

Ubuntu's bug #1 - lucb1e
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1

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pablasso
"A majority of the PCs for sale should include only free software."

Looks like this ticket will remain opened for quite a long time.

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derefr
I don't know--a _personal_ computer, these days--a computer designed to only
be used by one person, to only have one account and to be completely
personalized to their use--is not a desktop, notebook, or tablet; it's a
phone. And the majority of phones run Android. I think we're already there.

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saurik
Android itself is "open", not "free"; the result is that the users of Android
--hardware manufacturers, not the end customer--have the right to restrict the
rights of others to modify that software and benefit from its openness, a
right which many vendors take advantage of: Android is thereby not an example
of "free software" (with the exception of the Linux kernel it bundles, which
sadly doesn't provide users much benefit in this specific context as, in
addition to supporting opaque binary blobs in drivers, it continues to use
GPL2, which failed to protect against the threat of hardware manufactures
designing locked bootloaders).

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newishuser
To me the biggest threat to computing freedom is no longer your operating
system vendor but "the cloud". Most people are just giving their data away to
companies that can do whatever they want with it including delete it forever
when they go out of business.

I'm not trying to dust off my foil hat or anything, but the OS war is almost
over, it's the "who own's your data" war now. And I mean OWNS your data.

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Camillo
Is that why Ubuntu is pivoting into a tablet OS? So they can finally close
that bug? ;)

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daliusd
Well they are moving to everything. Their idea that eventually you will be
able to use your phone as your work computer. Go to the office, put your phone
to docking station (that has monitor and keyboard) and work.

See first image here: <http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android> or here
<http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android/features-and-specs>

I can see how that might help close this bug.

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StavrosK
That wouldn't be too bad, actually... All my desktop has over my phone that
matters for (web) development is a faster drive (SSD), other than that I just
need a dev VM somewhere.

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Magenta
"Our work is driven by a belief that software should be free and accessible to
all." We can um and ah about what free and accessible means, but Mark
Shuttleworth continues to push the goodwill of the community, testing where
its breaking point might lie (see the new secret features development system,
and Amazon ads/spyware built into Ubuntu 12.10). Hence, this "Bug #1" is just
empty posturing that attempts to ride on the rapidly evaporating goodwill of
the community.

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noahl
I may not agree with all of the decisions Shuttleworth makes, but this is
unfair. The "secret development process" is completely normal - people work on
features for a while, but don't make them public until they're really good so
that other people will be excited. What he's doing is offering to let other
people into his secret process before he normally would.

Similarly, although it's true that Ubuntu by default sends your searches to
Canonical, which then anonymizes them and sends them on to Amazon, it's also
true that you can turn this off whenever you want. And that you have the
ability to send your searches anywhere _else_ you want, including your
personally-owned index of products. And that Canonical has clearly stated that
the Amazon lens is an _example_ of a much larger class of things that they
want to enable via the dash. So yes, sending all of your searches over the
network by default is bad for privacy, but that doesn't make Ubuntu less free.

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tonetheman
Ha pretty sure the last version of Ubuntu put them back quite a bit on that
bug.

Maybe it was a typo, they really meant to say Ubuntu has a majority share of
linux installs, we really need to reduce that.

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ooorrr
Bug #1 in the Xbox database: Playstation is not dead yet.

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shmerl
Nah, their first bug is - gaming on PC is still alive and kicking.

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banachtarski
Can Ubuntu even be considered free anymore? I thought it started bundling ads
and stuff in the desktop experience.

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newishuser
Yes, it's still open source. Freedom is more about liberty than cost.

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apetresc
I think this bug will have to be closed pretty soon -- OS X will probably have
the majority in a few years :)

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nfm
It's been 9 years since the bug was reported - how much have the stats changed
since then?

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sourcefrog
There are 1780 comments on the bug.

And as <http://pad.lv/1000000> observes, "For every bug on Launchpad, 67 iPads
are sold."

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curiousdannii
Apple have always managed to get good contracts with schools -- almost all the
computers in my primary school were Apples.

It doesn't feel right that tax payer money should go to a company which
charges $110AUD for 16GB of disk space.

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chris_wot
The way that Ubuntu is going, I suspect that this bug is going to be flagged
as WONTFIX.

