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The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 4, 2010 20:16 UTC (Thu) by MattPerry (guest, #46341)
In reply to: The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit by davide.del.vento
Parent article: The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

> But Canonical is making too many of these "choices" and each one of them
> can be the straw that broke the camel's back.

Exactly what back is being broken? All of these complaints seem to have a common undercurrent: "The default install doesn't operate exactly how I want it to." The complaints listed in blog post you link to are all default settings that are easily changed.

* Installing GIMP is just a few clicks away.
* The existence of the Ubuntu Music Store in no way prevents someone from using another music store.
* The default search engine can be changed with just a few clicks. If you are upgrading then you are still using whatever your existing settings dictate.
* If there are proprietary applications in the Ubuntu repositories, no one is forcing you to install them.
* If you don't like Mono, then uninstall it or use a derivative distro like Gobuntu or Kubuntu.
* If you don't like the new default theme, then it can be changed with a few clicks.

Canonical has been very clear and consistent about Ubuntu's goals. They want to offer the best user experience "out of the box" for the user. Providing a means for users to easily and legally purchase popular music furthers those goals and ultimately helps all Linux users. The objections to migrating to Linux are being toppled one by one.


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The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 4, 2010 20:39 UTC (Thu) by davide.del.vento (guest, #59196) [Link]

>> the straw that broke the camel's back.
> Exactly what back is being broken?
Mine (see below).

> They want to offer the best user experience "out of the box"

I have 10 Ubuntu installations (Hardy) at this time. I took the time to remove Mono from all of them, and that's was not fun, but was ok. If I'll have to do all the changes you mentioned, then my "out of the box" user experience will be bad. In fact, unless a major change will happen, I will not use Ubuntu anymore. Which is unfortunate, because I liked Ubuntu very much and because with me they are losing not only my 10 installation, but also the hundreds of "use Ubuntu!" recommendations which I gave to family, friends and mailing lists (and I know that a large percentage of them led to actual Ubuntu installations).

Canonical's defaults in Ubuntu, free software for profit

Posted Mar 7, 2010 18:43 UTC (Sun) by jpnp (guest, #63341) [Link] (3 responses)

> All of these complaints seem to have a common undercurrent: "The default
> install doesn't operate exactly how I want it to."

I think it's a bit more than that. This is a series of changes that don't meet the values of members of the Ubuntu community, not a question of choosing a colour scheme which some people don't like (another, somewhat more facetious, criticism often leveled at Ubuntu).

> They want to offer the best user experience "out of the box" for the
> user.

It seems to me that some of these decisions are motivated by what generated most revenue for canonical, not what is the best experience for Ubuntu's users. How can switching from the most popular online search provider to a competitor who pays more be construed as improving end-user experience? What next, switching browser from firefox to chrome(ium) if Google offers to pay more? That it is a changeable default doesn't alter the fact that it was done for commercial not user experience reasons.

If these decisions are not made solely on technical merits how can they be justified? It worries me that an Ubuntu install is steadily becoming like a PC brought from many OEMs: full of extras and settings which bring revenue to the vendor and which need removing or reconfiguring. What galls me is canonical invoking the concept of ubuntu and pushing forward the idea of an Ubuntu community while making decisions for the good of canonical.

Just the view of one rather disillusioned Ubuntu user.

Canonical's defaults in Ubuntu, free software for profit

Posted Mar 8, 2010 9:46 UTC (Mon) by amit.kucheria (subscriber, #59246) [Link] (2 responses)

> What next, switching browser from firefox to chrome(ium) if Google offers > to pay more?

If you put aside the money argument for the moment, Chrome is proving to be a faster browser in everyday use and is being used by a lot of developers as it is. So it might make "out of box" user experience better.

Canonical's defaults in Ubuntu, free software for profit

Posted Mar 8, 2010 10:54 UTC (Mon) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (1 responses)

You do release that Chrome is a proprietary browser? Chromium which is the
open source version has its own set of issues as well

http://spot.livejournal.com/312320.html

Canonical's defaults in Ubuntu, free software for profit

Posted Mar 8, 2010 11:27 UTC (Mon) by amit.kucheria (subscriber, #59246) [Link]

I have to admit my constant confusion between Chrome (the browser), Chromium and Chrome (the OS). I was implying the open source version.


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