[Solar-general] [Fwd: Re: [linux-l] Linspire basado en Ubuntu]

Jue Mar 22 10:12:46 CET 2007

---------------------------- Mensaje original ----------------------------
Asunto: Re: [linux-l] Linspire basado en Ubuntu
De:     "Luis Zarrabeitia" <kyrie en uh.cu>
Fecha:  Mie, 21 de Marzo de 2007, 19:50
Para:   Soporte técnico para Software Libre y GNU/Linux.
<linux-l en listas.softwarelibre.cu>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Para los que no tengan internet, anexo el anuncio al final.

Un comentario sobre el artículo:

Gran parte de la "novedad" de la alianza ubuntu-linspire parece ser el
mecanismo de distribución de software privativo de Linspire.
Lo que hace unos meses se descartó por mucho como "eso ni siquiera fue en el
sitio oficial de ubuntu", es ahora, según el artículo, el motivo más
importante de la alianza: la promoción de software privativo.

«Woodford's comments suggest that Ubuntu is eclipsing Debian. "I think Mark
has done a masterful job of nudging the community into a more pragmatic point
of view. More and more the Debian community is becoming the Ubuntu community.
New people coming in are allowed to have diverse opinions about open source
software. The hardcore purists are sticking with Debian, but five years from
now, they may be about as plentiful as 1970s MIT hackers."»

Creo que ese comentario de Woodford dice claramente todas las objeciones que
tengo con Ubuntu. "Mark ha hecho un trabajo estupendo en mover a la comunidad
a un punto de vista más pragmático" (en eliminar los ideales del software
libre de los objetivos de la comunidad, para concentrarse en lo puramente
práctico). El resto del comentario está peor...

¿Sentirá Mark que Woodford le hizo un elogio?

El último párrafo se "siente" mejor, con Mark exhortando a Linspire que sea
compatible con Debian (se siente mejor porque eso podría significar que Mark
está interesado en que ubuntu sea compatible con debian, sólo por eso).

K.

==================================
Linspire to be based on Ubuntu

Friday February 09, 2007 (08:01 PM GMT)

By: Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier

Yesterday, Linspire and Canonical issued a joint announcement that Linspire
would begin to base its distributions on Ubuntu rather than Debian, and that
Ubuntu users would be able to use CNR to install proprietary applications and
drivers, starting with the Feisty Fawn release.

Linspire will begin basing the Linspire and Freespire distributions on Ubuntu
beginning with Freespire 2.0, which will be based on the next release of
Ubuntu, Feisty Fawn. Feisty is expected in April, and Freespire users will
start seeing preview releases based on it sometime in the first quarter of
the year, with a final release in the second quarter after the release of
Feisty.

Kevin Carmony, CEO of Linspire, says that this move is not sudden
development.
Carmony says that he met with Ubuntu founder and Canonical CEO Mark
Shuttleworth "three years ago or something" and started the process of
thinking about collaboration. In the meantime, Linspire had joined the DCC
Alliance (DCCA) (originally "Debian Common Core Alliance") and had announced
that it would base its distribution on a DCC release.

However, that never happened, and Carmony acknowledges that the DCCA is not
really relevant at this point. "It's never been formally addressed, but there
hasn't been a lot of momentum there." Carmony also says he's "more of a fan"
of letting the marketplace create standards, which Ubuntu has done, where the
DCCA failed to take off.

Linspire is just the latest distro to switch from Debian to Ubuntu, though it
may be the highest-profile distribution to do so. Ubuntu has become popular
for derivative distributions, and a number of projects that were originally
based on Debian have moved to Ubuntu. The first high-profile switch was
MEPIS, which announced a switch almost one year ago to the day.

Since MEPIS has already gone down this path, I asked MEPIS founder Warren
Woodford about his experience making the switch, and whether moving to Ubuntu
presented any drawbacks. Woodford seems pleased with the switch.

