9 Forum messages

• Voluntering 27 January 16:36, by bcx

  You would be right if ubuntu was forcing the user to choose for something. They are not. They are merely changing a default setting.

  I’d like to turn this discussion around:
  Why isn’t debian making some pocket money on it’s default settings? Are debian developers’ principles cheating the user out of extra developer time? I’m assuming firefox in debian has a default searchengine set too.

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  • Voluntering 27 January 20:26, by Paul Johnson

    That wrongly assumes that most users of desktop environments "for the rest of us" change their defaults, ever.

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• Voluntering 27 January 16:39, by Kumar Appaiah

  Romain,

  My views are very much in line with yours, but can’t the users still switch the search engine easily themselves? Of course, if it is the fact that the default choice is made by Canonical that bothers you, I understand.

  Kumar

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• Voluntering 27 January 16:44, by glandium

  On the other hand, the reason Google is and has been the default search engine in Debian’s equivalent of Firefox is because Mozilla has a revenue sharing deal with Google.

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• Voluntering 27 January 16:56, by stefan

  You would be right, if it really was a "forcing". The user is not forced to use a particular search engine. The user is free to choose. Just as before.
  The question is: how to choose a default search engine? Is it better to go for the search engine that gives the best results? That’s not the argumentation that is used for example with drivers. If there is a proprietary driver for a hardware, it is not included in debian, even if it gives the better user experience. So no: debian is NOT putting the user first. Actually it is quite the opposite...

  So is it bad to say: this company gives us money (that we can use to develop free software / support free software development) so we use their product as a default? I don’t think so. At least it is not worse than just using any other (proprietary) default...

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• Voluntering 27 January 17:06

  I think that it is not bad if a company makes commercial agreements with other companies. I think that Canonical can do what they want as long as they respect Free Software rules (let the user choose). If it is not the best for their users... they should think to change distribution.

  I agree with you and I prefer a voluntary-driven project and freedom over good-looking and even over some features, that’s why I choose Debian.

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• Voluntering 27 January 17:52

  This about changing a the default search engine in Mozilla, from Google to Yahoo. There’s not much difference between Mozilla getting money from Google for doing one choice (it’s the case) and Ubuntu getting money from Yahoo for changing that choice.

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• Voluntering 27 January 22:24, by charonb.66

  Maybe debian may use a more free search engine, one using AGPL software if there is one. That’s what i think is closer to the debian way.
  I don’t see way using yahoo as default should force the users. For sure more people will be using yahoo, witch is good service IMHO. Also differentating searches over different service providers should be good.

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• Evidence 28 January 03:03

  Do you have any evidence about the number of Debian contributors that are volunteers and the number that are paid to work on Debian? I’m sure there are many that are paid to work on Debian.

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