Has Ubuntu Linux Lost Its Luster?

Linux on the desktop "still has lower numbers than the margin for error, yet does the community ever ask itself, 'What are we doing wrong, and what is the other guy doing right?'" asked Slashdot blogger hairyfeet. "NO! Instead it must all be an 'M$ conspiracy,' and if people would just 'embrace the power of CLI' -- which I swear I had a Linux guy actually say to me like it is the force or something -- why then things would be all hearts and roses."With its focus on usability, Canonical's Ubuntu is held up by many as the best Linux distribution of all time, and its Distrowatch rankings tend to reinforce that belief. Not only is the distro currently the most frequently downloaded from that site, but all the many ground-shaking changes it has announced promise to keep it exciting well into the future.

For those of us who love Ubuntu, then, it was both distressing and perplexing to read Bruce Byfield's recent blog post entitled, "Ubuntu: Where Did the Love Go?"

Growing concerns and criticisms about Ubuntu's relationship with the open source community at large are Byfield's focus, and he comes up with a variety of possible reasons. Chief among them, however, is "the gap between the expectations created by Ubuntu and Canonical in their early days and their increasing tendency to focus on commercial concerns," he writes.

"Instead of being the model corporate member of the community that it first appeared, today Ubuntu/Canonical increasingly seems concerned with its own interests rather than those of FOSS as a whole," Byfield explains. "No doubt there are sound business reasons for the change, but many interpret it as proof of hypocrisy."
'Ubuntu's Made Some Dumb Choices'

More than 50 comments quickly appeared on Datamation, where Byfield's column was first published, and it wasn't long before the Slashdot crowds got wind of the topic as well -- to the tune of some 760 or so comments more.

"Ubuntu's made some dumb choices recently in GUI layout and package selection," wrote GameboyRMH on Slashdot, for example. "Not huge issues, but they are PITA issues and that's what's caused a lot of Ubuntu hate.

"Also over the years people have been getting increasingly pissed off at the fact that Ubuntu is a bleeding-edge distro and updates tend to break stuff," GameboyRMH added. "Because of these issues a lot of people have been switching to Debian."

On the other hand: "If people don't like Ubuntu they don't have to use it," noted shellbeach. "There's a billion and one distros out there, catering for any whim or fancy in the world ... and if not, you can always roll your own. If Ubuntu changes enough to be unpopular with end users, then some other distro will catch on and we'll all be praising that one."
'There Was Never Any Love'

While geeks were busy offering more such thoughts on the matter across the Linux blogs, iTWire's Sam Varghese was moved to publish a post with his own take. Its title? None other than the provocative "Ubuntu: There Was Never Any Love to Start with."

"People who write about FOSS are often prone to see the whole phenomenon through misty eyes, and portray the people involved as do-gooders first and foremost," Varghese opined. "This is patently untrue -- every open source project has been begun by someone who wanted to scratch his or her own itch; that it helps others is just collateral."

More comments ensued from there until it became difficult to find discussions of any other topics going on in the Linux blogosphere. Linux Girl donned her best fire-retardant cape and set out to learn more.
'The Real Face of Ubuntu'

"Ubuntu has only itself to blame," asserted Barbara Hudson, a blogger on Slashdot who goes by "Tom" on the site.

"Look at the heavy-handed attempt to get developers to sync their release cycles with Ubuntu's -- this goes against the 'it will be released when it's ready' philosophy of most open-source projects, including the linux kernel," Hudson pointed out. "This was a marketing-driven demand that got what it deserved: a total rebuff."

Despite the fact that it's been around for more than six years, "Ubuntu simply doesn't look like it has a clear vision of what it wants to be when it grows up, or a path to profitability," she added.

Regarding the Unity netbook interface, for example, "jumping into the shrinking netbook market with both feet is one way to be a tiny fish in a small pond," Hudson asserted.

Bad decisions "driven by short-sighted marketing," in other words, are "the real face of Ubuntu," Hudson concluded.
'Canonical Has Done More'

Slashdot blogger hairyfeet saw it differently.

