I 've been doing some Ubuntu-related reading, and I have to say my faith is shaken. I have been a user of Ubuntu for many versions now, my main point being that the defaults were just right for me, so I could just start using my system post-installation. It's those defaults that are now changing in bulk.
- Banshee Amazon Store disabled in Ubuntu 11.04 by Canonical (deprecated)
- Canonical calls original proposal a "mistake" and overrides Banshee team's decision
- Banshee developer's Gabriel Burt's blog
- A smart cash flow diagram
- Canonical slips their own Affiliate ID in Firefox also?
I suppose there are two ways to see this. On one hand, Canonical is for-profit and needs to make money, on the other hand, Banshee has been donating to GNOME some close to $10000 yearly (but we don't know how does 25% of the Ubuntu crowd compare to 100% of the rest), which in turn benefited Ubuntu because it was using GNOME. So I assume that Canonical has calculated that they will profit more by directly obtaining 75% of Amazon sales through Banshee, than by a better GNOME, and what with Ubuntu's turn a bit away from GNOME in the coming releases, should they care?
This will take me some more time to absorb. I 'll be as reluctant (read inert) in changing my main setup as anyone who uses computers 16h/day would be.