The-Source.com

Out of the whole amusing Ubuntu-only Stack Exchange mess, I found one comment that I especially enjoyed:

I’m sad that the Ubuntu separatists have chosen this. However, I see it as there own loss. They do not have the benefit of the experience of non-Ubuntu users. I myself have helped Ubuntu-ers in the past to do very manual things, that solved there problems. They didn’t know how, or where to look because Ubuntu has not the documentation nor the community for these things.

This decision scares me as it set precedence that the other ‘fork-ers’ will be justified in destroying any unified question sites. Instead of SO we will likely see proposals for $language start to succeed. There also already more $distro proposals.

I’m disappointed that this was even left up to the community to decide, TBH, but such is ‘democracy’.

Ubuntu Separatists. Now there is a colorful term!

On a lark, I decided to check out the Ubuntu-only Stack Exchange. Here from the front page at the time I checked it, some of the questions that are most definitely Ubuntu-only:

• Alternative Desktop Managers
• bashrc or bash_profile?
• Which app can I use for easily annotating pictures, screenshots?
• What’s the Bitwise Tunnlier equivalent for Ubuntu?
• How can I find out if a process is CPU, Memory or Disk-bound?
• Automatically change resolution when connecting an external monitor, nvidia driver
• Linux Alternative to Photoshop or Paint.NET
• How do I modify my PATH so that the changes are available in every Terminal session
• change directory (cd) but by replacing a part of the path only
• What precautions should I take when exposing my Ubuntu desktop directly to the internet?

and so on and so forth.

The overwhelmingly vast majority of the questions have nothing at all to do with anything at all Ubuntu-specific.

What’s amazing (to me at least) is that if you stroll over to the “generic” Unix and Linux Stack Exchange you might see questions like:

• Which steps I have to follow to configure Ubuntu server with mac and windows workstations?
• Ubuntu remap script for UK Logitech Cordless Wave Keyboard
• How to fix Choppy Video Playback in Ubuntu?
• How can I make ubuntu UI uniformly use bash keyboard shortcuts?
• Ubuntu – How do you free up resources?

Shameful. What is the purpose of specifically demanding your own separate and personalized site and then garbaging up the more inclusive site with Ubuntu-specific questions? It strikes me as tone-deaf, arrogant and just plain rude in its sense of entitlement.

I don’t understand the Ubuntu fanboi mentality to place Ubuntu apart from the underlying ecosystem that makes it possible. I’m not sure if Canonical encourages this behavior by downplaying how much they borrow (roughly 99%) and up-playing how much they create (roughly 1%) in an Ubuntu distribution, or if it is a side effect of the over-hyped rah-rah “OMG EVERYTHING TO DO WITH UBUNTU IS SO FREAKING AWESOME” cheerleading that permeates Ubuntu-land? 

I’m not sure how you can set up Ubuntu as a good community member while at the same time demand that other people drink from a different water fountain, but I guess we are going to see it attempted.