Bruce Byfield on 'Ubuntu's real contribution to free software'
One of my favorite tech writers, Bruce Byfield, puts the whole "Is Ubuntu doing the right thing" debate into fine perspective in his Datamation article, Ubuntu's real contribution to free software.
He points out that Ubuntu isn't Red Hat, and that while the latter contributes to desktop development despite not having much of a dog in that fight (commercially speaking), Ubuntu is really pushing for more desktop users and a better desktop experience. And in his mind (mine too), that most definitely counts for something:
... if my memories are correct, Ubuntu can claim a long string of firsts on the desktop. I believe that it was first major distribution to place the menu at the top left, where the eye falls on it first, instead of imitating Windows and placing it on the bottom left. Ubuntu was certainly the first to make tools for switching to multiple keyboards part of the standard installation -- or to add the fonts needed to use different layouts.More recently, Ubuntu has incorporated more detailed help into the shell and into desktop applications. It has also introduced tools for managing software sources and updates as well as (in a triumph of pragmatism over ideology) restricted drivers. Once you start tallying, the list of Ubuntu's innovations quickly becomes a long one.
Just as important, behind these practical improvement has been Shuttleworth's constant discussions of interfaces and usability. You might think that Shuttleworth's challenge a couple of years ago to equal or outstrip Apple tinged was by jingoism or that his enthusiasm for Ubuntu's latest color scheme makes too much out of too little -- and, at times, I would have to agree with you.
Yet the point is that, by talking about usability and interfaces, then backing up the talk with concrete options, Shuttleworth and Ubuntu have made the free software community aware of these issues in a way that it had not been before.
Byfield acknowledges and at times details Ubuntu and SABDFL Mark Shuttleworth's missteps, which are regretful but not enough to blot out the rest of what the distribution is doing for the cause of spreading free, open-source software to new, non-fanboy users.
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>and a better desktop experience
Oh please stop.
Every main distro is striving for a better desktop experience, dont make it sound like they are doing something unique.
Better desktop experience?
You mean thats NOT what KDE and GNome devs are doing as well?
Thats their very reason for existing. That's what they all strive for even though it is a thoroughly subjective experience. If I like KDE over Gnome it doesnt make it a better experience, just one that is more confortable for you (I hate all default settings).
The example given is exactly what Im talking about.
THey put the menu on the left... WOW... Innovation!!!!
And the biggest problem users have had with GNOME's 'we know what you like better than you know'.
Its as pointless to decide that top left is better for everyone as it is to go into a toilet seat up vs down debate.
And totally idiotic to claim that top left is mmmmmmmmmmmuch better than the other.
Its a question of taste and opinion and I will spare you the traditional "we all have opinions and we all have....." analogy.
Problem with Buntu is there is a lot of Apple like BS involved in its promotion and people get caught up in the "Ubuntu really cares more about users than distro Y." That's hype.
Get caught up in it and you lose credibility unless you can prove the statement 'Bob cares more than Brian'.
Take two top distros with the same DE and tell me how different they really are (wallpapers, icons,etc are meaningless). You may like the polish and decorations more on one but its basically the same thing. If you ask a non-Linux user, theyll just laugh at you and tell you its the same (I know it happned to me a lot whn I was giving out Live CD).
Your big choice when choosing a Linux distro is the desktop environment, the rest is like deciding which colour you want your car and if the seat are leather or material.
Byfield is an average writer, good sometimes, cowardly at others to say the truth.
This one is mediocre as most and slightly fanboish.
Im surprised he didnt swoon about Mark's limpid blue eyes being a reason for the distro popularity.
I dont appreciate mindless hype, whether its Apple or its clone, Ubuntu.
DearBrands