Matthew's essay is quite good and I appreciate someone staying on this topic, as while I've written about it quite frequently in the past, I haven't had time lately and I'm glad to see Matthew picking up the slack. :)
Frankly, I think we see Canonical, Ltd. doing a lot of things in desperation in the last 12 months. That's not a good sign for them, and the developers I've seen leaving in exodus gives me the impression that it's no longer a good place to work for developers. I suspect we just don't need to worry about what Canonical, Ltd. is doing anymore. I've generally just been ignoring them.
RMS' "selling exceptions", Harmony, et al.
Matthew's essay is quite good and I appreciate someone staying on this topic, as while I've written about it quite frequently in the past, I haven't had time lately and I'm glad to see Matthew picking up the slack. :)
My previous blog posts on this topic might be of interest here. I discussed how there are subtleties between selling exceptions and what Canonical, Ltd. does, I sent an open letter to Shuttleworth which he ignored. As for Project Harmony itself, I've written a rather long piece about its problems. I've recently communiated with the person who has taken over the work, and it's clear that she has no intention of addressing the problems I raised, BTW. The write up I did of my and Micahel Meeks' debate with Shuttleworth at Desktop Summit 2011 on this topic might also be of interest.
Frankly, I think we see Canonical, Ltd. doing a lot of things in desperation in the last 12 months. That's not a good sign for them, and the developers I've seen leaving in exodus gives me the impression that it's no longer a good place to work for developers. I suspect we just don't need to worry about what Canonical, Ltd. is doing anymore. I've generally just been ignoring them.