Re: Ubuntu have done it again,
I think RMS has done exactly what needed doing. Ubuntu is trying to find a way to generate revenue and RMS raises some perfectly points about why he disagrees. He is exactly the right guy to speak out about it because it is in line with his "brand image". Kind of like shock-jock, Howard Stern, part of RMS's lovable style is his crumudgeonly and passionate outspoken statements. He likes to be at the center of controversy and that works for him. Like Stern, even when you hate on him you are talking about him and that only makes him bigger.
Debian's positive aspects, on the other hand, are more about openness, stability, longevity and a consistency of purpose. We have enough trouble with our screaming bad-boy "flame-on" image. Nothing about the feature that Canonical built violates the Debian Free Software Guidelines. If people find it convenient and useful to install a system that converts local disk searches into e-commerce queries then that is totally A-OK. Its a "free country". If you don't care for the idea then you should do the same thing as RMS and write a blog entry about how bad you think it is. Maybe it will change people's minds or maybe people will think you are wrong. That is the way opinions work.
I don't see that it is productive for the Debian project itself to make an official statement. Complying with the tenets of Free Software while, simultaneously, trying to make your payroll is a hard problem. Plenty of other partners (ie. Google) do similar things with proprietary builds of Free Software projects (ie. Chromium). I don't think, as a project, we know the answers to these questions in a comprehensive way. It is a work in process.
----- "Svante Signell" wrote:
> this time installing surveillance code.
> http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/12/07/1527225/rms-speaks-out-against-ubuntu
> http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/ubuntu-spyware-what-to-do
> Any reason Debian should be so closely linked to Ubuntu?
--
Ean Schuessler, CTO
ean@brainfood.com
214-720-0700 x 315
Brainfood, Inc.
http://www.brainfood.com
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