Bonum Certa Men Certa

Reader's Thoughts on Mark Shuttleworth's Response (Regarding Microsoft Codecs)

It was only several hours ago that this mailing list thread came to our attention. Therein, Mark Shuttleworth addresses a post from Boycott Novell. An anonymous reader took it upon himself to respond to it. His response is quoted below in full. Context and background can be found here.






“FOSS distros shouldn't be a vector for licensing problems...”If Mark Shuttleworth wants to be unambiguous about it, he needs to state "is not and shall not" make a deal for closed codecs. I know that comes close to splitting hairs, but his answer will help prevent unpleasant surprises.

If he's dealing with proprietary codecs, or general Microsoft technology, he should be wise from the mistakes of others: there's a trail of out of work CEOs that thought that their company should remain "willing to work with Microsoft, under reasonable and transparent conditions, to further goals that we share" e.g.

"I once preached peaceful coexistence with Windows. You may laugh at my expense -- I deserve it."

--Be's CEO Jean-Louis Gassée



Mark's not dumb. He shouldn't try to act dumb. Just how would Canonical survive a deal with Microsoft when no other company to-date has?

However, that's not as concrete as the mono infection which is listed on the project page:

Subnotebooks, especially those with small HDs or SSDs don't have 100's of GB to spare for mono-bloat for just a few packages. Subnotebooks, especially those with low power CPUs don't have the gigacycles to deal with mono's bloat spaghetti code. FOSS distros shouldn't be a vector for licensing problems, like the ones still unresolved after (10?) years of mono.

Note F-Spot:      http://www.canonical.com/netbooks

Note mono infection:




$ apt-cache depends f-spot f-spot Depends: dbus Depends: libart-2.0-2 Depends: libatk1.0-0 Depends: libc6 |Depends: libc6 |Depends: <libc6.1> Depends: <libc0.1> Depends: libcairo2 Depends: libexif12 Depends: libflickrnet2.1.5-cil Depends: libgconf2.0-cil |Depends: libgl1-mesa-glx Depends: <libgl1> libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-swx11 Depends: libglade2.0-cil Depends: libglib2.0-0 Depends: libglib2.0-cil Depends: libgnome-vfs2.0-cil Depends: libgnome2.0-cil Depends: libgnomeui-0 Depends: libgnomevfs2-0 Depends: libgphoto2-2 Depends: libgphoto2-port0 Depends: libgtk2.0-0 Depends: libgtk2.0-cil Depends: libgtkhtml3.16-cil Depends: libjpeg62 Depends: liblcms1 Depends: libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil Depends: libmono-addins0.2-cil Depends: libmono-cairo2.0-cil Depends: libmono-corlib2.0-cil Depends: libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil Depends: libmono-sqlite2.0-cil Depends: libmono-system-data2.0-cil Depends: libmono-system-web2.0-cil Depends: libmono-system2.0-cil Depends: libmono2.0-cil Depends: libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil Depends: libndesk-dbus1.0-cil Depends: libx11-6 Depends: libxcomposite1 Depends: mono-runtime Depends: sqlite Depends: sqlite3 Recommends: dbus-x11 Recommends: dcraw



I fought to mention that subnotebooks are often being used in environments/situations where the instability caused by mono causes more harm than in more relaxed situations.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

After Microsoft's Bankruptcy in Russia Android (Linux) Will Dominate Asia Completely
Windows probably peaked in "XP" or "2000"
India: Windows Falls to 50% in Desktops/Laptops and 8% Overall
laptops/desktops fell to 16% of the whole
statCounter: GNU/Linux Up to 4.7% "Market Share" This Month
30,000 Microsoft jobs may be eliminated by year's end
Microsoft is in Trouble and Microsofters Know It
"I've been happy on Win 3.11 for years."
Links 02/06/2025: Political Leftovers, DRM, and Patents
Links for the day
 
