Shuttleworth On Mir: "A Fantastic Piece of Engineering"

[a user]

This is what I've been wondering a long time also. I do not get the Linux fanboys that do not see any point in GPL or even dislike GPL and have no issue with proprietary stuff. Why be a Linux fan then?

i like even less the people that do know even less that they seem to think that beside of that there is nothing else why to favour liunx over windows etc.

where are this selfclaimed long time linux experts that obvsiously no nothing poping up from? suddently i see dozen of them, only talking about something like free software and nothing else and talking as if they were older than 15 years.

this thread is scaring the shit out of me. if somthing will finally break linux neck, then people like you. that's more dangerous than canonicals lack of contribution which dislike too.

[johnc]

I don't *want* a closed graphical UI. I say 'closed' because Ubuntu will GLADLY make sure the binary blobs are front and centre, they do NOT care about Open source drivers, not for their tablets, phones etc. As for license MIT is just fine, even if I like the GPL there are cases where it hurts.

The Ubuntu generation don't understand WHY we are angry about Mir and about why Canonical is doing this. I hope this implodes and that Ubuntu gets shut out more and more.

Don't screw up Wayland, stop sabotaging what limited resources the community has with your for-profit mentality to screw others just to make a buck.

I'm sorry but I want to see Canonical fail. You do NOT pressure the community to do it your way, Red Hat controls many things in FLOSS because they gave so much back to the community, trust is built though collaboration, something Canonical doesn't get or understand.

</rant>

If you don't like Canonical then don't use their distribution. That's the end of it.

You make it sound like Shuttleworth took away your lollipop.

[AdamW]

You know what Canonical/Ubuntu brought Linux? Public Awareness. In the mind of the consumer, Ubuntu = Linux. If Ubuntu never came around, Linux would still be in the same state in was in 2005, holding <.5% market share, nothing more then a toy OS.

So yeah, Canonical can do whatever they want, and the devs will follow, because they, and they alone, drive commercial Linux development.

I hate to trumpet failure and sound negative, but it's important to keep a vague factual basis to your castle building, I find.

So let's look at some numbers on this huge rise in public awareness and users that Ubuntu has brought about, shall we?

netmarketshare's numbers only go back to 2008. They have:

Jan 2008 - Linux 0.72%
Feb 2013 - Linux 1.04%

http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=9&qpcustom=iOS,Linux&sample=36&qpsp=2008&qpnp=6&qptimeframe=Y

So that's a massive 0.3 percentage point increase in Linux's market share over the last five years.

w3schools' numbers (which are considered to somewhat over-report Linux use, BTW) go back further. Ubuntu first showed up to shock the world in October 2004.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp

September 2004 - Linux 3.1%
February 2013 - Linux 4.8%

A 1.7 percentage point increase. Note the earliest number w3schools publish:

March 2003 - Linux 2.2%

So Linux usage was on an increasing trend before Ubuntu ever showed up, back when Mandrake was the distro in the position Ubuntu now occupies. Oh! And over the same period:

September 2004 - Mac 2.6%
February 2013 - Mac 9.6%

So, Linux's numbers are up. That's great. But it's not like Ubuntu has ushered in some kind of Linux usage revolution, I'm afraid. Apple has done substantially better over the same period of time. Don't get me wrong, I wish Ubuntu had been a raging success in these terms, but the stats don't indicate it. I'm not picking the least favourable stats I can find, either - those are the first two sets of data I could find with some reasonable historical depth. You can argue about whether each is a 'true' measurement of absolute usage, if you like, but the _trends_ within each data set ought to be broadly valid.

Oh, and Linux hit 5% on w3schools' numbers in November 2010, and since then has stayed basically static, hovering around 5%. The growth trend is stable from March 2003 to November 2010, then stagnation sets in.

[spstarr]

If you don't like Canonical then don't use their distribution. That's the end of it.

You make it sound like Shuttleworth took away your lollipop.

You don't get it. I DONT WANT Canonical to fsck up things for the *REST* of us!!!

[WorBlux]

Samsung is launching Tizen phones this year which run wayland. Right?

Yes should be this year, I think they aim for wayland if they aren't there already, and use the EFL libraries (which have been ported to wayland)

[Vim_User]

will he suport patches for wayland? i do not think that ALL distro will switch to wyland, especially not at the same time. hence supporting wayland would be distro specific like supporting mir would be,... or not.

Instead of asking me you should simply read what he has said, would make things much easier. He specifically states that if Mir becomes adopted by more distros than just Ubuntu that the question about supporting it can be raised again.

[shadowriver]

You don't need Carriers. Have you even conceptualised the project? Ubuntu OS will layer itself on open phones and tablets, as well as running perfectly on desktops.

Canonical will obviously like dedicated Phone Signal Carriers for the restrictive US market, but it's not imperative for their project. Anyone that unlocks their phone and accesses the coming images will be able to use Ubuntu 'Next'. Also other Nations don't have the monopoly setup America has with carriers. Other places allow you to buy a SIM from a carrier and put it in any phone that supports the tower/comms protocols.

This won't make user base, people who knows about unlocking and altering firmware is minority, Ubuntu needs to be out of the box if they actually thinking seriuesly about getting in to this market.

[Akka]

Last time i checked, everybody is entitled to develop their own opensource solution. As for kwin, i don't think canocical really cares at all if their patches don't make it mainstream.

Cheers, whiners trolls!

I don't think any Canonical employees contribute anything mayor to KDE either way. It certainly exist some kubuntu dev that contribute upstream. But I don't think any of them work for Canonical, not any more.

[Vim_User]

i like even less the people that do know even less that they seem to think that beside of that there is nothing else why to favour liunx over windows etc.

where are this selfclaimed long time linux experts that obvsiously no nothing poping up from? suddently i see dozen of them, only talking about something like free software and nothing else and talking as if they were older than 15 years.

this thread is scaring the shit out of me. if somthing will finally break linux neck, then people like you. that's more dangerous than canonicals lack of contribution which dislike too.

Exactly my opinion. The GPL has its place, of course, but sometimes other licenses are better for a specific purpose. By the way, a GPL licensed project with CLA can be as easily closed as a project with permissive license, so this argument is void here anyways.

[johnc]

You don't get it. I DONT WANT Canonical to fsck up things for the *REST* of us!!!

What they do is not going to affect you in any way if you're not using their distro.