"This shows just another reason why the best thing Canonical could do is to just fork the whole thing away from the 'community' and go off on their own," hairyfeet told Linux Girl. "I mean, here you have the community having a fit about Canonical and them not sharing upstream, yet this simple fact is upstream doesn't want to go where Canonical is leading!"

Linux on the desktop "still has lower numbers than the margin for error, yet does the community ever ask itself, 'What are we doing wrong, and what is the other guy doing right?'" hairyfeet asked. "NO! Instead it must all be an 'M$ conspiracy,' and if people would just 'embrace the power of CLI' -- which I swear I had a Linux guy actually say to me like it is the force or something -- why then things would be all hearts and roses."

That, however, "is a lie, and Canonical and Shuttleworth KNOW this, which is why they are trying to create the first 'Linux for humans' instead of Linux for CS nerds," hairyfeet added. "Canonical has done more to make Linux accessible to the masses than has EVER happened before."
'It Just Doesn't Matter'

Perhaps the most philosophical musings, however, came from consultant and Slashdot blogger Gerhard Mack.

"In the end it just doesn't matter," Mack told Linux Girl.

"Ubuntu has had a large effect on the FOSS ecosystem and many usability changes have moved upstream, where all of the other Linux distros now have access to them," Mack explained. "If Ubuntu pushes things too far in ways that their customers don't want, there will be another distro to take their place."

Roll of Distant Thunder Ushers In New MacBook Pros

Apple has released a new line of MacBook Pros with faster processors, sharper webcams and a new I/O technology called "Thunderbolt," based on Intel's Light Peak. It facilitates super-fast data transfers -- up to 10Gbps. While a few Thunderbolt-ready accessories are in the works, it may be some time before the technology is truly ubiquitous.Optimize software licensing, boost cyber security. Click for white paper & demo.

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) on Thursday announced four new MacBook Pros with next-generation processors and graphics; high-speed Thunderbolt input/output technology; and new FaceTime HD cameras.

MacBook Pros
Apple's 13-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros

These run on the latest dual- and quad-core Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Core processors and are claimed to be up to twice as fast as their predecessors.

Thunderbolt is a technology Apple codeveloped with Intel, which calls it "Light Peak."

Apple also released the developer preview of Mac OS X Lion Thursday. This includes features from the iPad's iOS operating system.

The initial reception for the new MacBook Pros may not have been as warm as Apple expected.

"I can't see anything that's really that revolutionary except maybe Thunderbolt," Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat, told MacNewsWorld. "The newest version of their operating system is really the most interesting thing," he added.

"Thunderbolt will handle multiple DisplayPorts, and that's big news for analysts who need to look at lots of data at once," Carl Howe, director of anywhere consumer research at the Yankee Group, told MacNewsWorld.

Apple did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
Reading the MacBook Pro Specs

There are three new MacBook Pros, with screen sizes of 13, 15 and 17 inches.

The 13-inch version features either a dual-core Intel Core i5 or i7 processor with a speed of up to 2.7 GHz. It also has an Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor.

The 15- and 17-inch models have quad-core Intel Core i7 processors rated at up to 2.3 GHz. Apple's spreading the love with graphics processors, using the AMD (NYSE: AMD) Radeon HD graphics processors with up to 1GB of video memory in these larger MacBook Pros.

"More cores are good for battery life," Howe stated.

All three models of the new MacBook Pros will include a built-in FaceTime HD camera with triple the resolution of the previous generation of the camera, Apple said. This allows HD video calling between all new MacBook Pro models. It supports standard resolution video calls to other Intel-based Macs, the iPhone 4 and the current-generation iPod touch.

However, Apple didn't state whether it was referring to the GSM version of the iPhone 4, offered by AT&T (NYSE: T); the CDMA version, which is from Verizon Wireless; or both.

All three MacBook Pros will have aluminum unibody enclosures, glass multitouch trackpads, LED backlit widescreen displays, illuminated full-size keyboards, and batteries offering 7 hours of life between charges, depending on how the laptops are used.

Pricing for the 13-inch MacBook Pro will begin at US$1,200. The 15-inch MacBook Pro will start at $1,800 and the 17-inch version at $2,200.

