KDE's Aaron Seigo Bashes Ubuntu Phone

sfcrazy writes "KDE's Plasma Active team leader Aaron Seigo has raised some concerns around Ubuntu Phone. He says 'We can start with the obvious clue: Unity currently does not use QML at all; Ubuntu Phone is pure QML. So, no, it is not the same code, it is not the sort of seamless cross-device technology bridge that they are purporting.' He then concludes, 'If you're a Free software developer, user and/or supporter and buying into these claims, I don't know how else to put it other than this: you're being duped. Consider what supporting those who employ such tactics means for Free software.'"

Language of choice

[Anonymous Coward]

Man, if only there was a way to take code written for one display device and. what's a good word, "compile" it into a program that uses a different display device.

Pretty heavy handed

[Anonymous Coward]

He has a point (actually two: the phone isn't using the same API, and Canonical marketers implied that it was) but he seems to think that that is disqualifying for users of free software. I don't think it is.

Point it out, but just add "KDE's approach is quite different. Here's what we're doing instead..." instead of talking about ethics and such.

Re:well it worked for google

[dfghjk]

The GPL doesn't ensure that you can "actually contribute to or even see developmental android code" and Google not offering that doesn't mean that their products are a "proprietary exploitation". The problem here is a nerd's sense of entitlement.

Re:Pretty heavy handed

[dfghjk]

He said that the ethical implications of the deceit might be "disqualifying for users of free software", not the technical details themselves. Talking about "ethics and such" is certainly relevant in that context especially in a community that thinks it's so ethically-minded.

apt-get

[duckgod]

IF Canonical does this right. That is a big IF. We will have the same advantages of the linux desktop on our phones. That is the ability to install any window manager you want. No one corporation will have the power to decide what my work environment will be like. So if you don't like it what Unity is, it is 5ish magic words to get something else installed. Please I beg you Canonical just let me type "sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop".

Re:Not a problem with Ubuntu Phone

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do developers seem to pick technologies based on that they ARE NOT what the other guy uses, rather than what benefits they provide? This seems to be the hallmark of the GTK-ish community.

Pearls from the post

[suy]

Some pearls from the original conversation [google.com]. Alan Pope:

We're agile enough that we can migrate our desktop to QML if that's the decision that gets made. Unity has existed on four toolkits already, what's a fifth between friends ;)

Daniel Stone on wether Ubuntu Phone uses Wayland or not:

No idea, no-one from the project will respond even to direct questions. They've said in the past that they're writing their own window system, which is pretty tragicomic.

And the best one, the only thing that Mark Shuttleworth had to say:

As Kipling put it:

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools

The rest of the poem is pretty apt, too. My kingdom for a link.
Mark

I wish success to Ubuntu Phone, really, but it hurts me a little bit that it receives the same or more attention from the community than Plasma Active, when the later delivered the same or more (specially if you value open governance and source code from day 1), with way less resources.

Re:well it worked for google

[drinkypoo]

Read Cathedral vs Bazaar to understand just what exactly open means.

Uh, no. Not only have I read it, but he didn't invent the term open, nor for that matter open source. Nor did anyone else who claims to have done so, oddly enough.

Pot and kettle

[Dcnjoe60]

There is almost no correlation between this story headline and the actual content Aaron wrote. Among other things Aaron wrote:

I want to make it crystal clear that I think Ubuntu Phone a great thing to see; more Free software mobile efforts, particularly ones using Qt/QML, warm my insides like a good bowl of soup on a cold winter's night

So then the question becomes "Why is this false story being posted on slashdot?" Is it that the OP wants to slander KDE or Ubuntu or maybe slashdot itself? We all regularly complain about mainstream media and yellow journalism, so how come slashdot isn't doing something about this story?

Re:Mod Parent Up!

[segedunum]

Nevertheless, Aaron is pretty critical of Ubuntu Phone, and frankly, he has a point. Ubuntu is not using the common codebase they try and claim and their use of Qt and QML in their phone is pretty amusing. They've wasted large sums of time and money over the years going down many different software avenues over the years, Gnome being one (and worse, doing a great deal to hurt others in the process), only to decide years later that they really needed to create Unity and then they decide that the mast they have nailed their development colours to is not good enough for phone and mobile development.

It's the kind of thing that doesn't make me interested in any form of desktop or GUI open source development and hasn't for years. It's the same old bullshit. Pardon my French but Ubuntu either needs to either produce something worthwhile and useful that will move open source desktop and GUI usage forwards dramatically or they need to run out of Shuttleworth's cash and fuck off.

Re:Mod Parent Up!

[Jane Q. Public]

"Pardon my French but Ubuntu either needs to either produce something worthwhile and useful that will move open source desktop and GUI usage forwards dramatically or they need to run out of Shuttleworth's cash and fuck off."

But traditionally, GUI is really not a "part" of Linux at all. It is an add-on. Thus X, and Gnome, and KDE. I don't mention Unity because I don't think it's worth mentioning... I view it as a niche attempt to corner the Linux interface market, which is likely doomed to fail.

I have been using Kubuntu -- the semi-official KDE Ubuntu -- for years. I like it, it's stable, and the interface with least surprise. It does what I want, when I want, and it doesn't try to "integrate" things that do not need to be, or should not be, integrated. (Like Twitter, or Facebook, or Google Search, or whatever... big FAIL on Apple's part to put things like that in the desktop interface. Twitter and Facebook are properly separate services, and will likely be replaced by something else in a few years. Google Search already has credible competitors.)