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Manjaro Linux – My Current Distribution

I’ve been running Manjaro Linux Openbox Edition since about November of 2013. I haven’t re-installed…since Manjaro rolls with it’s releases…I haven’t needed to re-install. It’s been as steady as a rock for 2 releases and many months of torture and pain from yours truly.

The only other distribution I’ve ever put through its paces like this that remained stable and usable was Salix…which is Slackware based. Manjaro is Arch based and benefits greatly from the fantastic package manager ‘pacman’. Oddly enough, Salix has a lot in common with Manjaro in that they both attempt to bring simplicity with easy upgrades/updates. They also both tap into the community for customized packages…Salix with the ability to install Slack builds and Manjaro with the ability to add on packages from the AUR (Arch User Repository). Both provide tools that allow a user to interface with these user built repositories. Both are lightning fast and use a very low amount of resources.

Even though I’d hadn’t noticed before….they do have a lot in common.

I’ve demanded a lot more from my Linux distributions lately…I haven’t picked the ones I use based on what everyone else is using. I haven’t picked one that has recently released. I picked one that doesn’t decide what’s best for you. I think this approach is best…doing less is more.

I don’t want a distribution to install the entire KDE application suite out of the gate taking up tons of space on my hard drive and making my Kmenu a jumbled mess. I don’t want a distribution that doesn’t install tons of applications but is so bloated and lethargic on the desktop that I can barely function. I don’t want a distribution that does things the wrong way by requiring me to install more than what I need (thanks meta packages!). The bottom line is, I want a simple distribution of Linux that truly and wholly supports the ‘less is more’ mantra. The only two I’ve settled on are Manjaro and Salix. I’m not saying these are the only ones that ascribe to this mantra…I’m just saying these are the only two I’ve used that I like. I’m sure there are others you might have found do the same thing and I’d encourage you to leave a comment with this distribution so that I can check it out.

I don’t do a lot of Linux reviews…but I will be doing a Salix and Manjaro one in the near future. I think they both deserve any amount of press they get because they are fantastically simple distributions.

Open Source Software and New Users

Free/Libre and Open Source software versus closed and proprietary software doesn’t matter. It’s not the answer to solve all our problems. It’s not the question we need to ask anyone and everyone either. It simply doesn’t matter. Well, it might matter to you and I…but it doesn’t matter to most people out there.

No matter what you say and do. No matter what ideals you preach to people. No matter what concepts about freedom you tout to them…it just won’t matter at all. They want what they want and when they want it. They turn a power button on and a device powers up giving them the functionality they need. They open up a piece of software that gives them the features they want. They don’t care whether they pay for it, if someone can alter it, if someone can distribute it, or if it was free.

It sucks that people don’t care about their own freedom with programs/code, but it’s true.

The Great Debate

The debate that rages on is usually one or two camps that support Free Software, Libre Software, or Open Source Software (or a combination of them) and those folks will lecture the end user who doesn’t care. Have you ever been lectured about something you don’t care about? Usually, you won’t remember anything about what is said to you when that happens. The same is true for end users that couldn’t care less about what software they’re using…as long as it works.

Instead of lecturing these folks and talking down to them about the benefits of FOSS/FLOSS/OSS…I say we try a different approach. I say we identify with them. Establish a common ground. Less like a bull in a ceramics shop. A common proverb here in the US is that “you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”. Being tactful and pleasant instead of overbearing a sharp is a good way to win people over to view things as you do. Education is key…if you see someone using a locked in device, you could tactfully let them know of alternatives and why they might choose them. I’ve seen the untactful approach and it does nothing but push the person farther away from free and open source software. Less is more in these cases…no one wants to come off as a know it all…but that’s exactly what I’ve seen happen many times.

The Importance of Free and Open Source Software

I’m not trying to downplay the importance of Open Source software (Free software or Open Source software) but I am trying to downplay the importance/intensity of the debate between the various beliefs (FLOSS/FOSS/OSS). I’ve seen people get very livid about the idea that all of their software should be completely open source or that it should be free AND open source or else they won’t use it. I applaud these people for having a stance and sticking to it and I believe the world would be a much better place if we had more of this type of software that everyone could work on collaboratively. I think it would spur innovation and bring people together. But here’s the kicker…the end user DOESN’T CARE about your debate. While it’s great that it means something to you, 9 times out of 10 it won’t mean anything to the end user. If they’re completely new to these ideologies try easing them into understanding. This isn’t sink or swim…everyone starts off in the shallow end first and when they’re ready they move into the deep end. Don’t expect everyone to care right away.

