[Video] Canonical Isn't (No Longer) Serious About Making GNU/Linux Succeed in Desktops/Laptops
Video download link | md5sum 7219c76e8371aa423b02c70b86192fff
Ubuntu Lost Its Advantage
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0
THE founder of Canonical, Mark Shuttleworth, made quite a controversial statement a decade and a half ago. He moaned about how (according to him!) there was no money in "desktop" and later he appointed some guy from Microsoft to manage the Ubuntu desktop. Mandriva, a former "market share" leader (as Mandrake), felt like he had crushed the market using his deep pockets (e.g. the ShipIt programme) and then abandoned the users whom he had "earned" based on slogans like "humanity for others" (and promiscuous marketing - both sexist and opportunistic). He has since then become a Microsoft reseller (mostly Azure) and occasional Windows pusher (WSL). The community around Ubuntu was gradually scatting away, finding alternative distributions to contribute time and effort to. So GNU/Linux as a whole is still doing OK, it's still growing (in terms of userbase) over time, but it's not IBM and Canonical "harvesting" the benefit as much as they did before. Unpaid volunteers or "slaves" won't work for some super-rich South African like Elon Musk or Mark Shuttleworth, who had dodged taxes and left the country in search of greener pastures (no pun intended amid severe drought).
Today's video discusses a number of other issues (we try hard to not repeat in text what's already covered in our videos). So we suggest seeing the video, aside from this text. As usual, the video contain more personal opinions and stories, whereas the text is more "objective" or impersonal.
The reason we've decided to cover the issue is that the new Ubuntu release is breaking things. Quoting Mr. Borisov:
WARNING: Upgrading to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) now risks system crashes, so hold off. Fixes coming soon.
Don't assume it's just Borisov throwing a fit or having an unfortunate accident. Some other bloggers expressed concerns and Abhishek at It's FOSS was furious. He wrote:
>The sheer audacity of not caring for its users reeks of Microsoft-esque arrogance.
Please excuse the language, but I just cannot express my disgust any other way.
The all caps headline is deliberate. I am all enraged.
Disappoint is a sober word here. I am actually pissed at the casual arrogance of Ubuntu and its parent company Canonical.
Please excuse the language, but I just cannot express my disgust any other way.
Our associate said that "if Canonical had not gone out of its way to alienate its user community and not expended so much effort doing so, the version would have received far more testing than it did. Obviously it did not get anywhere nearly enough."
To quote Abhishek again: "The sheer audacity of not caring for its users reeks of Microsoft-esque arrogance."
Some of the notorious (or "controversial") policies of Canonical have been covered here for years. It's hard to endorse Ubuntu as long as Canonical controls it with a tightened fist. A few years ago it did some posturing PR to make it seem like it was bringing back community participation/representation. But nothing has been shown since then; it failed to bear fruit. The video speaks of the "Snap" agenda among other aspects. █