[ Thanks to James
Maguire for this link. ]
“Reactions to Ubuntu are rarely balanced. Too often,
people love or hate it so extravagantly that the opinions negate
themselves. Often, the reactions are so extreme that a fair
assessment of the popular distribution is difficult. Add some
genuine mis-steps, and the assessment seems almost impossible.“So exactly what does Ubuntu contribute to free software? The
answer, I think, is different from what those in either extreme
seem to believe.“Looking at the praise for Ubuntu seems largely a waste of time.
Scanning through “Why do you use Ubuntu?” a page created by the
Canonical design team to gather feedback, what is likely to strike
anyone familiar with free software is how often Ubuntu is praised
for aspects of either free software as a whole, or of the default
GNOME desktop.“At times, you can’t help feeling that historical revisionism is
at work, and Ubuntu is credited for every improvement in the free
desktop in the six years of its existence.”