http://www.petitiononline.com/botgimp/petition.html

–Robert X. Cringely

When they go up against Oracle and Red Hat, it is money they waste: Bill is willing to lose money for an indefinite period of time just to ensure that no one else makes any money in that market either.

When they go up against, Debian and Apache, it is time: Bil is willing to waste everyone’s time indefinitely just to make sure no one else gets anything done either.

They being Ubuntu, it’s just a matter of naively bending with Microsoft influence. The influence pulls in the opposite direction from the original goals of the Ubuntu project, but as ‘compromise’ after compromise is reached with ever increasing numbers of Monomaniacs or other Microsofters, the center is moved further and further away from where it was. It’s a variant of stacking the committee, where they get their voices nearest the ears of the decision makers.

Venue also plays a role. The last developer summit was in the US and thus excluded many Free and Open Source users and developers, but provided easy access for Monomaniacs and co.

It says:

“[PJ: The article, titled “Giving up the GIMP is a sign of Ubuntu’s mainstream maturity,” paints replacing it with FSpot as a fine thing, and manages to do so without even mentioning mono (Wikipedia: “F-Spot is written in the C# programming language using Mono.”). So for me, it’s good bye to Ubuntu until they clean it out. It’s a question of ethics, but it’s also a question of prudence. If you know about patents, even if you think they are stupid, you are foolish at best to pretend they don’t exist.

“And if you wondered why Ubuntu is going wrong, in my view, read the following decision-making process, and think about how easy it is to direct anything in a particular direction if all you need is numbers (think Slashdot moderation and Microsoft). A project leader has to decide certain issues, according to the vision, not leaving all decisions, particularly legal ones, to a vote by those who are not even lawyers:]”

Microsoft is going to spend more effort operating ‘behind the lines’ causing trouble. Projects like debian have to face up to the fact that some good people might be dangerously naive and that others, despite a happy smile and a round of beer, are there to fatally derail the project.

Perhaps one problem is that the Ubuntu code of conduct deals with behavior but does not itself reference software freedom. The DFSG clearly does…I note:

“…#3 Derived Works

The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.

..#5 No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons…”

The arrangements between Novell and Microsoft with respect to Silverblight clearly violate this as well as at least most of Mono core libraries.

“…#6 No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor

The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.”

This is a reminder that similarly, “Non-commercial use” restrictions are not permitted in Debian either, which even the most “generous” Microsoft patent promise on some parts and uses clearly violates, both in spirit and in letter. Hence, I see the problem as originating in Debian itself violating it’s own social contract and core principles with respect to Mono.