Suhit Anantula's Library tagged ubuntu →  View Popular

The more I talk with Mark, the more I think he's a very, very smart person. He recognizes that Ubuntu needs to be more appealing on the desktop than the Mac to generate user adoption, but that's not really where his attention is focused, so far as I can tell. He's thinking bigger than desktop bits.

He's thinking of cloud-plus-desktop bits. And this, my friends, is why Mark may end up winning the "desktop" war.

When asked if anyone can make money selling a desktop Linux, Shuttleworth was blunt and candid. "No. I don't think anybody can. And that is a good thing." The revenue model that Shuttleworth had when he created the Ubuntu project and the Canonical support organization was to give away the software and patches and rely on tech support and other services that are required by some users and businesses to generate the revenues that give people at Canonical their jobs.

"It is at the heart of our philosophy to not make money on the desktop." And in this, Shuttleworth believes that Canonical is on the leading edge of the software industry, and that all software suppliers - including Microsoft - will have to shift away from licensing bits to selling services to make their daily bread. ®

The geek elite use Linux, which is an operating system built with open source software that serves the same basic functions as Microsoft’s Windows or Apple’s Mac OS X. Of late, members of that geek elite have tended to choose Ubuntu as their favorite version of Linux. (There are hundreds, if not thousands, of variations on Linux, each with their own collections of applications and features.)

In December, Google will host a developer conference around Ubuntu at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. One of the main topics of discussion should be Jaunty Jackalope, which will likely ship next April in final form.

Canonical expects this version of the operating system to boast improvements in the speed at which the software boots up. “Let’s see if we can make booting or resuming Ubuntu blindingly quick,” wrote Canonical’s chief executive Mark Shuttleworth, in a note to developers.

In addition, Canonical plans on catering to the “cloud,” where users tap applications stored on central servers rather than firing up something like Microsoft Office right on their desktop. Shuttleworth was very vague about how Canonical intends to ride the cloud but said the company is after “weblications.”

The rabid interest in Ubuntu by both software developers and technology managers has helped the operating system come out of nowhere to rival long-standing Linux operating systems built by Red Hat and Novell.

IBM said products would be tailored to vertical sectors and be branded by the local IT partners.

IBM added that shifting market forces, slow adoption of Windows Vista, and growing demand for alternatives to "costly" Windows and Office-based machines: "Offer a glimpse of the ripe market opportunity for Linux-based desktops to proliferate."