"Leader" of Kubuntu, Jonathan Riddell, "fired"

[Cowboy T]

Looks like Jonathan Riddell, the de-facto leader (since there isn't actually an official one) of the Kubuntu arm of Ubuntu GNU/Linux, has been ousted from his position of de-facto (not official) leadership by the Ubuntu Community Council (UCC). Apparently the fact that he asked some pointed questions about a licensing issue--and apparent GPL violation in some cases--ticked off the Powers That Be, and Shuttleworth himself jumped in to back the ouster.

This has ticked off the Kubuntu Council. It remains to be seen whether Kubuntu will continue to exist in the near future.

Here's what started it.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-community-team/2015-May/000422.html

The result, with Mark Shuttleworth himself stepping in.

http://www.itworld.com/article/2926838/linux/mark-shuttleworth-ubuntu-community-council-ask-kubuntu-developer-to-step-down-as-leader.html

And some of the email exchange on the part of the Kubuntu folks with the Ubuntu Community Council, in the aftermath of this.

https://skitterman.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/information-exchange-between-the-ubuntu-community-council-and-the-kubuntu-council/

[skunkbad]

I've been a Ubuntu user for almost a decade, and have also taken advantage or using Lubuntu on machines with weak hardware. I've actually never used Kubuntu. In recent years it seems that Ubuntu has made some decisions that have ticked off the Linux community in general, but I try not to pay too much attention to the politics of it all. I'd consider changing to another distro, but Ubuntu is pretty user friendly, and I don't have a lot of time to do anything fun anymore, so wasting a bunch of time testing new distros isn't on my list of things to do.

Sometimes making a big move can be a blessing in disguise, and for Jonathan Riddell, perhaps being the de-facto leader of Kubuntu was his training to move on to something bigger and better. I hope so. I know in my own experience that the tech community can have the same type of politics and bad feelings running throughout, but in the end is progress. Look back and what Jonathan Riddell has done in 5 or 10 years, and you'll probably think that a move away from Kubuntu was the best thing that ever happened to him.