Technology versus ideology
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| Some of the topics that have come up in the DistroWatch Weekly discussion
| forum recently is the issue of violating the GPL by some distributions and
| the question of boycotting Novell and its products due to the company's role
| in legitimising the infamous Linux patent claim by Microsoft. Some readers
| went as far as asking us to remove certain distributions from the DistroWatch
| list, while others want us take a more active role in exposing Novell's
| patent deal and its implications on the future of Linux and open source
| software. Although all these readers have valid points and we welcome the
| diversity of opinions in the forum, don't expect DistroWatch to become
| another Groklaw and to cover these topics extensively here.
|
| Why? There are several reasons. Firstly, none of us is a lawyer and none of
| us intends to become one. While we do agree that a GPL violation is a very
| serious matter indeed, just because a reader emails us alleging that a
| project does not comply with its terms and conditions, it doesn't make him
| right. Until the project is convicted in the court of law, it is innocent.
| Secondly, there are web sites that are better equipped (in terms of
| expertise) to deal with GPL violations, patent protection agreements and
| other lawyer's stuff. Groklaw has been covering these topics for several
| years, while BoycottNovell.com is another web site that continues to expose
| the Novell-Microsoft patent protection agreement. For smaller community
| projects, our friend Béranger will uncover any distribution that does not
| have a "source" directory on their FTP server. If you feel strongly about
| licence violations and patent agreements, I suggest you spend more time on
| the above-mentioned web sites and their forums.
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http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20080519#feature
Also:
Hate Ubuntu? It's normal!
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| The fact that many people dislike the top distribution is not really a
| problem. The problem is that many of these folks are extremely vocal on the
| Internet to express their opinions. While no intelligent reader will ever
| take them seriously, they do give the Linux community a bad name and
| discourage potential Linux users from joining us. Can anything be done about
| this? Not much, it seems. Until people start reading their own posts and
| realise that senseless negativity towards the most popular distribution is
| counter-productive, we will have to live with the unfortunate fact that the
| top dog will always be the most hated one too - at least in the more immature
| and destructive circles on the Internet.
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http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20080519#feature
Ubuntu isn't too harmful. Progress is made for everyone to share (it's GPL).
Weekly Newsletter #91
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| * FOSSCamp 2008 Prague
| * The Art of Release(Mark Shuttleworth)
| * Making 5-a-day happen in “Your Loco team”
| * Ubuntu Stats
| * Launchpad News
| * Ubuntu Forums News
| * In the Press & Blogosphere
| * In Other News
| * Upcoming Meetings & Events
| * Updates & Security
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http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1447
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