Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Brand Names, loyalty and ill Effects

[Mike Gerwitz]

On Sun, Jul 31, 2016 at 11:21:52 +0530, A. Mani wrote:
> I am talking about the nature of local ecosystem of these and similar
> communities.

We discourage the use of the term "ecosystem":

  https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.en.html#Ecosystem


> The dynamics of development within these groups suggests
> that the active developers have accepted the state of affairs.
>
> What may be a possible solution?

What is the problem you want to solve?

If a group disagrees with how a project is run, they can (and do) create
a fork.  For example, Trisquel GNU/Linux is a fork of Ubuntu which is
fully free.  There are a number of such projects, some of which are
listed here:

  https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html

If the problem is that a distro is doing something completely unethical
to their users, it could be worth addressing.  For example, Ubuntu
installed spyware in earlier versions that sent all search queries to
Amazon, even if they were intended for the local filesystem.  Aggressive
lastback reversed this decision.  In this case, while it may help push
users to fully free distros, most users would have continued to use
Ubuntu; it's worth fighting for certain types of changes.

But if those changes are fundamental issues with how the project is
governed, and the organization behind the project does not wish to
change, a fork is more appropriate---friction within an organization
isn't beneficial to anyone.

-- 
Mike Gerwitz
Free Software Hacker+Activist | GNU Maintainer & Volunteer
https://mikegerwitz.com       | GPG Key ID: 0x8EE30EAB

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