14 DAY TRIAL // So this has just happened. Scott Kitterman, a Debian developer and member of the Kubuntu Council, has decided to make public some emails where it would appear that members of the Ubuntu Community Council ask Jonathan Riddell to step down from his position as a Kubuntu Project leader.
Jonathan Riddell, who is both a KDE and Kubuntu developer as well as an important member of the Ubuntu community for many years now, is being accused by several members of the Ubuntu and Kubuntu community of confrontational and aggressive behavior towards them, as the email exchanges exposed today by Scott Kitterman suggest.
Long story short, after several email exchanges, the final decision of the Ubuntu Community Council, which is also backed by Canonical and Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth, was for Jonathan Riddell to step down from all his positions as a leader within the Ubuntu and Kubuntu communities for at least 12 months, but still being able to participate in discussions as any other member.
"It is with regret that we write this email to discuss an issue that we feel is negatively impacting the Ubuntu Community. Over a long period of time Jonathan Riddell has become increasingly difficult to deal with. Jonathan raised valid issues and concerns, but reacted poorly when he received answers he did not agree with," reads the first email sent by the Ubuntu Community Council regarding the "nasty" behavior of Jonathan Riddell.
Jonathan Riddell refuses to step down as a Kubuntu Project leader
From the email exchanges exposed today by Scott Kitterman, who decided to write a second post on his blog, suggesting that he wants to resign from its position in the Ubuntu and Kubuntu community, it would appear that Jonathan Riddell refused to step down as a Kubuntu Project leader.
As expected, Jonathan Riddell is being backed by members of the Kubuntu Community Council, who fired back at the Ubuntu Community Council's decision to take down the Kubuntu Project leader. "I’d like to thank all the Kubuntu members who just voted to re-affirm me on the Kubuntu Council," says Jonathan Riddell on his blog. "I hope and expect Kubuntu will continue and plan to keep working on the 15.10 release along with the rest of the community who I love dearly."