Ubuntu is commercial, but not proprietary

Hi Alan,

Thank you for suggesting this improvement. I argee but will check with the copywriter, before updating.

Peter can you confirm this is correct or can the text be presented differently?

Thank you,
Ant.

I have passed this to our copywriter... my concern is that proprietary is more accurate, it is less understood.

It's a tricky one.

Technically I agree with the switch, but as it's on the homepage -- intended to explain Ubuntu to new users -- I'm with Peter. To less technical visitors it might not be obvious what proprietary means in this context.

If you want to get really clunky we could always use "paid-for".

Cheers
David

maybe rephrase it to avoid talking about the competition at all, I suspect we don't have data to support the claim of an expressed preference anyhow, just that a large volume of people are using it or downloaded it.

Ubuntu is the world's favourite free operating system, with more than 20 million people using it on desktops, laptops and servers

I agree with AlanBell here, perhaps do not talk about the competition at all. Or, perhaps refer to them as "traditional alternatives", which implies that they are the old way of doing things, and this is a new, better way.

"Ubuntu is the world's favourite free operating system, with more than 20 million people preferring it to traditional alternatives."

I agree that proprietary would be the right term but i dont think anyone who is interessted to inform himselv about ubuntu and read that passage will know the difference.

I like the phrasing of Jussi. It kind of suggests that the old proprietary days are over :)

The issue isn't that proprietary is an awesome word that we must use :)
The problem is that Ubuntu *is* a commercial operating system, so saying that it is better than commercial operating systems makes no sense at all.

We have moved away from this phrasing and I have made notes to try and avoid the confusion in the future.

Thanks for raising this and working to fix it.