this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
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I use Arch btw


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First screenshot is from here.

Second screenshot is from me updating an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS system today.

Post title is from https://web.archive.org/web/20130223104643/https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/about-ubuntu/C/about-ubuntu-name.html via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_philosophy

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[–] [email protected] 102 points 7 months ago

Okay... I don't even like Ubuntu, I'm still pissed at snaps, but I'm going to call it bullshit. OP is being at the very least disingenuous, if not worse (witch hunting).

Ubuntu Pro is a subscription system with the following features:

  • Extended security maintenance - 10 years of backported features, because enterprise hates dist-upgrade. By then human users upgraded their systems at least once, probably way more.
  • Live-patching kernel updates - because enterprise hates restart downtime. If it's your personal machine you simply reboot after installing a new kernel, no biggie.
  • "Compliance and hardening" - basically a way to ensure that a machine follows a bunch of security protocols irrelevant for human users, and exchanging usability for less surface area in a way that human users wouldn't want.

Are you noticing the pattern here? It's junk that enterprise cares about, but you don't. Canonical is milking corporations.

To make the comparison with airbag vests even worse, Pro is free for personal use, up to 5 machines. So it's more like Canonical is saying "since we know that stupid bizniz bureaucracy prevents them from regularly replacing airbag vests, we're willing to repair them for a price. For free if you're a random nobody, by the way."

And no, it does not contradict the Ubuntu principle, as your title implies.


And since I can't be arsed to rebuke this shite being cross-posted to [email protected], I'll do it here. (I apologise to the others for posting politics here.)

The airbag vest part alone would be a good example of late capitalism; the business is clearly seeking to add surplus value to the goods. And since that surplus value cannot come from paying less for the labour of the workers, it comes from the buyers/"subscribers" - transforming the goods into a service, and commodifying personal security.

Ubuntu Pro is not this, as I've shown above. But even if it worked somehow like you're implying that it does, through both threads (i.e. you don't have ubuntu pro = you don't get security updates), it would still not be an example of late stage capitalism: security updates are a service by nature, requiring additional labour to be produced, specially when you're backporting a patch to ancient software.

[–] [email protected] 67 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Memes are cool. Blatant misinformation in the form of a meme to manufacture outrage, not so much.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Down vote away, I don't care, but they really aren't though.

Pretty big difference between buying a thing that stops working if you don't have an active subscription, and using an old LTS and being given the choice of paying for extended support or the free upgrade to the new LTS

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

Pretty big difference between buying a thing that stops working if you don't have an active subscription, and using an old LTS and being given the choice of paying for extended support if you’re a corporation, signing up for a free “subscription” if you’re not, or the free upgrade to the new LTS

FTFY, it’s an even bigger difference when the extended support is free for end users.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago

I'm no fan of Ubuntu, but maintaining an LTS release and backporting security updates is actual ongoing work. Most distros don't even provide an LTS release for that reason.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Ubuntu Pro is free up to 5 machines

[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago (1 children)

My update told me as much. OP's likely did too. But it is usually a lot harder to manufacture outrage when you have a full picture and manufacturing outrage is the best way to get exposure on social media.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago
[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Wow haven't tried Ubuntu in years wtf happened

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Its universe, the community repo. Basically you can pay them to also supply you with community updates, a service. The official repos stay untouched.

People always want free software, but free ≠ free beer?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Oh that actually sounds cool haha thanks 👍

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

If you happen to be new to Linux, do yourself a favor and start on Linux Mint.

There are no snaps, you can still install pretty much everything you can with Ubuntu, the Cinnamon Desktop is nice (better than Gnome in my opinion, but then again, I haven't used Gnome that much) and you don't have to deal with ads in the terminal. Mint is the distro most people should start on.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This. Mint is one of my favourite distros and what I started with. I had tried Ubuntu, but this was the distro that made using Linux as a daily driver possible. Now I've moved on to Debian Stable. But Mint allowed me to get into Linux and get a good understanding of the basics.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Mint is the GOAT, I was a little sad to switch to PopOS, really wanted the tiling window manager. I would say either are a great start, but honestly mint was more stable

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

They even, at some point, mocked their Reddit community there.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

Those are community maintained packages in the first place. Canonical offers extended security updates (plus after the 5 year LTS EOL) for a fee, with 5 machines for free for non-commercial uses.

Very legit IMO

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Weird. Here I am sitting here with Ubuntu Pro and not paying a dime.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Isn’t Ubuntu Pro just Debian?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Meanwhile Red hat takes several weeks to patch on mission critical systems

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Meh, how's this different from RH?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

Ubuntu is completely free lol. This is only about the community repo. Like if RHEL would also support EPEL which they dont

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Meh, how’s this different from RH?

It took Canonical about four times as long (twenty years vs five) to start doing this.

Dissatisfaction with RedHat's introduction of RHN (in 2000) was arguably a significant factor contributing to Ubuntu's rapid growth when it was first released (in 2004).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I would go so far as to say it was THE key factor to Ubuntu's initial success in 2004ish.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Theres a reason this is the distro all the corpos push and include with everything. I use arch btw.