With reference to the following post(http://ostatic.com/blog/linux-shedding-indie-status-is-a-good-thing), I would like to comment that whatever all GNU/Linux or GNU/BSD distros do I bet that no distro would come closer to whatever Debian GNU/Linux has been or is or will be. Debian GNU/Linux is a big book of "co-operation" for benefit of the entire humanity. Majority of the distros have a more focussed or smaller objective which would in turn support their commercial offerings. In summary the free versions are the testing grounds for the commercial offerings. They are guinea pigs in guise of Floss.
This is where I love Debian GNU/Linux. It has been true in spirit and action to the vision envisioned by RMS(A free as in freedom OS and related apps used by normal users). If users start to use the vanilla versions, then huge corporations are forced to support their hardware on this platform just because of the reach the OS has got. Commercial support will develop around the vanilla version of GNU/Linux. But what is happening is distros are aiming for commercial support first and then build the distro around it. I believe this is bad for GNU/Linux in the long run. An important case where I completely desist is the idea of selling music by ubuntu one. When I recieved 10 cds of ubuntu 5 I was overjoyed at the ideologies of canonical and Mark shuttleworth. I was happy that at least one of the richest men in the world has vowed to help out the poorest in the world.
The popularity of Ubuntu which should be owed to the marketing by canonical and in large to the GNU/Linux community has made canonical to be bullish and as a result are starting to dictate terms to the community. I am not very happy with this improvement. Ubuntu one is serving music but in mp3 format!!!!!!!!!!. This is outrageous. The vorbis format is prooved to be of better quality and smaller size at smaller bit rates. Ubuntu should have been the first to provide music in this format with an option to download mp3s also to whoever are having devices with support for mp3 only. This would have created an environment wherein the device makers would add support to ogg/vorbis format together with licensed codecs like mp3, acc, wma etc. This, I believe is what shuttleworth started out, I think.
So, Mr. shuttleworth, am I right. You owe too much to the GNU land of software and in turn RMS. Wake up Mr. Mark and be a propreitor for GNU/Linux in the true spirit, I gurantee you ROI in terms of happy users and also path breaking financial health in the future. Dont look up to Debian GNU/Linux for only the packages. Look at it for the ethical part of "free as in freedom" philosophy
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Nobody can deter me away from "free as in freedom" concept seeded by Sri RMS. See to it that u dont make fun of my belief. If u think otherwise, no need to comment.