[clug] Has Ubuntu resulted in a decline of Linux distribution innovation

[Randall Crook]

I think there is a little arrogance creeping into ubuntu....

The most obvious case has been the handling of KDE4 and its introduction.

Canonical's policy is no un-maintained products... Sounds good and sound
but it does not help when the no longer maintained products are the best
available at the time. KDE4's introduction and the dropping of KDE3
whilst not noticed by many Ubuntu users, upset a lot of KDE fans..

KDE4 was so very immature and featureless when KDE3 was dropped from
maintenance, and as such dropped from kubuntu. Those who grabbed Kubuntu
at that moment would have been totally disappointed at it and linux. A
pretty version of Windows 3.11 essentially.

And while gnome user will shrug their shoulders, some now have been
stung by this draconian following of policy, with the dropping of amarok
1.4 and the introduction of a barely functional amarok 2. Once again if
someone decided to see how good linux is with jaunty and then tried to
use their iPod with the much hyped (rightly so with 1.4) amarok, they
would have laughed and jumped straight back to windows...

Canonical is doing itself no favours by not picking and choosing when to
drop a product... Smart delaying of the dropping of both KDE3.5 and
amarok1.4 would have been so much better as the KDE and amarok teams
have been do some brilliant and speedy work. A six month hold over would
have been so much better for the image of Kubuntu and Ubuntu projects...

It seems a bit of a theme.... Popularity seems to grow arrogance. You
see a lot of OSS project go the same way... They supply a function that
is wanted and they grow in popularity, the maintaners or leaders of the
projects let their egos run the project and things start going awry.
Soon you have forks and the original project dies a usually rather long
and painful death.

I really do hope the KDE4 and amarok debarcles are not a sign of
impending real decline of Ubuntu. I say that in all honesty... Ubuntu
has done enormous amount of good for Linux and OSS, to see it collapse
under its own inflexibility would do far too much damage and is exactly
the sort of thing MS would love to see.

I have ranted too much and will leave with the thought.... What would be
the easiest way to kill the most popular and fastest growing Linux
distribution?

Something I am sure the heads of MS think about every single day.....


Randall.