Canonical Article - What Say You?

[jglen490]

I saw this article on ZDNET, about Canonical "making peace" with the community. Don't know if this solves anything, but any thoughts?

[mr_raider]

Were they at war?

[claydoh]

The only problem is that the council would (still?) be chosen from amongst a group selected by one person, which is no different than it was before.
wxl is a good person to get the ball rolling, though.

But it has a high likelihood of going the way it is now, eventually. A different organizational model might be better. Unlikely, though.

[TWPonKubuntu]

What options are available to change the status quo? Much depends on who is on the newly reconstituted board. As a "simple" user, all I can do is watch and wait. I have opinions, as do most of you, but how do we make those opinions known to the board?

[claydoh]

What options are available to change the status quo? Much depends on who is on the newly reconstituted board. As a "simple" user, all I can do is watch and wait. I have opinions, as do most of you, but how do we make those opinions known to the board?

Changing the structure, perhaps in a way that bkerensa is quoted in the article.
It is the sabdfl's show, and does have the ultimate say in everything.

[TWPonKubuntu]

I'm recalling the days of the "OS wars" and the outcome (yes, I'm old). Where is IBM/Microsoft now? Linux remains a better choice, IMO, but I do get tired of the politics.

I do like the idea of a Canonical Foundation, but have doubts about how effective it will be for the end users (you and I). I would like more representation for the Linux users on this new board, but I don't expect to get at least a 50/50 split in membership. Canonical/Shuttleworth will remain the majority voice.

At least we still have access to public domain source code for Linux AND many alternative Distros if things go bad with Ubuntu. Let's keep our options open.

[claydoh]

All Linux distros lack a certain amount of user representation . The people who get on the various committees and boards are usually very active in their distro's community, and end-users don't/can't take on that sort of commitment. I know I can't any more.
I used to be very active in the Kubuntu part of the Ubuntu community, even been on its council. But as far as I can tell, I am the only one from here who has actually taken part in Kubuntu/Ubuntu proper, and that goes back to 2006 maybe. KFN does not really count so much.

[TWPonKubuntu]

...
KFN does not really count so much.

Which is not to denigrate the value of this forum. This is where I come to learn about Kubuntu.

Having more input toward how the underlying code is handled (Debian/Ubuntu) would certainly be satisfying, but seems unlikely. I'm not competent enough to contribute to the actual development phase, but I would like to have a better path to give my feedback to the actual devs.

[GreyGeek]

I spent a summer writing Kubuntu HELP documentation about 10 years ago or so.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/mark-s...profitability/

On April 28, 2020 Shuttleworth said this:

Canonical, the parent company of Ubuntu Linux, is doing better than ever according to founder and CEO Mark Shuttleworth. Indeed, Canonical is now "self-sustaining." That is, "We're now well past the point where Ubuntu and all its supporting systems and infrastructure are dependent on me, said Shuttleworth. "If I were to meet my maker tomorrow. Ubuntu will continue in the very capable hands of the team at Canonical and the community."

What community did he have in mind four months ago?

I'm not sure "the community" would have loved the idea of tying Chromium to snap and making the snap store proprietary. Shuttleworth hasn't told anyone, that I've read about, his future plans for Snap vs the repository, and Microsoft's WSL. If the repository becomes stale or unsupported, or all the best apps are ONLY in the Snap Store, then an Ubuntu or one of its derivatives isn't in my future. It wouldn't matter because I am not a contributor to Canonical's bottom line.

I did have a RH server contract for a couple years. The install CDs and support cost $1,500 for the first year and the support contract was $750/yr after the first year, IIRC. Since it was under the GPL the source code had to be made available. For grins and giggles I downloaded it, all 750+ files. Each source file was zipped individually and the all of them were combined into one giant zip file. What WASN'T present was the documentation describing the tool chain, the build structure and the build scripts. Also missing was the branding. Except for a two page installation "manual" the documentation was a 5 inch three ring binder with photocopies of all the man pages.

I needed support one time. I was using the tar command to make sparse incremental backups of the installation. The tar file stopped at 2GB, if I remember correctly. My service contract was 3 business days via email. Phone support was much more expensive. After I sent an email off to RH support I visited an open support forum on the Internet and had an answer to my problem within 20 minutes, which had links to to possible solutions. The first one worked and the tar file was completed by the end of the day. Three days later I got an email from RH support which contained the exact same two solutions. I never bothered them again, and never renewed the support contract.

RedHat had about $4 billion in revenue, most of it in sales of servers and server support, in the 12 months before IBM bought them and during that period Canonical had $83 million in gross revenue, 2% of what RH made. According to ZDNET, while lots of businesses install Ubuntu on their servers few of them buy Canonical support contracts. Also according to ZDNET, 2018 was the first year Canonical made a profit. An $83M margin could evaporate over night and I doubt that Shuttleworth would invest any more of his personal resources into Canonical if that were to happen.

Shuttleworth has lost contact with the community that uses Ubuntu and its derivatives, which probably means that our complaints about binding programs to snap or Google's Chromium went unheard, IF even noticed.

EDIT:
An interesting financial accounting which differs significantly from ZDNET's.
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...ial-EOY31May18

[MoonRise]

Which is not to denigrate the value of this forum. This is where I come to learn about Kubuntu.

Having more input toward how the underlying code is handled (Debian/Ubuntu) would certainly be satisfying, but seems unlikely. I'm not competent enough to contribute to the actual development phase, but I would like to have a better path to give my feedback to the actual devs.

Agreed!

[woodsmoke]

I spent a summer writing Kubuntu HELP documentation about 10 years ago or so.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/mark-s...profitability/

GG you really do continue to be an amazing man!
woodsmoke