Debate on Ubuntu Linux’s Banshee $$ grab gets nasty

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There are a lot of ‘touchy’ issues in the open source world – none are perhaps more controversial than those involving money.

One such case is the recent attempt by Ubuntu to redirect affiliate dollars away from the GNOME project and its Banshee media player – to Ubuntu’s own bank account. It’s a debate that this week hit Twitter with a flame war of vitriol and NSFW comments.

Canonical announced this week that in Ubuntu 11.04, Banshee will have both the AmazonMP3 and Ubuntu One music stores and 25 percent of the revenues will be directed to the GNOME Foundation.

Larry Ewing, the developer that is best known for creating Tux, the Linux mascot, shot back at Ubuntu community manager Jono Bacon in a Twitter message:

@jonobacon well that is one way to dress a pig but I’m not sure I’d go showing it around