Off on their own

The announcement that Ubuntu is to seperate from GNOME from its new release is perhaps the perfect answer to the spat which took place last month over Canonicals contributions to the GNOME desktop. Personally, however, I feel that this move comes as no surprise and is 100 % the correct thing to do in the circumstances. From licensing H.264 to OEMs, to the partner repository to the Software Centre, Canonical has consistently seen itself as destinct from the larger Linux community. This is the latest example of this. Ubuntu's aim is not to plaese Richard Stallman and the FSF, but to create a genuine open source contender against Windows and Mac OS. Therefore, it is only natural for them to strive off on their own.

This also creates a situation for better compatibility. Canonical have said how they want to support Qt as well as GTK+, and the relative neutrality of Unity (even despite the GTK+/GNOME roots) will likely support this further.

Obviously, not everyone's happy. Those Kubuntu users are liable to feel even more neglected, and those who are particularly excited about GNOME shell are likely to turn to Fedora et al. But for those of us who use Ubuntu becuase it is one of the finest all-rounders out there, as well as new users trying Linux for the first time, this would seem to be a logical move for a distribution with big plans and ambitions.