snip Even in arguments around copyright law (like this recently concluded debate... http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4882364 http://news.ycombinator.com/ite

snip Even in arguments around copyright law (like this recently concluded debate... http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4882364 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4882364) the general consensus seems to flow around comments such as "... was not trying to reignite the Great Internet Copyright Argument for the millionth time, and instead was making a point about what was politically actionable today" On similar lines, why not acknowledge the reality of running a viable, commercial venture around FOSS by tapping viable revenue models? A few others have written some very good points that I really enjoyed reading. Here they are (in no particular order of preference): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4887261 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4887261 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4887132 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4887132 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4887365 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4887365 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4887294 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4887294 (I really hope that comment was rhetorical rather than being literal) that makes the point of why the situation is much more nuanced for someone like Canonical. And if Linux adoption has to succeed big time, we need the Canonicals and Mints (with their warts and all) that give the general public a viable alternative. Mandriva Linux was facing bankruptcy a few years ago, if I am not mistaken. EDIT: For the opt-in vs opt-out discussions: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4864783 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4864783 The difference is that - for a chunk of people - this functionality isn't crap. It's actually useful. It's out of the way for people who don't care. It's there for people who do. I've seen folk go "that's so cool" when the amazon stuff came up. This stuff is much closer to the adds folk get in Google search. It's often relevant to what they're doing at the time. (anecdata, sure. happens to match mine ;-) )