08.08.10
Patent Threat Banshee Gets Hooks Into Ubuntu 10.10
Summary: Another word of warning about Mono software which is excluded from the MCP and why Canonical should not mimic Windows and Mac OS X
TWO days ago we wrote about Banshee being put in Ubuntu 10.10 NBE by default. It turns out now that Bertrand Lorentz is already integrating this patent liability with the desktop edition too. From the OMG! Ubuntu Web site (now in the midst of a controversy for trolling GNU/Linux users):
Bertand Lorentz has begun work on Sound Menu integration for Banshee as part of the Banshee Community Extensions project.
Some months ago we showed that in order for Ubuntu 10.10 to become Mono-free it just needs to remove Tomboy (and gbrainy [1, 2, 3, 4] which is tiny), having recently decided to remove F-Spot [1, 2]. Some sites carry on promoting Tomboy, which is not exactly helpful (OMG! Ubuntu is also promoting a lot of Mono applications).
“Apple’s market share is very scarce, but it gets a lot of publicity because of demography.”It is worth saying all of this because of care about Ubuntu, which is just the victim of Microsoft/Novell encroachments. Being one of the vacuum cleaners of users, it also becomes the victim of those who promote Microsoft’s agenda (Microsoft puts Canonical in its SEC filings, as a serious competitive risk alongside Apple)
Speaking of Ubuntu, its strategy ought to focus less on Fog Computing and more on advancing freedom ideals. Fedora does pretty well in that regard. Canonical’s attempts to mimic Apple (probably inspired by Mark Shuttleworth and Mac Asay, a longtime Apple fan) is another strategy which is bound to disappoint because trying to make GNU/Linux desktops mimic another operating system like Windows just leads to disappointment. The user comes to expect that it’s just a cheap version (knock-off) of something else but gets upset when it behaves differently. Ubuntu’s initial target demography ought to be different too; by mimicking Apple Canonical may fail to see that not all Ubuntu users live in London offices. In fact, many use it due to cost, at least initially.
Apple’s market share is very scarce, but it gets a lot of publicity because of demography. Do not let the press resort to taking some rich schools as an example for Apple proponents to stroke their ego with [1, 2]. █
Steve Ballmer’s presentation slide
from 2009 shows GNU/Linux as bigger than Apple on the desktop