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QuantumGuy
No Ubuntu's #1 bug right now is it is incredibly buggy. I kidd you not every
five minutes I get a system error. I am running a machine from last year and
everything. It has become a horrible OS and it sold out.

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hawkw
Bug number one being the amount of bugs seems somewhat...recursive. Also, "I
only used it when it was still indie"?

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QuantumGuy
It is recursive but currently that is my #1 problem with it. I know I am not
alone in that either. Back then yeah Ubuntu was awesome but if this keeps up
then even less people will adopt it. Canonical needs to get it together.

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shmerl
Shouldn't this bug have a dependency on bug #0 - existence of Windows tax?

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zwieback
seems almost quaint now

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hawkw
Cute.

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recoiledsnake
I fail to see how a world with iPads and Chromebooks replacing the traditional
PC is any better. Instead of the unhealthy fixation on Microsoft,
concentrating on user and developer freedoms regardless of vendor is better.

~~~
runn1ng
The year was 2004. Windows Vista and iPhone were 3 years away, iPod mini was 1
year away.

Also, Chromebook is not that bad, is it? Chrome OS is almost fully free (I am
not sure about the details and the difference between Chromium OS and Chrome
OS though). Much better than Windows XP back then.

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wmf
Your data is less free under Chrome OS than under Windows XP.

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AnthonyMouse
Your data is less free on someone else's disk than on your own disk. That's
really what you're getting at. But that isn't OS-dependent. You can just as
well manage to Facebook yourself all up using Windows. Meanwhile you can use
Chrome OS to access network services on your own personal server and not use
any cloud vendor at all.

What you're really complaining about is the lack of good, easy to use personal
servers, which makes the unavailability of client-local storage encourage you
to be dependent on cloud vendors. But that's a separate issue from an OS that
somewhat sensibly discourages you from keeping important and possibly
sensitive files on a non-redundant portable device which is easily damaged or
stolen and has no automatic backups.

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ljd
I think I have a tough time as both a software developer and a consumer
getting behind "the world should be built on free software."

I will gladly pay for the best fit for me, it's how resources are transacted
in an economy. You pay for the things that are valuable to you, and you should
pay at the rate at which they are valuable.

Why should software be singled out as free? I agree that I benefit from open
source and I try to contribute when I can but it still stands that I don't
mind paying for a lot of software that is classified as open source.

Every time I read about open source software, I always feel like I'm missing
some piece of the puzzle.

~~~
yk
To paraphrase: It is free as in freedom not as in beer.

The point is, that if you buy a car, then you are allowed to drive it anywhere
and anyhow you want. ( Within legal limits, but the thought that Mercedes
would preclude you from driving north of 38° N is simply ridiculous.) You may
even paint it in a new color or install a new engine. By contrast if you
license software it is not clear what you are allowed to do with it. Are you
allowed to use it in a nuclear power plant? ( Java is excluding itself from
such an environment.) Or are you allowed to modify the software, after
commercial support did run out. So free software is first of all software
which is licensed to you in a closer analogy to the rights you get by buying a
car.

With this in mind, there is a interesting side effect of free software, namely
that you are allowed to sell it just as you are allowed to sell your car. But
unlike cars you also have the means of production for software, which means
that all it takes for free software to be free as in beer is one guy who is
willing to give copies of his copy away for free. ( This is of course exactly
the same as with commercial software, the difference is, that free software
realizes that abundance is a feature.)

So if you are willing to pay for software and you find that free software
suits your needs, perhaps after trying the software, then you should consider
a donation for the developers of that software or for the FSF.

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quasque
I don't think the car analogy works well in this case, as both the acts of
manufacturing and driving the vehicle have numerous laws and regulations -
making it more akin to a software license agreement than not.

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pekk
Once I, as a consumer, have purchased a car, I do not care about the
regulations on manufacturing. It is my car. I can repaint it. I can remove the
logos. I can mess with the engine.

Yes, there are emissions regs in many states. But these are not simply
dictated by the vendor of the car, to make me keep buying the car, or paying
extra each time I want to drive into a new state. There is at least some
reasonable justification (if cell phones belched smoke, they'd be regulated
the same way).

