Ubuntu's new model: donate money for new features. Will it affect Trisquel?
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I just saw an article at http://www.zdnet.com/ubuntu-linux-donationware-7000005497/ about Canonical pushing a donation model so people can donate amounts of money to improvements that they feel is important. Some open source projects have this model, but with Ubuntu being one of the most used and important distributions, what does this really mean for the users and the distributions (like Trisquel) that are based on it?
Is there a fear that certain improvements may not happen or new features aren't added because someone decided to pay more for one thing? Wasn't Ubuntu supposed to be bipartisan and if this affects the future of Trisquel, would the Trisquel team move away from Ubuntu and back to Debian?
It means they can get people to donate more money, which can be used to improve Ubuntu.
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I haven't read the criticisms although it sounds from comments that the reason for this being a bad thing is it'll become a distraction from project goals. I don't think that is the case though. More money just means more developers. More developers won't necessarily get things done faster although it isn't necessarily a bad thing either.
There is just one thing that I don't agree... the page of donations instead of the download page.
This page haven't been translated, and the only way to make the download is to click on the little text on the bottom left. I already saw some students trying to install Ubuntu (using netbooks for example) and don't doing it just because they taught that you need imperatively to pay for donation, and didn't found a way to download the image (since they didn't find the button, or just don't understand English).
I think that the best solution is the download to start, and at the same time the donation page to appear. Because this can be very confusing to new people, and this same "new people" could go see away just because they don't understand what is happening.
Ubuntu should have dowloading instructions in as many languages as possible.
Debian can dynamically change the language of the content on its website to the preferred language the user has chosen in web browser. If Ubuntu can't do the same in their website for at least to the major languages, then that is total fail. Everyone does not understand English.
That's what custom software is, which rms has always talked about and the features will be also available for everyone.
In fact I consider Trisquel as a Debian which imitates Ubuntu's package category.
http://www.dyne.org/ accepts donation for new feature requests and their software is free
I can see two problems off the bat:
1.) Canonical is a corporation and not a non-profit organization. A corporation should make its income on the profit of sales of goods and services while a non-profit is exactly that... an organization that doesn't make a profit on goods and services and relies on donations. A full fledged corporation doesn't typically do donations because that is not the structure of why they became one to begin with. Plus it is not tax-deductable to donate to a corporation. A non-profit is.
2.) I can see it being confusing since on the Download page, the option to download the operating system is a smaller link to the bottom left while the option to donate is a big orange button on the lower right. I can see people getting confused who either don't know English or click on things without reading.
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1. While donation might be a bad choice of words there shouldn't be anything wrong with a business model that deviates from the norm. If that means users are asked to voluntarily contribute so be it. It certainly beats most other business models which rely on a violation of the users privacy.
2. Fair enough. It's something Canonical should work on. Sort of like the gazillion things we need to work on.
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I don´t think that ¨Pay what you think it’s worth¨ is the same as asking
for a donation. The way the page is presented induce potential users to
pay. This is a common business practice to induce customers to pay for
something in subtle way.
When an entity of any kind use this tactics v/s being crystal clear, a
red flag should be raise regarding the final objective of that entity.
Compare that to the way Trisquel suggest a donation.
I´m just concern regarding possible repercussions to the Gnu/Linux
community if Ubuntu eventually chose a path that would only aim to make
a profit.
Hmm, in my opinion they have always been on that path. It is just a long road before they can succeed in it. It is to be seen will they ever.
(And in my opinion it would be very good if they would succeed.)
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The problem is that is the goal of business. The only problem here is this could be bad design or an effort to deceive less able users into contributing.
I don't think there is any issue with pressuring people to make a contribution. Intentional deception on the other hand should probably be shy'd away from.
Nobody ever said Ubuntu or Canonical was out to develop the distribution without profit. If they were it would be setup as a non-profit project the way Debian is.
There might be other ways to do this in a less deceptive manor. For instance maybe it would be better to make users jump through a few hoops before getting to the download page and then only offering torrents should the user not want to contribute. A 30-60 second delay before the torrent appears is probably reasonable. The goal is not to prevent people from downloading Ubuntu or to turn it proprietary. The goal is simply to encourage users to contribute back without introducing a significant burden for those who can't, are unable, or otherwise prefer not to pay (such as for privacy reasons or simply have already contributed).
I don't like the way Zorin does it although this is another distribution that I think has the right idea. They charge for a premium version. I don't think they should be shipping non-free software although a more forceful approach that does not push users away is a good idea.
Sounds a little like “Hey Megan, it's your father. How do I print out a flowchart?”. And anyway, it's not Trisquel's problem.
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