If you have a user of software who will only use Open Source software…a person who staunchly supports this concept…and that person defends their stance any chance they can get, most people see it as a good thing. In my opinion, rabid defense of ideology is sometimes not a good thing…because many times people lose the defensive stance and go on the offensive one. The same is true for those who will only use Free and Open Source software…they become incensed at the idea that anyone would ever use anything else or would want to use. Both of these camps tout altering the code, collaborative design, vendor lock-in, high prices of upgrades for proprietary software, and other ideological points of contention. As I said, it’s great that these camps are so invested in their ideals…and there is a point where you do more harm than good.

The Perspective of the Uninformed New User

It’s hard for new users to understand the perspective and ideological camps behind free and open source software because there is nothing else like it in the world. Insisting that someone adapt immediately to the ideals put forth by FOSS is, in my opinion, an unrealistic expectation. When someone is new to a group or community, demanding they adhere to a set of rules they don’t understand can be overwhelming. In my opinion, a welcoming stance from the community members followed by a path of self discovery is what develops new users into the strongest supporters of free and open source software.

The attitudes and behavior new users face when initially embarking on their open source journey will stick with them and will shape their opinions for years to come. A few years ago, I wrote an article titled “A New User Guide to Linux Communities“. Despite being written in 2008, it is still applicable today. New users need patience, tolerance, understanding, and empowerment when first trying FOSS. If we can give them a positive and up-building experience, they’ll definitely come back for more and become more avid supporters. Leave the politics and ideologies to the wayside. Try helping the new user without trying to indoctrinate them. Let them come to the discovery that FOSS is where they should be at. Let them learn things on their own time and pace. In the end, if they come to the same conclusions we have as FOSS users on their own, they’ll be more likely to stay that way and more productive community members in the future 🙂

How-To Choose the Right Distribution of Linux

so many choices — Courtesy of evelynishere

Which distribution is the RIGHT distribution? Is there such a thing? When you start your journey with Linux you might here something like this:

– Ubuntu is the best distribution for the desktop
– Linux Mint is the best distribution for a home user and the desktop
– Debian is the best way to go because of its stability and solid base
– Mandriva isn’t as good as Mageia
– Mageia isn’t as good as Mandriva
– Red Hat is for servers only
– Distribution X is better than distribution Y!

Here’s the thing…statements like these are all BLATANTLY FALSE. Why? Because they’re opinions..everyone has one and they are all just that…opinions.

When you start your journey with Linux, don’t let someone else tell you what you should or shouldn’t use. Go out and find what fits you like a glove and use that. It doesn’t matter how large of community the distribution has (unless that is what you’re specifically looking for) or how often it updates or how many hits it has on the Distrowatch tracker. Use what is best FOR YOU. Only you can decide what distribution scratches whatever itch you have.

If you choose the right one, chances are you’ll be a part of that distribution for a long time. But don’t worry, it isn’t like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and if you pick the wrong distribution you won’t turn into a dusty exploding skeleton. In this situation, the RIGHT distribution of Linux is ANY distribution of Linux. As long as you’re making a conscious effort to choose free software and use Linux, you win.

I’ve been in, around and even leading Linux communities since the late 1990’s and there is one thing I’ve found it is this: Every single distribution has a place in this world. Every single distribution has it’s own niche users. Every single distribution of Linux is important. I’m sure many of you have heard or have said that Linux just needs to simplify more and have only a handful of distributions so we can concentrate on just that handful and make it be fantastic. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t work very well and would stifle creativity. To prove my point…what if we didn’t have small distributions at all? That wouldn’t have a large effect on Linux as a whole right? Let’s take a look at that hypothesis…

If Small Distributions Never Were…

As an example: Symphony OS. It used FVWM and Mezzo for the desktop experience and it REVOLUTIONIZED the way we see and interact with files. If you use Gnome 3, Ubuntu Unity, or KDE 4.X, you’re using concepts that Symphony OS was the first to put onto a Linux desktop. Symphony never had a huge user base. It never shot up the charts at Distrowatch. It did however, push the envelope of what a desktop distribution can and can’t do. It did push the boundaries of design. It did push simplicity and usability to a new level. It also did web apps before webapps were cool. Somehow it never caught on…but I it influenced people and challenged people to push the envelope of what was possible and impossible with desktop Linux.