Optional add-ons include faster quad-processors, additional hard drive capacity, solid-state storage up to 512GB, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, and 'antiglare and high-resolution displays, Apple said.
Releasing the Thunderbolt

The new MacBook Pros also include Thunderbolt I/O technology codeveloped by Apple and Intel.

This features two bidirectional channels with transfer speeds at up to 10Gbps (gigabits per second) each.

Thunderbolt uses two protocols -- PCI Express for data transfer and DisplayPort for displays. It is compatible with existing DisplayPort displays and adapters, Intel said. All Thunderbolt technology devices share a common connector and let users daisy-chain up to six peripherals with electrical or optical cables.

Thunderbolt delivers PCI Express directly to external high-performance peripherals such as RAID arrays. It can support FireWire and USB consumer devices and gigabit-speed Ethernet networks through adapters, Apple stated.

"The storage guys would be happy; imagine what NAS [network-attached storage] guys could do with data transfer speeds like this," In-Stat's McGregor remarked. "But this applies more to corporate than consumer solutions."

Thunderbolt technology requires an Intel controller chip and a small connector for mobile devices that will be included in products supporting the technology. The controller chip provides protocol switching capabilities to support PCI Express and DisplayPort over a single cable.

Avid, Blackmagic, LaCie, Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) and Apogee are among the companies that have either announced products based on Thunderbolt technology or plan to support the technology in future devices, Intel stated.
Is Thunderbolt Ready for Prime Time?

Intel hasn't quite lived up to its promise of making Thunderbolt an optical technology. At the Consumer Electronics Show, held in Las Vegas January, Intel executive David Perlmutter said that the initial builds will be based on copper.

Copper's good enough for the majority of user needs today, Perlmutter said.

However, copper wires limit the speed and range of data transmission.

"Intel's whole thing with Light Peak is to enable optical interconnections, because you get over lots of limitations in terms of speed and distance imposed by copper," In-Stat's McGregor pointed out.

However, connectivity is going to be a problem for some time, McGregor warned.

"Nobody has external PCI Express ports on their PCs, or any peripherals that will connect to Light Peak," McGregor said. "How long is it going to be before your PC and TV and your peripherals support Light Peak? It might be years."

Although Intel's Perlmutter struck a conciliatory note when talking about Light Peak at CES -- he said it could coexist with USB 3.0 and run USB, display and networking protocols on top of it -- Apple took a more combative stance.

Thunderbolt technology is expected to be widely adopted as a new standard for high-performance I/O, Apple said when announcing the new line of MacBook Pros.

Intel did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Coming Down on the Windows Era

"Being the largest OEM of PCs on the planet and pushing GNU/Linux -- albeit a distro shrouded in non-free layers -- HP can put the last nail in the coffin of M$'s monopoly," predicted blogger Robert Pogson. "Their product will not only be competitive with that other OS, but iOS/MacOS and Android/Linux as well."

If the human brain can be compared to a search engine, it seems fair to say that most of us tend to scan the news each day for search terms and phrases that support our existing point of view.

That, indeed, could explain why a recent post over at the Linux Foundation has drawn so much attention on the Linux blogs.

"HP to Put Linux in Printers and PCs: It's the End of an Era for Windows" was the title of Executive Director Jim Zemlin's post, and it was that last bit -- "end of an era for Windows" -- that fairly leapt off the virtual page for Linux Girl.
'That Has Got to Hurt'
"HP announced that it is going to ship WebOS not only in phones, tablets and printers, but in PCs as well," Zemlin wrote. "In doing so, the world's largest PC supplier is indicating that they are going to ship PCs without Windows.

"For Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) -- who was nowhere at this event -- that has got to hurt," Zemlin added. "Perhaps this really IS the year of the Linux desktop."

Now, Linux Girl is in no hurry to get into another "year of" debate -- her bruises are still healing from the last one. But the idea of the Windows era coming to a close was an irresistibly intriguing one. She strapped on her snowshoes and headed down to the blogosphere's Broken Windows Lounge to learn more.
'Weaker and Weaker'

"It is one more indicator -- after Linux-based netbooks, Android-based phones, etc. -- that the end of the era is upon us," agreed Chris Travers, a Slashdot blogger who works on the LedgerSMB project.

