What happened? The Opera web browser was added to the official Ubuntu software repositories, courtesy of an official partnership between Canonical, the Ubuntu “parent company”, and Opera Software.
I can imagine what you’re thinking: So what? Another browser is being made available. Big deal. Sure, it’s proprietary software, but nobody has to use it.
But this isn’t about software. It’s about politics. This move has important consequences. It’s an experiment that’s a strong indicator of how those responsible for Ubuntu see its future.
Let’s take a look at why Ubuntu is so popular. It came from nowhere around two years ago and today is the most popular desktop distro around. That’s impressive. It took Red Hat and SUSE years to get to a similar position in the minds and hearts of users.
Not only that but Ubuntu effortlessly achieved what other desktop distros, such as Linspire and Xandros, have been struggling to do for many years. So how did it achieve so much so fast?
It’s simple. Ubuntu embraced the values of free software. It turns out that people care about things like this after all. Ubuntu genuinely embraced the concept of open source code and universal availability, unlike some of the other desktop distros, which included proprietary software that they didn’t share.
Ubuntu also embraced that other central concept of free software: community. So much so, in fact, that Ubuntu could be accurately described as a massive collection of users who just happen to use the same Linux distribution.
What makes me smile is that the success of Ubuntu proves people care about software freedom. They believe that it’s the way forward and that proprietary software is a evolutionary dead-end.
By embracing proprietary software like Opera, Canonical has taken the first small step toward ruining everything it has achieved.
With most distros, including Ubuntu, there’s a proverbial firewall between open source and proprietary software. Every now and again some proprietary software makes the leap over the wall, such as graphics or wifi drivers, or maybe media software like RealPlayer. This is unfortunate, and most users would switch instantly to open source equivalents if they were available. But the pragmatic use of a minority of proprietary software is tolerated by most.
By introducing Opera to the official Ubuntu software repositories, Canonical is chipping away at that firewall. I don’t believe this is accidental. I think it’s deliberate. Canonical is removing a handful of individual bricks in order to make it easier for proprietary software to make the leap across. This is very dangerous.
I don’t think Canonical want to destroy the firewall. They support open source wholeheartedly. But the fact is that proprietary software must be held at arms length. It’s the dominant form of software in the world today and very nearly every software company (including hardware companies) will force proprietary software down our throats if we give them a chance. We need to give them a compelling reason to produce open source software. If they’re unwilling to accept open source values, the only compelling reason we have left is to simply refuse to use their software.
I suspect that, in the long run, Canonical have in mind a two-tier system for Ubuntu. The first tier will embrace free software and remain “pure”. The second tier will be mostly free software but will introduce proprietary software via various “partnerships”. The free software version will be made widely available while the version with proprietary software will be aimed at corporations who have specific needs. They’ll both be free of charge but the second tier will offer a way of twisting Linux into a more corporate-friendly shape and thereby landing some of those lucrative support contracts.
These are important times for Ubuntu. Ubuntu is the best hope we have for a Linux future. But it needs to be careful. Above all, it needs to remember where its success came from: by embracing OS values and playing by the rules.
Although offering Opera in the official Ubuntu software repositories is so trivial that it can almost be ignored, with this simple offering the future of Ubuntu has became a little less certain.
Jul 7, 06:21 pm
[sarcasm]I definitely agree that useful and good software should be reviled because it doesn’t have a specific license attached to it. Opera and Ubuntu should be ashamed of themselves and you should definitely stop using Ubuntu as a means of protesting.[/sarcasm]
Ubuntu is popular for a slew of reasons not limited to the completeness of its freedom. I think Mark Pilgrim puts it best when he says Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning “can’t install Debian.” The user interface (the whole shebang) makes Ubuntu attractive.
Ubuntu does a helluva lot right where other distros got it wrong: ease of use, software maintanence with minimal learning curve, and attractive defaults.
If Linux was only about the software freedom, everyone would be using Debian.
If anything, more closed source software should make its way into Ubuntu, so that commercial companies warm up to more adoption. Google Sketchup would be a good choice.