Small, Niche Distributions Perform a Function

Often times I have found Linux users looking for a distribution that fills a specific function. “I just want a file sharing distribution” they’ll say, or perhaps “I just want a nice and simple desktop”, or maybe even “I just want a tight firewall”. The beauty of open source software and Linux is that you’ll find small, niche distributions that fit the bill for all of those needs and when you use these distributions, you’ll continue to learn about Linux…and perhaps you’ll push the envelope of what is possible and not possible just like Symphony OS did.

Regardless if you choose small or large distributions, you win. The fact is you CHOSE and weren’t force fed something by system installers and companies who think they know what is best for you.

We CAN All Get Along

Many times when we pick the flavor of Linux we like, we identify with its goals…the direction its heading…maybe even the direction the community champions. There isn’t anything wrong with this. The next time you experience passionate supporters of Linux, keep in mind that neither you nor they are the enemy. If you both use Linux and open source, you both win. Small, large, and niche distributions of Linux operate harmoniously together and build off one another…it’s one of the unseen benefits of Linux and open source. Beauty and power in simplicity through collaboration. Congratulate yourself every single day for choosing Linux!

Disillusioned by the Community

There are times when I don’t want to admit that I use and love Linux.

It’s true…at times, I’m embarrassed to tell people that I’m part of the community as a whole.

You may wonder when these times are…right now is one of those times. I despise infighting found in free and open source software…specifically, I really don’t like it when people have one sided experiences and apply their experience to ALL areas of Linux and open source software. Case in point is this blog post on KDE 4.6 experience in Ubuntu. For everyone out there, please be advised that Ubuntu is not equivalent with ALL Linux. In fact, Ubuntu does Gnome very well…but it doesn’t do KDE well at all.

If you truly want to know what KDE 4.6 is like, you need to go with a KDE specific distribution like Mandriva and ride that cutting edge. I can guarantee you won’t be greeted by crash handlers and all sorts of nonsense that you’ll get inside Ubuntu when you install KDE along side of your Gnome install.

Posts like the one I linked to above make me angry…it’s like driving a Volvo compact car and then dismissing every other car company that makes a compact car as equivalent the experience on the Volvo. To me, you need to drive each implementation (each companies interpretation) and make an informed decision as to what you find. Taking a test drive of a Volvo compact and then bad mouthing all compact cars is ignorant…and in my opinion, that is what the person above does with KDE 4.x

I’m a staunch defender of KDE 4.x and I’ve blogged about ignorance surrounding it in the past. Not all gripes about it are ignorant…but a majority of people’s problems they have with it are simply people band-wagoning together to trounce something because it’s cool to do so. Much the same is M. Night Shyamalan’s Airbender movie…people talked so much crap about the movie and him as a director, I thought that the movie was going to be the worst movie of all time. It wasn’t near as bad as people were making it out to be and Shyamalan isn’t the worst director out there by any means.

I think overall, KDE 4.x has become the M. Night Shyamalan of the Linux world…a very talented director(project) that everyone was accustomed to making great movies(desktops) that doesn’t want to be pigeon holed into fitting what others feel it should fit. KDE 4 is not KDE 3 and for good reason. It’s being coded and made into something different yet subtly similar because it’s 2011 and not 1996. If you don’t like it, don’t use it.

IF you don’t use it…don’t trash talk it.

If you want an HONEST representation of it, go to a distribution that prides itself on providing a good implementation of it. Saying “Ubuntu is the most popular and people are going to try it out on Ubuntu” is wrong…because I don’t know of many end users that will enable a PPA repository and possibly jack up their Gnome install to give it a go…when they can just pop in a Live CD and give it a try….I think the poster of the blog entry above forgot about the magic of Live CD’s for his ‘review’. It’s too bad that he feels Ubuntu’s lack of attention to all things KDE are representative to KDE as a whole…and it’s too bad his attempt at ascribing this notion comes off as troll-like.

