Dan proposes making the Chicken Little Respin a regular event.

I believe having a Mono-free respin of the desktop-i386 edition of Ubuntu released every 6 months is a very good idea for several reasons.

Having Jo Shields release the respin personally is an even better idea. Here’s why:

1. It’s a vehicle for informed choice
Those of us who don’t want Mono in the default Ubuntu desktop set for whatever reason now have a real choice. We don’t have to go explain to someone else why we don’t want Mono and have our reasons questioned.

2. It tones down the heated arguments between the two camps
It helps a lot to have a high-profile proponent of Mono personally release a Mono-free respin. It creates common ground between the two camps and encourages civil debate.

3. It’s a useful tool against the “boiling frog syndrome”
Over time, the Chicken Little Remix will serve as a benchmark for how much Mono is too much. If it becomes a tradition, we can – 1 year, 2 years down the line – begin to make comparative usability analyses. That is to say, Jaunty ex-Mono is still perfectly usable, but if the Gnome panel ever starts requiring a Mono library as a dependency (a theoretical scenario at this juncture), having an unusable Chicken Little release to make us all painfully aware of it will be a very useful tool against the “boiling frog syndrome”.

Super thanks to Dan for taking the time to prepare an article for us! If you are interested in presenting your idea, pro- or anti- or neutral, just drop me an email: jason [at] mono-nono [dot] com.