Ubuntu Narwhal just a creature with a horn attached?

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="369" caption="Designed by Committee"][/caption]

Frankly the introduction of the misnamed Unity into the mainstream Ubuntu distro default desktop is yet another distraction from productivity. "Are my buttons on the right, no they on the left side" issue which results from the well-known duck-billed platpus school of design, yep, the Narwhal is also one of nature's creatures which looks like it got designed by a commitee. Instead of tackling some of the basic infrastructure problems that affect Ubuntu Linux in several important desktop areas, (see below) the community appears to be caught up with the need to present desktop eye candy that does absolutely nothing for productivity.

In the process we lose the desktop while gaining what is essentially yet another widget shell interface. Superstructure sheen, superficial glitz. Totally unnessary in terms of development IMHO. Hopefully Gnome will get its act together and we will all figure out a way to keep Classic Gnome on our desktops instead of having Unity foisted on us, replacing the default Ubuntu-Desktop session with the next upgrade.

Surely it is a question of choice? Will there be freedom in our package-kit, or will update-manager simply kill our default ubuntu-sessions, forcing us to use the NextStep-centric dock?

I was looking forward to Wayland, since at least there is the possibility of near perfect resolution,  but this is unlikely to be included in Narwhal or the near future, so there really is not much progress happening in Ubuntu apart from the  introduction of an alternative to the Gnome Shell which we already have. Mind you, since we can already install Unity, are we going to see the rise of Unity variants? Vote for freedom, Unity really needs to be an optional extra, like Gnome Shell. Something we can install or remove at leisure, otherwise, I'm afraid, Ubuntu Linux is going to be replaced by Linux Mint as people's distro of choice, at least having a peppermint flavoured varient isn't all that bad, you can simply change appearance.

Here are some of my current Ubuntu gripes

basic desktop networking

Try configuring Samba, a piece of software that is so huge and complicated it deserves to have a distro all of its own. The NFS kernel server may not be any easier, but at least it works.

desktop audio and video production

While the lack of any killer apps in this department hasn't stopped Linux fans from coming up with their own, Jack is seriously old. It is one of my pet infrastructure hates, relying on an applications that is not actually supported by the distro in order to open any one of the many Linux audio tools.

drag 'n drop extensibility

Try dragging files from one application to the next. Or pasting an audio clip into your favourite email programme. Do we still have to think about this one?

productive media folders

Over the past few distros, we've seen the addition of one or two extra  folders in the default home folder. I would have thought making home folders more media friendly would have been a focus, but no, we still have to install tools like Gloobus previews. Media folders like Music and Video have absolutely no intelligence other than the fact they are folders to which some apps like Banshee may relate, then again, why bulk up with Banshee, a relative whale of a programme.

In short, stop tackling superstructure, because what we really need is integrated infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure,infrastructure, infrastructure,infrastructure, infrastructure,infrastructure, infrastructure,infrastructure, infrastructure,infrastructure, infrastructure,infrastructure, infrastructure,infrastructure, infrastructure integrated...............,

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Unnecessary addition of unicorn horn?"][/caption]

Nifty Narwhal

This strange creature, one of the oddest choices by far, is beginning to grow on me. Here is a cool pick of the mascot for the next version of Ubuntu

[caption id="attachment_2359" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Unicorn of the Sea"][/caption]

Is Ubuntu doing the DRM tango?

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EARLY signs that Ubuntu is slouching inextricably towards a form of digital rights management for paid-apps can be seen in a number of announcements in the blogosphere. First it was the dumping of Aptitude in Maverick. Next we heard about the impending death of Synaptic in Narwhal. Suspicions that we are all being herded quietly down the Digital Rights Management  (DRM) path began to surface, when the first paid-for-app appeared in the Software Center along with Canonical statements about how our lives  are literally going to be transformed  "congregating around the Software Center" as the only bone fide and sane means of installing applications in Ubuntu.

Put aside the upbeat marketing pitch about happy users and profit-making developers overjoyed that Ubuntu is "finally coming round" to economic sense, there is every reason to worry about the new economic model being touted in Ubuntu and Linux in general. Will the new Linux capitalism end the overtly socialist ambitions of Ubuntu?

LinApps, a paid Linux application site was launched recently. It  generated a lot of interest amongst users as "sign that Linux is capable of making money" but offers nothing more innovative than the Microsoft Model of Commerce.  Sadly there is a general antipathy towards several evolutionary new economic models based upon freedom and openness --  voluntary economic models such as flattr and the mutual benefit "ransom model" which frees applications to the community but only after a profit threshold has been reached, risk being superseded by blatant caveman capitalism.

That's right, the default Genghis Khan approach to life in which civilisation is nothing more than a walled garden built to keep the rest of the Mongol horde out and your wallet firmly under dynastic control.

If developers start bolting down every piece of code to the new Siren Song of Ubuntu Software Center, we could all  end up losing a lot more than our unique community. So what if it boils down to paying the rent,  in the process allowing a few greedy developers to make  real money extorting funds in return for their wares tailored to the next generation?  Locking us in to the Software Center will invariably kill the medulla oblongata of the system. Synaptic (and apt-get) is surely the pathway to the brain which gives our distro its unique edge?

The generation which put in all the effort to build Ubuntu (That's US)  would also feel dumped without any compensation for their labours except a platform that turns, as easily from freedom into a prison. The rebranding of Ubuntu in corporate shades of naartjie and aubergine may have signaled a cultural shift from the heydays of the Ubuntu revolution, but there are still those who cling to the lofty aspirations contained in the FSF, GPL and the Open Source Definition.

Unfortunately, Ubuntu Users are increasingly being seen by Canonical as mere consumers. The Novell-lead corporate-client relationship vs  Ubuntu TECH  (I am because you are) is what appears to be driving the next DRM wave, as Matt Asay's 'economics before innovation' impacts on decisions about what goes into the distro and what stays out.

Does it have to be this way? I  am an Ubuntu nut not because of Matt Asay or Mark Shuttleworth, but rather because the metaphor is greater than any one individual.  Nelson Mandela's Principle Number 1 drives momentum in my moral universe, not allegiance to the self-proclaimed "Master of the Universe" and his minions. As an anarchist & hacktivist I much prefer the economics of voluntary aid -- true African Ubuntu as a system of mutual cooperative organisation compared to outright Western-style capitalism.

Think about it,  micro-payment systems like Flattr, though still in beta, could provide the entire community with enormous opportunities,  a better means of generating income than the outright ransoming of applications which invariably create a police state in which some users will be turned into criminals merely for looking under the hood. DRM is the exact opposite of  file-sharing, copying and tinkering.

The so-called Ransom Model (which needs to be compared to the actual ransom model inherent to capitalism)  is another means of circulating economic energy. Essentially a sponsor-paid application system, the development of new applications could get sponsored or auctioned under code escrow instead of marketed and sold. Do we really want to become nothing more than consumers? Are we not all Ubunturistas, each producing according to his or her ability?

What will the new paid-for-apps cost us in the long run?

Will we sacrifice human rights alongside FOSS merely so that a few may earn a living?

Let us rather debate the issues  to come up with better economic models, ones that are based upon Ubuntu and Community, rather than Patent Law, Intellectual Property and even the Rights of the Individual vs the Rights of the Collective.