I don’t use Ubuntu at all yet you don’t see me trolling the Ubuntu boards talking about how crappy I feel it is. If you use Linux you are a part of the Linux community as a whole. This community encompasses all distributions and all desktop environments. You have a responsibility therefore; if you want to see Linux succeed, be tolerant and understanding of opposing distros/desktops. Talking trash about other opposing opinions is irresponsible and juvenile. I hope someday people take this inherent and implied cordiality to heart. Until then, we have posts like the one above…whether inadvertently geared to bash KDE or absolutely geared to bash KDE…it nonetheless bashed it. I hope we can grow past things like this in the future.

Unity Linux Automates Build Process

The guys over at Unity Linux have created and developed a ‘build server’ that will allow the automation of package building in both 64bit and 32bit flavors. All the building is done in a chroot and then the package is automatically moved into the ‘Testing’ repository.

Very interesting stuff…much like what rMake does for Conary and Foresight Linux…but applied to RPM’s instead of conary changesets. Just the same, it’s interesting that such a small team of developers are showing their prowess in development and making strides toward building a robust developer community.

What Is Unity Linux?

There’s been a lot of confusion about exactly what Unity Linux is.

I thought I’d talk today a bit about that. I’d like to talk a bit about what Unity uses for it’s ‘guts’. I’d also like to dispel some myths surrounding Unity. Lastly, I’d like to talk briefly about how Unity is doing all it can to further Open Source and Linux by contributing to projects it is involved with. The reason I know so much about this topic is that I’m the webmaster and host for the Unity Linux Project as well as one of the documentation team members. So, let’s take a look first at what Unity Linux is…

What is Unity Linux

Unity Linux is not a conventional distribution of Linux. It’s a core on which developers can build their own distribution of Linux. We’ve set out from the start to provide an excellent minimum graphical environment that gave developers “just enough graphics” for them to create something. The smaller, the better. We elected to go with Openbox because of it’s size and stability. We selected using Mandriva as our base because of the number of packages they provide and the quality of those packages. We pushed lxpanel as a minimal panel because it provides just enough functionality for distro developers to see what they’ve installed after they’ve installed it…it also is familiar to most people whereas Openbox right click menu’s may not be. All in all, our target for the core release is developers. We’re not designing this basic desktop to be used by end users. We’re not trying to win any awards with our awesome minimalistic desktop skills. Why would we do this? To answer this, you have to take a look at our developers.

One of our developers, Kdulcimer, is the lead developer of TinyMe Linux. A few years ago, he created a fantastic minimalistic “remaster” of PCLinuxOS. It was wildly popular and continues to be so today. Kdulcimer was one of the first developers that elected to go with Unity Linux for his core. Our other developers saw what Kdulcimer did with his distro and how small he made the core. They learned from how he did things and applied it to Unity. Thus, Unity has a small base…as evident by both the beta releases. Upcoming release candidates will be very much the same.

Lead developer gettinther does a good job explaining what Unity is:

One of the big issues facing small distros around is that there’s a limitation in the ability of each group to maintain a healthy up-to-date core. Most people prefer to focus on the DE / user interface, working on the look&feel rather the the internals. Those distros end up with stale core which in turn causes numerous “hard-to-find” issues.

Most of the distros with us existed before Unity, like Tinyme, Sam (abandoned project now), Granular, Synergy (formely eeepclos). The idea is to create distros only insofar as “presetting desktops by people who love those desktops”. Rather than having a “one shoe fits all”, we decided to provide a core module and look after maintaining it. Each branch distribution joins the team and has full developer access. For Unity to become a full fledged distro means favoring a DE over others. By limiting the scope to the core product (we maintain the various DE too but leave the DE specific changes to the branches). It makes it a little more difficult to install stuff but it also means that all DE are looked after.

As far as the user is concerned, it means the each branch has their word in the development of the core which ensures that the distro is well supported. It pools the efforts of each distro who would otherwise be on their own so means a large development team and as such better packages.

So Unity Linux is a base on which to build. A foundation for “remasters” to build from. But what is a remaster? What technologies does Unity use? Let’s take a look at the internals of Unity next.

Unity Linux Internals aka Guts

When we initially set out to not only have a small graphical base but also to wrap around the LiveCD project. For those of you who don’t know what LiveCD is..you can visit the old berlios.de project page:

The project features automatic hardware detection and setup, and utilises compression technology to build a LiveCD from a partition much larger than would typically fit on a CD. (Up to 2GB for a normal 650MB CD.) When booting from this LiveCD, the data is transparently decompressed as needed. LiveCD now supports udev.