"Using Ubuntu has worked well for us, primarily due to the package pools
remaining stable and the new releases coming quickly.... There have been no
disadvantages from using Ubuntu instead of Debian, except perhaps that the
public perception in some circles seems to pigeonhole us as just a knockoff
of Ubuntu, not worth looking at, because we must be the same as Ubuntu, which
is, of course, 1,000% wrong."

Are other distros in talks with Canonical? Steve George, Canonical's director
of support and services, says that Canonical is in talks with other vendors,
and says, "I think you'll see some announcements next week about other people
using us as a platform."

Effect on Debian?

One might wonder whether this is having any adverse effect on Debian, with
Ubuntu gaining additional downstream users that (at least theoretically) may
channel energy into Ubuntu rather than Debian. I tried to get Debian Project
Leader Anthony Towns to comment on the announcement, but Towns did not reply
to requests for comment in time for this story.

Woodford's comments suggest that Ubuntu is eclipsing Debian. "I think Mark
has
done a masterful job of nudging the community into a more pragmatic point of
view. More and more the Debian community is becoming the Ubuntu community.
New people coming in are allowed to have diverse opinions about open source
software. The hardcore purists are sticking with Debian, but five years from
now, they may be about as plentiful as 1970s MIT hackers."

Carmony says that it's "hard to say" whether the trend favoring Ubuntu will
have a downside for Debian. "Even with Ubuntu, a lot of work with Ubuntu
still starts at Debian.... I think it's just a matter of where developers put
their emphasis, and now there's a lot of good work with Ubuntu. It's good for
open source and good for Linux.... No matter where that focal point is, it's
good that there's a focal point."

Shuttleworth says that there's "always been a slight tension between Debian
and its derivatives," but says that Canonical invests "a lot of time and
effort in collaboration with Debian, which many other derivatives just don't
have the resources to do.

"Of course, that interface is never friction-free, but it exists, and we
constantly work to maintain and improve it. My hope is that folks that derive
from Ubuntu will benefit from that effort, because work they do in
collaboration with us stands a reasonable chance of making it into Debian if
it is of general interest."

CNR in Ubuntu

Linspire opened up CNR last month, but Ubuntu is the first distro to announce
support for it. The CNR component will not replace Ubuntu's standard package
management utilities, but will instead be an additive component to the
distro, according to George.

Shuttleworth says that there has been demand for CNR from the Ubuntu
community. "We've watched the discussion in the Ubuntu Forums and it's clear
many people want the CNR service, so I'm thrilled that Linspire is making it
available to Ubuntu users now."

Carmony says that users will have two options. One will be to use the
customized CNR software provided by Ubuntu, and the other will be to download
a "plugin" from Linspire which will provide a "pure CNR experience." The
customized version is unlikely to be available by the Feisty release, so
users will have to start with the "pure" CNR version from Linspire.

According to Carmony, Linspire isn't paying Canonical support or engineering
fees for building Linspire and Freespire on Ubuntu. However, he says there
will be revenue sharing when Ubuntu users buy software through the CNR
Warehouse. "With CNR users can buy DVD players, CrossOver Office ... the
margin in that [sale] we share with the vendor."

Shuttleworth says that the terms are confidential. "There are some
distributions with which we do have a commercial relationship, and others
where we do not. We do work hard to be open to work with noncommercial
partners, and of course Canonical is only a small part of the overall Ubuntu
community now. Nevertheless, some distributions that derive from Ubuntu do
tap into our expertise and technology on straight commercial terms."

It will be interesting to see how beneficial the switch is for Linspire.
Woodford called the decision "a big leap of faith for Linspire."

"They have to let go of their old business mentality and go with the flow of
open source. With a Debian base, they used to repackage everything to be
incompatible with Debian. I suspect that Mark insisted that they stop doing
that. With CNR they are opening up their code, which means that anyone can
potentially use it to compete with them. That takes some cojones, or maybe
it's an act of desperation. I am not in position to say which it is."
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