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Ubuntu is not distancing themselves from anyone, least of all Open Source. Everything they are doing is open, and I'd argue in the spirit of the Linux community

Ubuntu is not distancing themselves from anyone, least of all Open Source. Everything they are doing is open, and I'd argue in the spirit of the Linux community, as well (experiment, scratch your own it, prove your idea by building it, etc.) I may not agree with all their technical & business decisions, but I do love that they are willing to experiment on the "big things" and provide a little competition in the space. That said, their arguments against Wayland were way off. Which was a very big mistake. Though I tend to attribute that to not understanding Wayland well rather than malice.

pyre 13y ago
| That said, their arguments against Wayland were | way off. Which was a very big mistake. Though I | tend to attribute that to not understanding Wayland | well rather than malice. I don't necessarily think that it was malice (you can bad-mouth someone without malice), but it raises a lot of questions. - Why was Ubuntu so misinformed? Why didn't they discuss things with the Wayland devs? - Why haven't they admitted their mistake in their reasons[1]? - Why is Ubuntu still going forward with Mir? Why not just use Wayland if the 'shortcomings' of Wayland that drove them to create Mir don't exist? [1] Maybe they have, but I haven't come across it.
- csense 13y ago
  > Why is Ubuntu still going forward with Mir? Why not just use Wayland if the 'shortcomings' of Wayland that drove them to create Mir don't exist? Maybe the switching cost of moving to Wayland outweighs the remaining cost of completing Mir. Whatever the reason, I'm not complaining about the result, since I actually think it's healthy for multiple competitors to exist in the same space, especially for something as widely used as a windowing system: (1) They can cross-pollinate ideas (2) Competition puts pressure on sub-par projects to innovate. Regarding (2), IMHO it's much easier for your project to innovate when a competitor who's on your radar pulls ahead in mindshare or market share gives you the kick in the pants you need when you're merely starting down the road to stagnation. If you're a near-monopoly on your market niche (post-X FOSS windowing systems in this case), you can get completely ossified and not realize it until everyone leaves as soon as your monopoly disappears due to new competitors (funded by the fraction of your own dissatisfied customers who have deep pockets) -- a position which is much more difficult to recover from.

pyre 13y ago

| That said, their arguments against Wayland were | way off. Which was a very big mistake. Though I | tend to attribute that to not understanding Wayland | well rather than malice. I don't necessarily think that it was malice (you can bad-mouth someone without malice), but it raises a lot of questions. - Why was Ubuntu so misinformed? Why didn't they discuss things with the Wayland devs? - Why haven't they admitted their mistake in their reasons[1]? - Why is Ubuntu still going forward with Mir? Why not just use Wayland if the 'shortcomings' of Wayland that drove them to create Mir don't exist? [1] Maybe they have, but I haven't come across it.

csense 13y ago
> Why is Ubuntu still going forward with Mir? Why not just use Wayland if the 'shortcomings' of Wayland that drove them to create Mir don't exist? Maybe the switching cost of moving to Wayland outweighs the remaining cost of completing Mir. Whatever the reason, I'm not complaining about the result, since I actually think it's healthy for multiple competitors to exist in the same space, especially for something as widely used as a windowing system: (1) They can cross-pollinate ideas (2) Competition puts pressure on sub-par projects to innovate. Regarding (2), IMHO it's much easier for your project to innovate when a competitor who's on your radar pulls ahead in mindshare or market share gives you the kick in the pants you need when you're merely starting down the road to stagnation. If you're a near-monopoly on your market niche (post-X FOSS windowing systems in this case), you can get completely ossified and not realize it until everyone leaves as soon as your monopoly disappears due to new competitors (funded by the fraction of your own dissatisfied customers who have deep pockets) -- a position which is much more difficult to recover from.