Livin' La Vida Canonical Ain't Easy

Linux is free as in beer. Yeah, and speech too, but I'm concentrating on the beer right now. The same is true for Ubuntu's brand of Linux. You can download a free beer, er, I mean a free ISO image of the latest Ubuntu from the Ubuntu servers, burn that ISO, and install it on as many PCs as you want. You can then hand that CD to a friend and let them do the same. I've done this countless times over the years. I've also paid for Linux many times over the years and frankly, I don't object to doing that when I think paying a little here and there supports the companies that support and promote Linux and other free and open source software.

I especially don't mind paying when those open source companies, like Canonical, offer me (or my customers) additional services like support, online storage, music stores . . .

Yeah, you can see where this is going. I'm talking about Ubuntu One. It seems that the perfect way for me to give Canonical a monthly cheque, part of which supports Canonical and its efforts to market and develop Ubuntu, and part of which, I am hoping, makes its way back to the FOSS community in some way. In exchange for my dollars, I get however many gigabytes of online storage I'm willing to pay for.

I already pay for online storage through Amazon S3 which, coincidentally, is what Ubuntu One uses for its storage. Rather than give the money to Amazon, I could give it to Ubuntu and they could hand Amazon's share back to Amazon. I could also buy my music through Ubuntu One's music store and listen to some tunes while my data is backed up. It seems like the perfect system, except I can't do it.

Ubuntu One doesn't work particularly well if you are running Kubuntu. The music store doesn't work at all with Amarok, the multimedia player that's a part of KDE. I just don't use Banshee or Rhythmbox because my desktop runs KDE. I use GNOME aplenty on servers, just not on my desktop. Ubuntu One also doesn't yet have a native KDE client which is also mildly problematic. Finally, when I use S3, I can mount my storage on any Linux server, whether CentOS, Red Hat, OpenSUSE, or whatever, then use those mounted file systems as external drives onto which I can do unattended backups. I can't do any of that with Ubuntu One.

Seriously, dudes, I actually want to live La Vida Canonical. I am your perfect customer, ready and willing to spend my money. I'm a huge supporter of Canonical's work to promote the consumer Linux desktop. Trust me. But you've got to make it worthwhile, and you've got to make it easy.

Still, the open source community is nothing if not resourceful. But somewhere behind that Ubuntu One connection is a simple hook to S3 (or simple-ish ). It should be relatively easy for some bright developer to unearth it. Consider this a call, nay, a challenge , to that resourceful community. Find out what happens when Ubuntu One mounts its folder on your Ubuntu desktop. Then, translate that hook into something that can be mounted using s3fs. Then all of us can start living la vida Canonical if we so desire.

As for the music store, the plugin to Amarok, that would be good too. But I want the storage more.

Until next time . . .

Comments

For the record...

...I use GNOME on my servers too. Why? It's nice to have a GUI. In fact (and I'm sure I'll be vilified for saying this) I find that many of the tasks I wish to do are much more easily done via GNOME than a command line. Plus quite frankly I just like it and if I can have a well performing server and a GUI than more power to me and anyone else that wishes it. Hey I was born with eyes that like to look at things...so sue me :-)

And now back to topic...totally with you on financially supporting what you use. While it is sometimes more challenging I do buy my music through Ubuntu One whenever they have the title. And buy things from the store. And if there's a software package I find of value I like to contribute to the project. It takes a shift in mindset, but I think once that's done it makes for a sound and ethical business model.

Ubuntu One vs. DropBox

On the Ubuntu One vs. DropBox battle. -- I'm all for supporting Canonical & Ubuntu, and really do wish Ubuntu One were a little better than it seems to be. I've been using Ubuntu since 8.04 or so, and really like it. Further most software I've needed is pre-packaged for Debian/Ubuntu or Fedora so it's really one of the best for an end user like me.

All that said -- I did have trouble with Ubuntu One, and at the time it was only for linux - Ubuntu Linux at that. For me, Drop Box works better, with 2.25GB of free storage, anyway. -- I still find a need for one Windows 7 machine, and Drop Box is one way to transfer files from my Laptop to the Desktop.

GNOME on servers?

Umm, you run GNOME on servers? Why? I've never seen a server application that would require GNOME, but I'm not saying there is one. Just can't think why anyone would need that. Or just for administrative GUI? So... strange...

U1 and Ubuntu

I fully agree. U1 doesn't work very well on Ubuntu either. I really like the idea of U1, but it's unusable at the moment. So Dropbox is still my favorite.

Amarok

If I understand Canonical's position correctly, it's actually not up to them what applications can use the music store. That's up to 7digital, assuming I understand the agreement, as it's been publicized. As to Ubuntu One, I fully agree that Canonical has left Kubuntu out of the loving. Hopefully as QT becomes a more important cross platform library, Kubuntu will be given more attention.

Ubuntu One

quote::Ubuntu One doesn't work particularly well if you are running Kubuntu.::quote

It doesn't work particularly well on Ubuntu either. I had my contacts database from Evolution on Ubuntu One, with 1 laptop and 2 netbooks, one of which had a very old copy of my contacts databse. when I connected that netbook to Ubuntu One it promptly updated my contacts database to the old version, I lost all my newer contacts.

No happy Jan.

Needless to say I no longer use Ubuntu One.

The expanse of space surrounding Planet *buntu is getting busier and busier. As a result, achieving a stable orbit is particularly difficult when you're easily distracted. Consequently, Marcel Gagné's blog looks at pretty much anything and everything that orbits Planet *buntu. News, howtos, rumors, opinions, controversy, tech tips, helpful hints . . . you'll find it all here. Oh look! A shiny object!

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
        1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30