOME stack..but not _really_ a GNOME desktop. And I don't remember Meamo ever being touted as a GNOME desktop to deflect criticism about the differentiated Hildon framework when it was Nokia controlled prior to being gifted to GNOME.

It's not the differentiation that is upsetting. It's the immense amount of time Shuttleworth and other Canonical execs have spent messaging the contrary.. messaging that they _are_ really trying to work with upstream..and wrapping up all this in-house development work in the flag of community..contrary to reality. It;s time to just be honest about the plan to do differentiated work from day one.

Canonical needs to learn to be honest about where the line is between business and community and stop mashing up business interests with community interests. Everyone would be happier if there was a clear line instead of the effort to message collaboration when its not collaborative work but strategic differentiation and copyright control for business reasons.

Litl gets nearly zero flack for having what is essentially a proprietary _shell_ over GNOME technologies in their devices. Because they never messaged that differentiated work as anything other than what it was. Canonical continually sends mixed messages about their in-house work.

-jef