Of course, "some of these sorts of things have not been sufficiently successful in the past, and so I remain a little skeptical that HP (NYSE: HPQ) will be able to bring WebOS to the mainstream," Travers added. "However, even if they fail, it will be one step closer to the fall of Microsoft's market power in this important market."

In fact, "Microsoft's monopoly is starting to look weaker and weaker," Travers opined. "The era will not end with a grand announcement or even a product release. It will be a slow process, but in the end, it is happening."
'Those 2 Million Windows Viruses'

Similarly, "Microsoft would like people to believe this is just the end of the beginning, but it really is the beginning of the end," concurred Barbara Hudson, a blogger on Slashdot who goes by "Tom" on the site. "HP sells a LOT of computers, and HP making a linux-based WebOS available on everything from smartphones to tablets to desktops is going to give it some decent 'shelf space.'"

It's significant that none of HP's new devices will run Microsoft Office, "the 'One True Cash Cow,'" Hudson pointed out. "And while Microsoft makes a big advertising Increase sales with VerticalResponse. Free trial. push about 'to the cloud,' this same net-centric model removes the need for MS Office compatibility, or even Windows, making WebOS a viable product."

Meanwhile, given the way Android is "crushing the competition" in the smartphone arena, "there's no reason to believe that tablets won't be a repeat," Hudson concluded. "And with WebOS, HP is going to be able to tell both businesses and consumers, 'You can have the same OS on all your devices.' The only difference is that OS will no longer be Windows."

On second thought, she added, "there is another big difference: even ordinary computer users who don't want to shell out for a Mac can ignore those 2 million Windows viruses."
'HP Will Try and Fail'

Slashdot blogger hairyfeet -- a self-proclaimed Windows fan -- saw it differently.

"The end of an era? No, it's not -- where has this guy been, under a rock?" hairyfeet began. "HP has ALWAYS been heavy into the workstation niche, and workstations require Linux support, end of story.

"It would be like announcing the end of an era because a company put out Linux drivers for their new server line. Duh!" hairyfeet exclaimed.

"The only way I see HP making a difference is if they put out one hell of a piece of kit at a crazy, Dell-like, barely-able-to-make-a-profit price point, and I just don't see that happening," he added.

In the mobile arena, then, "my prediction is that, like in the past, MSFT will pull a 'me too!' and lower the price of Windows, and the fact that OEMs can buy WinPhone but not iOS will give MSFT share by default," hairyfeet concluded. "HP will try and fail, and no rules will burn Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Android in a year, maybe less."
'An Era That Never Really Began'

That point of view, however, was far from unanimous.

"How do you end an era that never really began?" consultant and Slashdot blogger Gerhard Mack asked. "Microsoft has never been all that good at PDAs or smartphones, and the only 'embedded' they were good at were places where you could put a PC in a funny case for a single task application."

HP's move, meanwhile, "is much bigger than Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) dipping its toes in the lake of GNU/Linux," blogger Robert Pogson opined. "With the investment of huge sums, manpower and vision, HP will make a difference."
'The Last Nail in the Coffin'

In fact, "being the largest OEM of PCs on the planet and pushing GNU/Linux -- albeit a distro shrouded in non-free layers -- HP can put the last nail in the coffin of M$'s monopoly," Pogson predicted. "Their product will not only be competitive with that other OS, but iOS/MacOS and Android/Linux as well.

"Competition is good, and this will make every participant in IT make choices and best efforts to give us what we deserve: IT that works for us, not against us," he explained.

Pogson's only reservations are that "HP appears not to be open with development, and they do not provide low-cost IT," he told Linux Girl. "I hope they do open the platform, and I hope they have the vision to make this technology available to all. That will maximize their return in the long run."

Meanwhile, the move "clearly sets the bar high for Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), M$ and GNU/Linux or Android/Linux," Pogson observed. "With this much competition, choice will be everywhere and monopoly will be ended within a year or so."