ubutnu's efforts to improve linux desktop ??

[Matthew Flaschen]

Loïc Martin wrote:
> licensing have nothing to do with them (launchpad could be licensed 
> under GPL , even though I assume launchpad isn't, and still since 
> Canonical isn't *distributing* it they wouldn't have to show the code).

It's not a question of having to.  It's a question of wanting to.  If
they don't distribute that code under a free license (and in fact don't
at all), it locks people into Ubuntu.  For instance, gNewSense is a free
distribution based on Ubuntu, and they can't run their own instance of
launchpad.  But Ubuntu had no problem making packages.ubuntu.com because
packages.ubuntu.org's software was FOSS (correct me if I'm wrong).

> So you'll have to find yourself another email provider if you really care about these 
> questions (and you have all the rights to ask them, but then you have to 
> be consistent with that and do yourself what you're asking from others - 
> I'd be surprised to see RMS with a gmail account ;) ).

It's one thing to use proprietary email services (and gmail at least
uses open standards).  It's quite another to have key distribution
infrastructure proprietary.

Matthew Flaschen