Ubuntu, the firm and its employees

This post is not meant to be offensive in any way. I would just like to write down things that came to my mind recently.

It all started when I was considering applying for the right to upload the package I maintain into Ubuntu. Looking at the procedure, I realized that this needs to be present during an IRC meeting at a given date online.

This stopped me immediately. I am working most of my day-time and, given the time zone I am living now, this was not an option. But, since I had registered to the corresponding mailing list, I started receiving mails of other applicants that where trying to arrange things with their work and private life to be able to participate.

Now, today, I stumbled upon these notes of Mark’s presentation in Bruxelles, relayed by a friend that is not either working for Ubuntu. Reading it gave me a strong taste of management-oriented presentation, with all this sort of "yeah we want our product in every box next year" propaganda. Not like Steve Ballmer, fortunately, but not far perhaps.

So, yeah, there is something that makes me uncomfortable with Ubuntu. I am really happy by its success and I will continue to recommend it to friends around me.

However, I wonder if, in a way, Ubuntu is not a model of commercial company where a minimal core of developers are actually payed, while a second layer of developers are fan-boys that are willing to participate as if there were employees but without being actually payed, and a third layer being the open-source developers whose work is actually what makes 90% of the core of the OS.

A very good illustration is at the end of the note from Mark’s presentation. It reads:

Somebody asks about advertising Ubuntu, looks like there are no plans for the moment to actually advertise Ubuntu across traditional media. Mark uses the Ubuntu Manual as an example of how Ubuntu gets advertised and will reach the mainstream, Mark points out myself and the room applauds the Ubuntu Manual Project! Woohoo!

Now, guess what:

About Us

We are a group of individuals trying to promote the use of Ubuntu and its variants. This is a private web site that is not connected in any official or financial way with Ubuntu, Canonical PL or Ubuntu.com. Official Ubuntu guides and downloads are freely available at www.ubuntu.com. Ubuntu is a registered trademark of Canonical PL

Source: http://ubuntumanual.org/about-us