Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all (Linux User)

Don't mistake that as support.

The underlying problem here is that Canonical very deliberately setup the Ubuntu build system so that it was exceedingly difficult for the external Ubuntu community to replicate builders and integrate them into the blessed Ubuntu process which runs through launchpad. It is and always has been part of Canonical business strategy to control the builders as core infrastructure and to use that as leverage with OEMs to pay for engineering services.

External Ubuntu contributors simply do not have the ability to band together and supply the necessary builders for an arch that Canonical does not deem it a good business investment to maintain. This stands is contrast to how the Fedora contributors at Seneca were able to replicating Fedora's koji build system instead of waiting for Red Hat to do the heavy lifting to get the ball rolling before contributing hardware to the cause.

I can't stress this enough, Debian's decentralized build system and associated policies is key to the wide range of arch support Debian currently has. A system that predates Ubuntu. Canonical could have replicated that decentralized approach and chose not. Ubuntu continues to suffer from that very calculated choice to drastically recentralize.

Now, Debian's multiarch concept may provide an opportunity to give the external Ubuntu community a new way to step up and lead where Canonical does not see immediate business opportunity, but if and only if Canonical is willing to cede leadership and control.

-jef