What happens when you’re tired, dragged away by some furious debate and get an idea that at first might seem interesting, but after thinking a bit longer, proves to be worthless? Nothing, if you’re doing it right. When I wrote my last blog post about a supposed ‘Atlantic chasm’ between Ubuntu and GNOME, I was not doing the right thing.
You see, I wrote that blog post in a very short time, directly after the idea came up in my head. Without doing any fact-checking, without even proofreading, I had written a piece on a sensitive issue and published it without making sure I wasn’t talking complete crap. Not smart.
First of all, I should have realised when writing that blog post—and previous pieces on the Canonical-Banshee issue—that I am a mere external commentator who has only circumstantial experience with the events surrounding the issue.
I should have also known that you should never say something you cannot prove. I stand corrected on my assumption, which became an allegation when I published it, that GNOME is a USA-dominated project. I confused company/project culture with human culture, as one commenter on the flawed post pointed out correctly. There are in fact many, many Europeans at key positions in the GNOME community, just as much as there are Americans fulfilling pivotal roles for the Ubuntu project. I could have learned that only by going to GNOME’s Wikipedia page.
I learned my lesson and I would like to sincerely apology to my readers for breaking their trust by publishing such a badly founded piece. I assume that no one was insulted by incorrectly being called American or European.