Currently, Mandrakelinux and PCLinuxOS are supported as a host for creation of the LiveCD, i.e. we are only able to create LiveCD’s from a MDK or PCLinuxOS install. The LiveCD scripts are still beta, and bugs are being eliminated. Your help and feedback are appreciated!

The set of scripts allows a person to make a liveCD copy out of their desktop for backup purposes or as a standalone linux distribution. When you create that new ISO or backup ISO, you have ‘remastered’ the master copy. So the livecd scripts are really just a set of tools that allows a user to create something new or backup their existing desktop as a live CD.

The project at berlios was taken over by Didouph as lead developer just before Unity was formed. There hadn’t been much work after Tom Kelly left the project quite a long time ago, but Didouph was optimistic. When he joined Team Unity, he placed LiveCD development on the back burner and worked hard with the graphics team on logo development.

Later, it became apparent that in order to keep creating a great distribution that could remaster itself, we needed to make improvements to the code of LiveCD. First off, it needed 64bit support. Secondly, it needed better detection than what it had. Third, it needed to have internationalization work done. Fourth, it needed to support higher kernel versions than what it did. All those things have been accomplished with internationalization still being worked on.

When we initially took over the ‘modernization’ of LiveCD we didn’t all flock to berlios to do so. Work instead began when we gave a small sliver of our own SVN over to LiveCD. It made sense geographically for our developers to have the ability to commit code in the same place instead of at a third party (berlios); the reason being, we needed many commits fast and didn’t want to wait…we were ready to move forward with it immediately. We snagged the GPL’d LiveCD code and located it on our SVN.

Since Didouph was the maintainer of LiveCD, we felt it only natural that Unity would lend a hand to him and his project by taking over development. An entire team working on LiveCD would mean greater output and more advancement. Thus, Unity maintaining the LiveCD project was born. Anyone is welcome to take the code and use it how they seem fit. We’re working on getting LiveCD it’s own proper SVN or Git repository at a public site away from Unity Linux…if you’d like access (read only) to LiveCD SVN, drop Unity Linux a line via their contact page.

Common Myths Surrounding Unity Linux

Heard any good ones lately? If I don’t cover the ones you’ve heard here, please leave me a comment and I’ll address yours specifically.

Myth #1 – Unity Linux is just PCLinuxOS rebranded

Most of the developers of Unity Linux were contributors to PCLinuxOS during the time that Texstar had stepped away. As contributors, they were not part of the developer team. They had limited access to the core, iner-workings of PCLinuxOS. How do I know? I was a developer…the main web developer…for PCLinuxOS and I monitored all mailing lists, all websites, and even was chief of MyPCLinuxOS.com. There were very few people on the development team of PCLinuxOS that are now part of Unity Linux…because the PCLinuxOS development team was kept small.

When Unity Linux initially was started, the contributors and developers that were involved grabbed a ‘snapshot’ of the PCLinuxOS repositories and began working on bringing packages to updated versions. They quickly ran into trouble because PCLinuxOS used such an outdated toolchain that many new packages wouldn’t compile with it.

After some discussion, developers abandoned PCLinuxOS packages and instead worked with Mandriva packages. This allowed Unity to move forward sans old toolchain and outdated core. Now most of this stuff doesn’t matter to the end user…they just want a stable environment. But the Unity Linux developers wanted to push forward with the latest kernels, the latest rpm version, and the latest smart package manager versions. Doing so required massive leaps forward even from Mandriva.

As you can see, while Unity Linux originally started with a PCLinuxOS fork, they abandoned that fork and rebased on Mandriva. They now stay inline with Mandriva development. If you have Mandriva and Unity Linux questions, please stop into the Unity Linux chat channel on Freenode: #unitylinux and ask proyvind questions…as he is the Mandriva Linux representative that works with Unity Linux 🙂

Myth #2 – Unity Linux Stole mklivecd aka livecd from PCLinuxOS

This is a pretty funny one and I’ve seen quite a few references to ‘stealing’ GPL code. First things first: You cannot ‘steal’ GPL code. It just can’t be done. Secondly, the LiveCD project was stagnant and had a SINGLE developer working on it. That developer joined Unity Linux and all 25+ developers there decided to help him make some progress on it. In the meantime, they took the initiative to make improvements. For example, they gave it 64bit compatibility. They gave it have better detection. They took the code and gave it better international language support. All those things are made available for FREE to any distribution wanting to download a snapshot from SVN.

