Bonum Certa Men Certa

Questioning Ubuntu's Direction

Wizard of Oz



Summary: Now that the Ubuntu distribution of GNU/Linux pushes users into the Microsoft 'cloud', doubts rightly increase when it comes to the project's vision

IN ORDER to keep this constructive, we won't repeat old explanations about why Matt Asay was not a good choice for Ubuntu. This is not a personal attack, just a simple factual observation.



Several days ago we spotted remarks from Asay (Canonical's new COO) which we found rather concerning but not surprising at all. We decided not to remark on these remarks, but Pogson has done just that when he scattered some thoughts about the ramblings of Asay:

Matt Asay wrote this on his blog, “Microsoft became the biggest software company in the world by creating an ecosystem of software that works well together.“.

[...]

I know I take the quotation out of context, but I found it a shocking view for someone of influence in Ubuntu. Later in the article he writes, “I didn’t like the Linux “desktop” until Lucid’s release.“. At the same time that M$ could not keep me happy for more than a few hours, GNU/Linux (eDesktop from Caldera Systems) purred for six months on five machines without a hitch. That was in 2000 and GNU/Linux has constantly improved since.

I am glad Mark Shuttleworth is the one working on the user interface… Matt Asay does not seem to be in touch with reality.


Mark Shuttleworth at least has a long history as a GNU/Linux user who respects Free software. Asay, on the contrary, has been promoting "open core" and the whole Fog Computing paradigm. As a follow-up from Pogson shows, Asay is still buying into the whole 'cloud' hype, which is just a new marketing identity/name assigned to old ideas that Richard Stallman criticises as it achieves nothing that defends the users' freedom. In some ways, it's even worse than proprietary software.

“Mark Shuttleworth at least has a long history as a GNU/Linux user who respects Free software.”The gist of Stallman's thesis is that any so-called 'cloud' (we call it Fog Computing to emphasise the risks) gives tremendous power to the owner of this 'cloud'. As we pointed out earlier this year, Canonical decided to take money away from Mozilla developers and instead pass it to Ubuntu developers, who willingly sell Ubuntu users to the Microsoft 'cloud' [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. It's about search, which leads to other services. Whose masters are they anyway?

Anyhow, for those doubting the situation with Microsoft and Yahoo!, the following news from India is an early sign that not only US queries will be passed from Yahoo! to Microsoft (as expected all along).

Microsoft will be offering positions to 400 of Yahoo’s software professionals, most working on search technology, to boost the search-domain collaboration the two technology giants announced sometime back.


These are the people who will deliver search results that discriminate against Ubuntu. These are the people whom Canonical will send Ubuntu users to. In summary, Ubuntu is not going in the best direction, to put it politely.

"Anyone who doesn't fear Microsoft is a fool."

--3Com CEO Eric Benhamou

Recent Techrights' Posts

Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
 
Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
Links for the day
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
Downlplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2025: Greenland 'Interferences' by US and Skinnerboxes to Get Banned in Korean Schools
Links for the day
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025