Canonical Watch

[Kostas]

Don't necessarily disagree with the main theme or the point you're trying to make but wasn't LightDM a Debian project?

[brosis]

Thats strange...
CLA means simply "can be turned to proprietary closed source if needed at fraction of second"
If there is a project that is developed with GPL, but requires CLA/Copyright Transfer - its not GPL at all.

Why Qt is CLA is more,less clear to me - its a toolkit, and if someone wants to use that toolkit statically linked in some car project, while paying to Dignia. I can accept it..

But why would one need to CLA everything inside distribution is big question. Only purpose is - ability to close down whole distribution or its parts without questions.
This sucks :/

[funkSTAR]

Here is a preliminary view of Canoncals future software compilation. Some might be guessing but it hugely scary to se all the CLA http://www.canonical.com/contributors and use of walled gardens from Google and Digia. Please fill in the void.

Linux/Android: Fragments upstream Linux, GPL is not respected for Android in large parts of Asia.

Android graphics drivers: Fragments the current push for open drivers on Linux

Upstart: CLA. Init and session management. Canonical gains control of kernels and apps.

LightDM: CLA. Display Manager. Canonical gains control of Apps.

Mir: CLA. Display server/protocol.

Qt: Digia CLA. Provides the ability to close up apps, use DRM and make alterations compared to any free software versions.

Unity: CLA. Desktop Interface software.

Canonical Apps: CLA.

Canonical platform services: CLA.

All these CLA components came to life for different purposes. Today it doesnt seem like coincidents, does it?