51 replies to this topic

[+Mephistopheles]

Ubuntu chief isn't interested in 'leet' users, wants to bring Linux to the masses

The past few months in Ubuntu's development have been highly transformative — it's gone from a well-loved Linux distribution to a multi-platform OS with ambitions to challenge the likes of Apple and Google — but not everyone's been happy about it. Canonical founder and CEO Mark Shuttleworth, the person with the greatest influence on the Ubuntu project, has taken to his personal blog to respond to some of the concerns arising from the changes, and while he addresses most of them with sensitivity and diplomacy, he leaves no doubt about his feelings for those who consider Linux an "elite" operating system that's "supposed to be hard.

"I simply have zero interest in the crowd who wants to be different. Leet. ‘Linux is supposed to be hard so it’s exclusive’ is just the dumbest thing that a smart person could say. People being people, there are of course smart people who hold that view."

Mark explains that the rationale behind decisions like focusing on the Unity interface and prioritising mobile and cloud applications of Ubuntu is one of simply trying to address the biggest possible audience. Describing the present moment as "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he goes on to say that Canonical has to exercise greater leadership if it wants to see Ubuntu become as cohesive and coherent as its proprietary competitors. Ubuntu, in his mind, is the only viable chance for free software to reach the hallowed stage of wide mainstream adoption — a goal he's unwilling to compromise on for the sake of a small group of elitist users who'd prefer to keep Linux exclusive.

Source: The Verge
Link: Mark Shuttleworth's blog post

[neufuse]

# su root
# pgrep -u MarkShuttleworth
# ps -fp $(pgrep -u MarkShuttleworth)
# killall -KILL -u MarkShuttleworth
# userdel -r MarkShuttleworth

[sanctified]

neufuse, on 08 March 2013 - 13:44, said:

# su root
# pgrep -u MarkShuttleworth
# ps -fp $(pgrep -u MarkShuttleworth)
# killall -KILL -u MarkShuttleworth
# userdel -r MarkShuttleworth

Unfortunately this is the mentality of Linux users. Linux users look down on the masses. They want Linux to stay as an inaccessible, only for the elite OS, for nothing else but bragging rights.

Fortunately, there are visionaries like Shuttleworth or the Elementary OS team that could take Linux to the next usability level.

[Xerino]

Well, the "Leet" will always have Gentoo.... must compile, must compile, must compile...

[LaP]

Looks like the guy as an head on his shoulder and knows where he is heading.

[Tyler R.]

Ubuntu is a gateway distro. It's meant to teach a newbie the tricks of the trade. If he can make using Ubuntu easier, and make Linux a better OS, I'm all for it. I'm now at the point where I feel comfortable using the terminal, and Linux in general because of (K)Ubuntu.

[thartist]

neufuse, on 08 March 2013 - 13:44, said:

# su root
# pgrep -u MarkShuttleworth
# ps -fp $(pgrep -u MarkShuttleworth)
# killall -KILL -u MarkShuttleworth
# userdel -r MarkShuttleworth

Joke or not, this is exactly the problem. At least ONE dude out there is thinking about digging Linux up its ass and bringing it to the masses.

For the traditional way of thinking you have pretty much the whole rest of Linux universe, and you know what the results have been so far. You want Linux to grow beyond 2%? Ok, you have an audience to cater.

Linux should thanks this guy, whether you support him or not.

[Kreuger]

He's not looking down on the leet users because he's an elitest. On the contrary, he wants to bring Ubuntu to the masses even more than the team has thus far. He doesn't wanna concern himself with those who wanna keep Ubuntu to themselves.

[sanctified]

Kreuger, on 08 March 2013 - 17:21, said:

He's not looking down on the leet users because he's an elitest.

No one is saying that.

[+exotoxic]

Sounds good, as long as it stays free and without forced advertisements or anything like that.

Anyone that wants an "elite" version of Linux can just use another variant.

[Techno_Funky]

I have a old PC it had a PATA HDD which had bad sectors. Since PATA HDD's are extinct, I tried installing windows on a SATA HDD I had but the motherboard doesnt support a SATA HDD for booting.
Now this hardware was not as bad as throwing it away, thot of installing Ubuntu on it.

Installed Ubuntu, Its over 4 months and have never looked back.

Now imagine all the people who dont have the resources to go buy the latest PC out there, wouldnt they be happy to know that there is linux in such an scenario.

[+McKay]

Mephistopheles, on 08 March 2013 - 13:39, said:

‘Linux is supposed to be hard so it’s exclusive’

I had more than my fair share of that attitude when I tried Ubuntu for a little bit and ran into issues. I would ask for help and mostly found that attitude.

[margrave]

He makes sense, as long as it stays free.

[.Neo]

The crowd that wants things to be difficult and complex for the sake of being difficult and complex so they can feel "professional" should be ignored.

[Jason Stillion]

Fanatical Apple Fans, and Linux Fans are very similar and give the produce a bad / negative impression.

Not everyone falls in to the "fanatical" user, it's just a small percent of the user base.

Make Linux for the masses is not a bad thing at all, and something Ubuntu has been doing all along.
Before that, Corel Linux (http://en.wikipedia....iki/Corel_Linux) started to do this, and started to pick up steam, until Microsoft gave them a bunch of money, and they stopped developing it.