Ubuntu is owned by a company and not by the community. This is the statement that a lot of Ubuntu lovers do not seem to understand. The underlined plan of Canonical is to make money, not to make a free operating system. This means that even if there is something that the community as a whole does not like doing, if it means the company will make money, guess what? The community is out of luck and will have to deal with it.
There have been a few changes in Ubuntu that the community seemed to get all up in arms about recently, that to me, makes perfect sense. One of the changes is the placement of the window buttons, moving from the right side to the left side. All that was commented about was that there is a plan for this. Yet, the community seemed to get all bent out of shape about this. Who knows what the ultimate goal of this is? Maybe there is some new button or feature that is to be placed on the upper right corner of the windows. Maybe there is supposed to be a new status button that is supposed to go there. Maybe there is supposed to be a new window tabbing feature that is going there. Maybe that tabbing feature was originally a Gnome extension that defaulted to the right side and to incorporate it, it would be easier to just move the window buttons than to recode the extension. Who knows. How about instead of bitching and complaining, just sit back and see what will happen.
Another problem that people seem to be having is how Ubuntu will support the 7digital to provide an online music store for fast and easy music purchases and downloads. The problem is not with the store, it is with the music only being made available in mp3 format. I’m sorry to burst peoples bubbles here, but Canonical does not really have a say in the matter. If you have a problem with it, take it up with 7digital. But, there was a comment made Canonical will be trying to find a way to offer better quality compression and possibly file formats at a later date.
Personally, I still say, buy the CD and rip it yourself. Odds are, if 7digital were to start offering alternate file formats, they will most likely just convert all their mp3s into ogg or flac and say “Here you go.” Which, for anyone who deals with audio, knows that is not a good way to do it. In fact, converting file formats will degrade the quality of the file over time.
The thing is, Ubuntu back in the day is not the same Ubuntu of today. When Ubuntu first started out, it was looked at as a fully community based distribution. This worked for the longest time. But then, something happened, Canonical realized that if they are dumping all of their money into it, they might as well make some money in return from it. And this means that Ubuntu is now owned by Canonical, as apposed to just financially supporting them. And with ownership means a removal of a community voice.
That is just the way it is.