Now, if anyone has a claim to LiveCD as ‘theirs’ it would be Jaco Greefe who was the principal on the project LONG before any distributions other than Mandrake aka Mandriva even worked with it. Texstar grabbed what Jaco’s project mklivecd and used it to create the original PCLinuxOS 2003 release. This release was based on Mandrake 9.2 at the time and a few other Mandrake developers began to debug the script through the creation of PCLinuxOS. Mandrake was a trademarked name, so Texstar named it PCLinuxOS.

As you can see, if any one distribution has claim to mklivecd, it would be Mandrake aka Mandriva which was where the script creators came from. It’s also where the script was first made useable. However, claim that Texstar made it into a nice package with PCLinuxOS…that is totally true. What we’re doing now by developing it is making sure it continues to progress into the future with 64bit support and even when udev is dropped from Linux…no matter what, we’ll make sure it works…and hopefully it will work for more than just Mandriva derived distributions.

There have been many attempts by Unity Linux developers to get other distributions that use mklivecd involved with the development of it. That invitation is always open to any and all distributions that use it.

Myth #3 – Unity Linux wants to steal away users from other distributions of Linux

The main reason this isn’t true is that Unity Linux targets DEVELOPERS. We don’t target end users. If end users like Unity, GREAT! If not, we don’t worry about it. Unity Linux has derivative distributions called “branches” that work to target the end user. Unity Linux itself is targeted squarely at distribution developers and advanced users who want to be able to use the mklivecd scripts.

Myth #4 – Unity Linux DOESN’T use PCLinuxOS at all in development

This is half true. We don’t ‘use’ PCLinuxOS to create things…we use it as a mirror synch. Paul Grinberg, a developer on the team, has a PCLinuxOS box that he doesn’t use. During the initial setup of Unity Linux, we based things on PCLinuxOS before purging and switching to Mandriva. Since the developer mirror server (referred to on the mailing lists as the dev server) still ran PCLinuxOS and Unity Linux didn’t have a release yet, we saw no reason to change it.

As Unity Linux still has no stable release as of March 29, 2010, that developer mirror server still runs PCLinuxOS and pushes uploaded packages developed on a Unity Linux server to various mirrors for propagation.

In other words, the PCLinuxOS server Unity Linux uses is just a web server. It will be replaced with Unity Linux when 2010 is released. Until then, taking the time to wipe it out and repopulate it would throw a kink in the flow of package development so developers have put this ‘to-do’ item as something to be accomplished after stable release.

Unity Linux and Open Source

Unity Linux does a great job of contributing to projects upstream. As an example, David Smid, a Unity Linux developer, is also a Smart Package Manager (SPM) developer. This allows Unity the ability to test the latest and greatest SPM and get things quickly patched/fixed/redesigned. Other projects such as mklivecd are developed openly by Unity Linux and contributors are welcome. Unity Linux contributes bug finds to Mandriva through use of the Mandriva Cooker repository. Unity Linux developer Paul Grinberg contributed Google Map integration for MirrorMon, which you can view on our Mirror Status Page, back upstream to the creator of MirrorMon. Unity Linux also contributes upstream to rpm5.org.

Unity Linux also has a working partnership with Yoper Linux. Why? Because Yoper Linux uses many of the same core technologies (Smart, rpm5) that Unity Linux uses and because the lead developer, Tobias Gerschner, is an all around great guy :).

You can see everything that Unity Linux works on by visiting our repository: http://dev.unity-linux.org/projects/unitylinux/repository

Development is done in the open, not behind closed doors: http://groups.google.com/group/ul-developers

Unity Linux strives with an almost rabid will to keep everything in the open for users and branch developers so that they are not left wondering what’s going on with their distribution. The Developers continue to try and engage other distributions to work with them and will continue to do so in the future.

Closing Thoughts

Unity Linux doesn’t target the same users as your average distribution of Linux…they’re after the more savvy users out there. The ones that want to create something and make something from the core image. Users that like to tinker and mess and break things.

Unity got off to a rough start with much FUD slinging and accusations. Hopefully, the actions you see that Unity has taken to keep it’s project open will show the intent of the developers…to make a great core on which others can branch from all the while remaining open and free for everyone.