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Mark Shuttleworth clarifies: Ubuntu is "not a democracy"
As some of you may have noticed, the new Ubuntu theme for 10.4 features the window buttons on the "wrong side" (left). This has caused quite the storm in a teacup. It turns out some people feel strongly about this point, even though you apparently would be able to change it later (on a per-user basis, as a preference). This presents Mark Shuttleworth (head of Ubuntu) with an interesting situation: what do you do when some of your users are up in arms about a decision? This is open-source, after all, and it's often very "democratic" (read: "the noisiest people get what they want").
The trouble with democracy in the open-source world is that the result is often muddled and mediocre. That "happy medium" isn't all too happy after all; the companies with the gutsiest (and often, least democratic) decision-making processes are those which often take the lead. And if you're thinking Apple, you're not the only one.
So Shuttleworth took the following stand on the Ubuntu mailing list:
"We all make Ubuntu, but we do not all make all of it. In other words, we delegate well. We have a kernel team, and they make kernel decisions. You don't get to make kernel decisions unless you're in that kernel team. You can file bugs and comment, and engage, but you don't get to second-guess their decisions. We have a security team. They get to make decisions about security. You don't get to see a lot of what they see unless you're on that team. We have processes to help make sure we're doing a good job of delegation, but being an open community is not the same as saying everybody has a say in everything."
He then further added:
"No. This is not a democracy. Good feedback, good data, are welcome. But we are not voting on design decisions."
This is not all he said; you can read the rest at the original post over at Webupd8.org. The rest of it makes perfect sense to me, too. Seeing Shuttleworth take such a clear and brave stand helps me understand part of what makes Ubuntu the most popular distribution today. Kudos.
Comments
19
Subscribe to commentsJoePalmaMar 19th 2010 9:24AM
Mark should remind them he is the SABDFL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_Dictator_For_Life)
r3loadedMar 19th 2010 9:40AM
He's absolutely correct - Ubuntu is a company, not a democratic country with citizens. He should therefore makes decisions as any other company would.
DiRTMar 19th 2010 10:08AM
What a douche. Fix the fucking buttons. How hard is it to admit you were wrong?
AemonyMar 19th 2010 10:18AM
They could've at least asked what the public thought about the change. As a current alpha tester I'm all against it for two reasons.
1) I've never liked the Mac order of maximize, minimze and then close. Windows and every other Linux distros normal order of minimze, maximize and close are a lot easier to understand. It's also a lot more design friendly as it often goes from the smallest to the biggest icon.
2) Having the buttons on the left side leaves the whole right side of the window title bar empty. It looks ugly as hell and is not a very good way of utilizing the title bar since they also removed the old application icon.
Sure, you can change the icons from the left to the right side and it's pretty easy, but as soon as you try to restore the normal order of the icons (minimze, maximize, close) you are screwed. The nicely looking circle behind the buttons are hardprinted into each icon, so changing places means that the circle are now screwed and you end up with another ugly part of the interface.
Ubuntu are currently undergoing an identity crysis, but to me they fail more the harder they try to make their interface Mac-like. Apple are a great company in terms of design and function, Ubuntu are merely an ugly rip-off.
Now I'm eager to see the new Linux Mint, and their solution to Ubuntu's crisis.
BrdystylsMar 19th 2010 10:26AM
Thats the kind of thing that made me stop using Ubuntu in the first place. Go have your dictatorship. I will go find another Linux version to play with. There are only millions of them out there. Just because Ubuntu became a smash hit doesn't mean its anywhere near Windows or Mac levels of user commitment. You have a long way to go on that one. Hell most linux fans don't like using Ubuntu anymore. I wonder why.....
johnbondjoviMar 19th 2010 11:36AM
Long time ubuntu user here.
Why change for the sake of change? Ubuntu gets uglier with each release. What design team? Can we replace them?
also this:
"2) Having the buttons on the left side leaves the whole right side of the window title bar empty. It looks ugly as hell and is not a very good way of utilizing the title bar since they also removed the old application icon."
JaymoonMar 19th 2010 12:06PM
This may be a little off topic here, but until they decide to change things, I highly recommend running this handy script:
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/03/easy-gui-window-button-switcher-for.html
That will put your buttons back in the "right" place they should be.