Last Article From Australia's Sam Varghese Was a Year Ago and It Covered the Release of Julian Assange, Who Will Apparently Come Back as 'Politician'
It'll soon be exactly 12 months
Hungary Seems Hungry for Linux
Windows down by a lot
Like in Europe, Bad News for Microsoft in US and Canada
If it loses those "regions", then what's left?
About 8 Waves of Mass Layoffs at Microsoft in 2025 (in Less Than 5 Months), Now Vista 11 "Market Share" Decreases
Really bad news for shareholders of Microsoft
statCounter Sees Bing "Share" Falling Over 0.5% in One Month, Now Lower Than Before the ChatGPT/Bing Chat Hype
Bing has been part of the mass layoffs for quite some time
Microsoft's Demise is a Global Phenomenon
mass layoffs justified using mindless buzzwords
All-Time Highs for GNU/Linux in EU and the UK, All-Time Lows for Microsoft
Combining ChromeOS and GNU/Linux, it adds up to and almost reaches 6%
[Video] New Introduction to Richard Stallman's Contributions Including GNU Emacs, GNU/Linux, and Software Freedom
from the channel previously bullied for supporting RMS
Links 02/06/2025: South Korea to Vote, Russia Blitzed From Within
Links for the day
Links 02/06/2025: Microsoft Spins Layoffs as "Slop", Frontier Settles Lawsuit
Links for the day
When You Publicly Boast About Wanting to Violently Attack People (Even Colleagues) Finding a Job Will Prove Difficult
there's a lesson to be learned here
The Web We Lost, the Information Lost Due to Microsoft's Attacks on Companies Like Yahoo! (Before the LLM Slop Frenzy)
When it comes to news sites, what can we say?
Covering Corruption in Poland, Including a War on Science (Due to Bad Politicians)
What we're about to show is that skilled and experienced scientists in Poland are besieged by bureaucrats
Gemini Links 02/06/2025: "Star Wars Day" and "Security Day"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 01, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 01, 2025
The Openwashing Shills Initiative (OSI) - Part II: Lying to the IRS is a Big Issue
The OSI of today pretends to be something that it is not
Bloodlust and Love of Blades (Fascination With Murder) Nothing New Among Microsofters
Violence is not a joke and no group is magically entitled to make such "jokes"
Links 01/06/2025: Bird Flu, Food Price Inflation, and Growing US-China Hostilities
Links for the day
Links 01/06/2025: "Vibe Coding" Turns Out to be a Fraud and Amazon Merits Boycott, Argue Bloggers
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2025: "Stardust" and Ideal PC Setup
Links for the day
Links 01/06/2025: Windows TCO, Openwashing, "It's FOSS" Still Promoting Microsoft
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2025: Simplification and Networks Everywhere
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 31, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 31, 2025
Google Bribes EFF. EFF Promotes LLM Slop as 'Fair Use'. To GAFAM It's a Low-Cost Lobby Hedge.
So the bribes pay off ("slush fund") and the word spreads
Slopwatch: Fake Text and Images, Financial Bubbles, and Scams in "Intelligent" Clothing
Sometimes what they mean by "AI" is just cheap labour somewhere else, as we discussed in IRC a few hours ago
Why Microsoft is Collapsing (Similar to What's Happening at IBM), As Insiders See It
IBM seems like one heck of a mess
Reliable Computing Means Free (Libre) Computing
Sites that want to promote security ought to deal with the biggest issues
Links 31/05/2025: US Court Orders Sides With RFE/RL, War Updates From Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/05/2025: ARM Server and power_supply Subsystem
Links for the day
Links 31/05/2025: Slop Stigmatised as Disinformation, Catalyst/Driver of "Death of Communication"
Links for the day
Common Sense 101: Do Not Write Blog Posts Saying You Want to Murder Colleagues (or Yourself)
Only crazy people would think stabbings are a joke
Microsoft Bankruptcy
"Microsoft unit in Russia to file for bankruptcy, database shows"
Techrights Does Not Compete With LLM Slop, It Exposes the Bastards, Plagiarists and Scammers Who Do That
People like Scam Altman, still facing a lawsuit from his own sister for sexual abuse against her
Links 31/05/2025: Microsoft-Connected Builder.ai is a Fraud and US is Purging Students Based on Race/Nationality
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Limmat, Doomscrollers, and Arguments Parsing
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 30, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, May 30, 2025