p2pnet - rss feed: Microsoft? No thanks, says Ubuntu
p2pnet.net news:- Media speculation of a dangerous liaison between Microsoft and Ubuntu should be ignored, says Mark Shuttleworth.
“Canonical’s mission is to realise the potential of free software in the lives of individuals and organisations,” says the company behind Ubuntu, the community developed Linux-based operating system.
And, “Ubuntu will always be free of charge, including enterprise releases and security updates,”promises the Ubuntu site.
But with Linspire as the most recent Linux company to jump into bed with Microsoft, it’s been speculated that Ubuntu was heading in the same direction, raising the question that if that happens, how long would Ubunto stay free?
But it says Canonical’s Shuttleworth, no worries.
Although the idea of a hook-up with Microsoft has been “thoroughly and elegantly debunked in the blogosphere,” the damage was done, blogs Shuttleworth.
To set things straight, “let me state my position, and I think this is also roughly the position of Canonical and the Ubuntu Community Council though I haven’t caucused with the CC on this specifically,” he blogs, to wit:
We have declined to discuss any agreement with Microsoft under the threat of unspecified patent infringements.
Allegations of ‘infringement of unspecified patents’ carry no weight whatsoever. We don’t think they have any legal merit, and they are no incentive for us to work with Microsoft on any of the wonderful things we could do together. A promise by Microsoft not to sue for infringement of unspecified patents has no value at all and is not worth paying for.
It does not protect users from the real risk of a patent suit from a pure-IP-holder (Microsoft itself is regularly found to violate such patents and regularly settles such suits). People who pay protection money for that promise are likely living in a false sense of security.
Shuttleworth says he welcomes the stated commitment to interoperability between Linux and the Windows world from Bill and the Boyz, and that he believes Ubuntu will benefit, “from any investment made in that regard by Microsoft and its new partners, as that code will no doubt be free software and will no doubt be included in Ubuntu”.
But when it comes to open standards on document formats, “I have no confidence in Microsoft’s OpenXML specification to deliver a vibrant, competitive and healthy market of multiple implementations,” Shuttleworth declares, continuing:
I don’t believe that the specifications are good enough, nor that Microsoft will hold itself to the specification when it does not suit the company to do so. There is currently one implementation of the specification, and as far as I’m aware, Microsoft hasn’t even certified that their own Office12 completely implements OpenXML, or that OpenXML completely defines Office12’s behavior. The Open Document Format (ODF) specification is a much better, much cleaner and widely implemented specification that is already a global standard. I would invite Microsoft to participate in the OASIS Open Document Format working group, and to ensure that the existing import and export filters for Office12 to Open Document Format are improved and available as a standard option. Microsoft is already, I think, a member of OASIS. This would be a far more constructive open standard approach than OpenXML, which is merely a vague codification of current practice by one vendor.
But h sayss he has no objections to, “working with Microsoft in ways that further the cause of free software, and I don’t rule out any collaboration with them, in the event that they adopt a position of constructive engagement with the free software community”.
It’s not useful to characterize any company as “intrinsically evil for all time,” but, “I don’t believe that the intent of the current round of agreements is supportive of free software, and in fact I don’t think it’s particularly in Microsoft’s interests to pursue this agenda either,” says Shuttleweorth, adding:
My goal is to carry free software forward as far as I can, and then to help others take the baton to carry it further. At Canonical, we believe that we can be successful and also make a huge contribution to that goal. In the Ubuntu community, we believe that the freedom in free software is what’s powerful, not the openness of the code. Our role is not to be the ideologues -in-chief of the movement, our role is to deliver the benefits of that freedom to the widest possible audience. We recognize the value in “good now to get perfect later” (today we require free apps, tomorrow free drivers too, and someday free firmware to be part of the default Ubuntu configuration) we always act in support of the goals of the free software community as we perceive them. All the deals announced so far strike me as “trinkets in exchange for air kisses.
Mua mua. No thanks.
Stay tuned
Also See:
jump into bed - Microsoft signs up Linspire, June 14, 2007
blogs - No negotiations with Microsoft in progress, June 16, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php | | And use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site
Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
