Free Software Linux

I can't help noticing the number of Asus EEE PCs around now, it is strange to think that twelve months ago these weren't really about and there was still discussion of when will be the "year of the Linux desktop". Of course, events took a different turn, and suddenly the desktop didn't seem so important anymore.

…to my wallet... Wandering for the net today, I had the luck/misfortune to follow a Google advertising link about some Ubuntu certification courses. The ad recited something like “Ubuntu Certification Corse for only 3100€ !”. Holy crap, I really had to click.

Rarely does one find the proprietor of a company that is closely connected to any kind of software getting on mailing lists to try to correct public perceptions of his product. In that respect, Mark Shuttleworth stands apart from all his peers.

The site claims to be "Exploring the reality behind exclusionary deals with Microsoft and their subtle (yet severe) implications".

The keyword is "Reality". Unfortunately, there is not a lot of reality or even any facts behind Boycott Novell's articles, which seem to come several times daily. Let me explain:

"There is nothing new in what is being done with the netbook remix. It is not an edition of Ubuntu. It is not even a real "finished product"[...]There is no intentions to put proprietary codecs into standard Ubuntu - that would be against our stated principles."

The Canonical OEM team has been approached by a number of OEM’s who want to sell netbooks (small, low-cost laptops with an emphasis on the web) based on Ubuntu. Almost universally, they’ve asked for standard Ubuntu packages and updates, with an app launcher that’s more suited to new users and has the feeling of a “device” more than a PC.

The mobile version of Ubuntu appears to be passing money to Microsoft, which has an effect on redistribution rights as well

The mobile version of Ubuntu appears to be passing money to Microsoft, which has an effect on redistribution rights as well

Lately, there has been a lot of noise about Ubuntu’s Netbook Remix. In an unrelated (and definitely lucky) interview with The Guardian, Mark Shuttleworth hinted that Canonical were about to announce a version of Ubuntu for a new class of devices created by accident by Asus with the EeePc (talk about corporate luck…). Th buzz about this was monumental. But… what is Ubuntu Netbook Remix?

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The controversial Affero general public license could get an unexpected boost from Ubuntu developer Canonical. Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical's chief executive, has said AGPL is "a strong candidate" for the eventual open source release of Launchpad, Canonical's developer collaboration tool.

The public perception of open source software is changing fast, said Mark Shuttleworth, who leads distribution of the Ubuntu operating system (OS).
A new version of Ubuntu, a version of the Linux OS, is released on Thursday.

Recently, on another site, someone suggested that the development and marketing of Ubuntu was done by paid staff of Canonical. Having been actively involved in the Arizona Team for 8 months I would like to say that I really doubt that the suggestion can be taken seriously by anyone who knows a little about Ubuntu.

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Red Hat has just released some remarkable results for the first US quarter. In a couple of years, it might find such achievements a mite harder to come by if the views of those who participated in a survey about open source recently are valid.

Last week, Canonical, the commercial face of the Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution, announced that it would be using its Partners repository to sell proprietary applications like Parallels Workstation. You can see the reasoning: Ubuntu's Debian technology already has the infrastructure for on-demand downloads and software installation, so why not monetize it?

It appears that Canonical and the Kubuntu team have decided that, due to the delayed release of KDE 4, the upcoming release of Kubuntu, 8.04, will not be a long term support (LTS) release, as it would usually be.