RomeshMar 19th 2010 12:11PM
@aemony
1) Its not like there is really any logic to either ordering, its just what you're used to
2) Mac gets around this problem by putting the window title in the centre of the window, and having a button on the right to remove menu buttons from the top of the window (which would easily translate to rolling up the window with Compiz)
What gets me is that the people who make the most noise about this are the people who most likely know exactly what to do to change it back. Its not as though people who get under the hood of their distros don't heavily customise it anyway- we all modify our config files, startup scripts, fstab etc. and many people probably play with CompizConfig anyway. Is it really that much effort to change the theme to something you like better?
NoWhereManMar 19th 2010 12:21PM
I'm all for not leaving every stupid decision to a community poll, but those buttons are poor design, period.
quantaMar 19th 2010 2:18PM
This issue was never about governance and republic vs. democracy; that is a red herring.
The issue is that Canonical is making a critical design decision that flies against universally accepted GUI best practices of the past 15 years.*
If your favourite car maker suddenly decided to put the steering wheel in the back seat without a satisfactory explanation, you'd be alarmed too.
(*Note how the Close "X" button is not the leftmost button, forcing users to hunt for this crucial function and increasing the risk of accidentally pressing the Maximize button.)
ZintinioMar 19th 2010 3:03PM
This is a really easy issue to solve:
type gconf-editor in a terminal and then navigate to apps>metacity>general. Look for button_layout on the right hand pane and double click on it to edit it.
You should change it from: maximize,minimize,close:
to: menu:minimize,maximize,close
RileyMar 20th 2010 9:19PM
The whole point of refreshing the look was to increase Ubuntu's appeal, something they'd been doing in small steps since I started using it back at version 6.06. Breaking from the norm (especially for something that is not any easier or more productive) is a bad thing that only serves to create one more little roadblock to general acceptance. Yes, you can change it. You can change just about anything you want. The problem is that a lot of people probably won't know that, or even care, they'll simply dismiss it as a pain that they don't want to deal with. Those are the people that Ubuntu needs to appeal to if it wants to gain any kind of recognition beyond tech-savvy people.
ZintinioMar 21st 2010 7:39AM
I suppose that there are other distributions out there, and since ubuntu is trying for widespread appeal, we will see some changes toward simplifying linux to appeal to a broader audience. In a way it makes me sad because with a small community linux remains free of ignorant users, but then again, ubuntu has really helped spread the joy like no other distro.
SilverWaveMar 19th 2010 8:50PM
Taking A Chance On #Lucid 10.04 Beta 1 :-) [Up and running] « SilverWav's Journal #Ubuntu "Come on in the waters fine!" http://bit.ly/9oQ2Hh
I actually like it :-P
copexMar 20th 2010 8:04AM
seriously I can not belive that people are getting there knickers in a twist about 3 buttons.
the sad thing is it's not about the buttons more that it been push on the community with out consultation.
laeroMar 21st 2010 2:48PM
And this is why I dumped ubuntu, learned the basics of using a command line interface and started using arch a long time ago.
ubuntuserMar 25th 2010 4:20PM
Doesn't matter why one dumped Ubuntu. What matters is you used it once upon a time. That is why software vendors now started saying - "supported for Windows, Mac and Ubuntu". Arch wouldn't get there. Never! Branding counts!
The button issue is trivial. Nothing to get all worked up about and ditch Ubuntu, lol. But yeah, I don't get the reason behind it. It is poor design and strange if the designer refuses to explain it, and that, in the absence of a one-click choice to switch it back to "normal".
The interface has still got a long way to go. :/ But... branding counts. I have big hopes from Ubuntu. And best wishes to them for a sane dictatorship.
laeroMar 27th 2010 6:36AM
Sorry, I was a bit unclear. The reason I strayed from Ubuntu was because of a number of reason, this being one of them and others being less relevant (like performance, ease of customization etc). However, after having a look at the recent screenshots of Lucid Lynx I'm almost heading back. But then again, it we're all running Linux so it should not be hard to mimic the looks.
RimshotMay 7th 2010 1:21AM
The Linux Mint solution is to give you an option on right-click: Mac Style, Ubuntu Style, Windows Style, though honestly I'm not sure what the difference between Mac Style and Ubuntu Style will be. I love mint--they make simple modifications simpler.