[sf-lug] Ubuntu 18.04 to have 10 (or 5) yr support span

[aaronco36]

Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com> wrote at [1]:
> Thanks Aaron!
>
> The clarification will be recieved I am sure with resignation by
> the majority of Ubuntu users.

Or some of the non-corporate Ubuntu end-users that Shuttleworth isn't at 
all targeting will go and switch distros maybe?


Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote at [2]:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ quoting ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Canonical not only specified a selection of licence that was peculiar on
its face in the context of the intended markets (including embedded) but
also attempted to pull the same proprietary-advantage trick they've
tried with several other projects:  They accept third-party code
contributions only with assignment of copyright ownership over the
contributed code.  This was, as it was in all the other examples of
this ploy, deceptively termed a 'Contributor License Agreement'.  No,
Mr. Shuttleworth, as you are well aware, that isn't a licence grant, but
rather a signover of ownership.

And there's only one real underlying reason for requiring such a
signover:  Canonical wants to have the freedom to issue other code
instances, including third-party open source contributions, under other
terms entirely, such as proprietary ones for money.  So:  It's open
source for thee, but not for me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Good filling-in of that background.

I'm also a bit concerned about some of the more popular *non*-Canonical 
Ubuntu-based distros, such as Linux Mint[3], ElementaryOS[4], ZorinOS[5], 
and LinuxLiteOS[6].

Do Rick M, Michael P and any others of you know of easy ways that 
Canonical might very well pull the plug on the Ubuntu community's support 
for the repositories, software, ...etc they share between these 
Ubuntu-based distros once (or even before) that five-year support ends?? 
E.g., putting up some sort of "paywall" or raising patent covenants 
between Canonical Inc and these distros' use of the Universe and 
Multiverse repos as listed in [7] ??
Since Ubuntu and all its child distros are also based on Debian 
[GNU/]Linux, I can't imagine how Canonical all by itself could ever thwart 
the Ubuntu-derivatives' use of Debian [GNU/]Linux's own repositories 
[8][9].

I've myself installed and recommended over the last half-dozen years or so 
Linux Mint[3] for absolute n00Bs as well as for those who want a very 
solid alternative to other distros and to MS-Windows 7,8,10.
Would very much dislike seeing Mint's technical development and user 
community-support fade away while that five year timespan gets 
leveraged-away by Shuttleworth :-\

Further thoughts on all this?

-A


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References
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[1]http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2018q4/013537.html
[2]http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2018q4/013535.html
[3]https://linuxmint.com/
[4]https://elementary.io/
[5]https://zorinos.com/
[6]https://www.linuxliteos.com/
[7]https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories
[8]https://wiki.debian.org/DebianRepository
[9]https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList
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aaronco36 at sdf.org