Perhaps it’s just the sources I have, but it seems even the smallest decision from Ubuntu swamps Linux news. Most of the time this is a wash, but sometimes there is an interesting bit or two.
Often it’s something I don’t agree with — which if I then comment about I am taken to task by Ubuntards who regard the slightest deviation from official dogma as unacceptable — but in this case I’d like to point out a couple of bits of recent Ubuntu news that I actually like:
Ubuntu Assurance
Canonical has a Ubuntu Advantage Assurance program that will “take care of intellectual property (IP) infringement legal claims brought against customers in their use of Ubuntu”.
So long as Mark Shuttleworth sticks to his guns and recognizes Microsofts “IP claims” as “racketeering”, this program is a good thing.
It shows that Canonical is willing to put money on the line that Linux users need not worry about Microsoft’s IP FUD, and stands in stark contrast to Microsoft collaborators like Novell who strike secretive deals and then leverage Microsoft FUD against other Linux distributions.
There is a dangerous side here, because this program is only good so long as it operates without any sort of agreement with Microsoft. I expect we will see Microsoft come after this program from a couple of different angles as Canonical increases its corporate presence.
Out, damn’d F-Spot! Out, I say!
Word on the street is F-Spot is out and Shotwell is in for the next release of Ubuntu.
It’s always been obvious to me that the so-called “best-of-breed” Mono apps were anything but, and it’s nice to see that Team Apologista spin isn’t getting the job done any longer.
It’s always struck me as seventeen kinds of absurd that a simple note-taking application can justify bringing in a huge run-time framework – and the after-the-fact rationaliztion of adding more Mono apps “since we’ve already paid the price” was a PR dance worthy of Team Apologista’s Redmond Puppet Masters.
Of course, Mono infestation is not purely an Ubuntu problem – GNOME has deep shame staining its hands in this matter as well – but because Team Apologista has targeted Ubuntu so hard, it’s significant -and encouraging – to see their efforts fail.
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