Kubuntu to be sponsored by Blue Systems [LWN.net]

Kubuntu to be sponsored by Blue Systems

Posted Apr 11, 2012 18:26 UTC (Wed) by JanC_ (guest, #34940)
In reply to: Kubuntu to be sponsored by Blue Systems by jspaleta
Parent article: Kubuntu to be sponsored by Blue Systems

> Whatever is going on here with Blue Systems backing
> multiple KDE distributions (which is a little bit of
> a head scratcher really)... whomever steps up to
> provide financial support for Kubuntu needs to have
> the ability to go after commercial products based on
> Kubuntu..and branded as Kubuntu...without being
> shackled by restrictions imposed by Canonical.

Lots of "open source companies" invest in upstream projects without being able to commercialize the upstream trademark.

The owner of Blue Systems needs the KDE packages in Ubuntu as a base for his Netrunner OS, so he obviously wants them to be in the best possible shape. Apparently he decided that sponsoring Kubuntu is a good way to do that.

And if he needs a brand to make money, he can use this "Netrunner" brand, of course.

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Kubuntu to be sponsored by Blue Systems

Posted Apr 11, 2012 21:27 UTC (Wed) by jspaleta (subscriber, #50639) [Link]

If the Kubuntu marks were in fact under the stewardship of a non-profit I would agree wholeheartedly with your statement concerning the nature of coopetition with regard to multiple vendor support for an upstream project.
Projects under the stewardship of the Apache Foundation for example... can have multiple vendor support.

However... since the Kubuntu marks are controlled by Canonical still..and the public trademark policy Canonical provides specifically prohibits use of the marks for anything with commercial intent...then no..this isn't really a parallel situation for things like all the ASF projects.

It's more of a parallel of Openstack. Openstack is essentially dominated by Rackspace and Rackspace owns the marks (well actually Openstack LLC ownes the marks but Openstack LLC is a subsidiary of Rackspace....). But Rackspace has already publicly stated their intention to create a non-profit foundation in 2012 and transfer ownership of the marks. Vendor-nuetral control of the branding does matter to foster to prevent inherent conflict of interests in a multi-vendor support approach to a project.

What I am saying is Kubuntu would benefit from a similar vendor-neutral approach to the marks. Blue Systems doesn't need to own the marks...nor does Canonical. They just need equal access for commercial use. A vendor-neutral steward of the marks would provide that.

-jef

Kubuntu to be sponsored by Blue Systems

Posted Apr 21, 2012 16:36 UTC (Sat) by JanC_ (guest, #34940) [Link]

You did only read the first sentence of my reply; please also read the other two and explain why Blue Systems would need the "Kubuntu" brand for anything commercial...

Kubuntu is still a part of the overall Ubuntu project & community, and I see no reason to make different rules for them (or for any of the other subprojects, be it technical or social projects or somewhere in between).