Re: Why Ubuntu is different, was: Minutes of an Ubuntu-Debian discussion that happened at Debconf

[Ian Jackson <iwj@ubuntu.com>]

Ottavio Caruso writes ("Why Ubuntu is different, was: Minutes of an Ubuntu-Debian discussion that happened at Debconf"):
> --- Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org> wrote:
> > We all have to acknowledge that Ubuntu is different from other
> > derivatives by the success
> 
> and by the fact it's not binary compatible!

This is an important technical distinction but surely you don't mean
to say that it's not a legitimate choice for Canonical and Ubuntu to
make ?

You might well argue that it's a bad idea but it seems to me that the
whole point of Free Software is exactly that people who receive it are
free to go and implement what we think are bad ideas.  Freedom to do
only as the upstreams wish is no freedom at all.

We in Debian regularly exercise this freedom, by making changes to the
software we ship that our upstreams disagree with (sometimes
vehemently).  But, we vigorously assert our right to do so just as we
acknowledge the right of the upstream to tell everyone we're making a
mistake.

Ian.

(Debian developer and Canonical employee; both my hats approve
 of my sentiments above or I wouldn't post them.  I won't participate
 in the aspects of the discussion where I have what seems to me a
 conflict of interest.)