canonical

Why Ubuntu just might succeed

Following on the heels of my post about why the Linux desktop fails, Joe Panettieri describes precisely why Ubuntu has a chance of bucking the trend and making Linux relevant to a wider audience:

Canonical/Ubuntu gets marketing.

Speaking of Canonical's decision to cancel Ubuntu Live, Panettieri writes:

Spending big bucks on Ubuntu Live -- and preaching to a niche audience of Ubuntu fanatics -- wasn't a great use of Canonical's marketing dollars.

Instead, Canonical hosted a range of education sessions at OSCON [as as well had a presence at LinuxWorld]....Many attendees were Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SuSE Linux and Windows Server administrators, who were seeking more information about Ubuntu. In other words, Canonical was preaching to new listeners rather than the same-old Ubuntu crowd. Smart move, Canonical.

Indeed. Mark Shuttleworth and the Canonical/Ubuntu crew understand that it's not good enough to be good enough when you're trying to displace entrenched incumbents. You have to be better, and you have to tell the world why.… Read more

Canon ups bitrate, adds storage in fall AVCHD camcorders

No, you're not experiencing déjà vu. The iVis camcorders Canon, Inc. announced on July 22 have been reannounced by Canon USA, plus one. There are a few differences this one. For one, we've got a review of the HF11 all ready for your perusal. For another, we here in the U.S. get an extra, more expensive hard-disk-based model than in Japan. And finally, we've got real American pricing and availability info for all.

The HF11 is a higher-end linemate for the popular HF10; it adds a higher bit-rate 24Mbps recording mode and an … Read more

Would you like your printer in a box or in a bucket?

Last month we reviewed the Canon Selphy CP760, a cute little dye-sublimation printer that won us over with its simple menu, quick prints, and most importantly, its small-ish price tag; $100 is a fairly easy price to swallow for a single function printer, especially when we've got so many inkjet printers that can not only print out similar quality photos, but can also print out text on standard 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch paper! In either case, we were impressed by this little guy's ability to churn out excellent quality prints in a short amount of … Read more

The best place to host your open-source project

Just a few short years ago, there was one open-source hosting service worth considering: Sourceforge.net. It was by no means perfect (Alfresco's analytics, for example, have been down for over a month on Sourceforge, with no apparent urgency to fix the problem), but it was good enough, free, and everyone else used it.

Today, there are multiple options, including Google Code, Microsoft CodePlex, CodeHaus, GitHub, and, interestingly, Canonical's Launchpad.

Yes, Launchpad. Launchpad is the brainchild of Mark Shuttleworth's Ubuntu team, but it has aspirations beyond hosting the Ubuntu code, aspirations that recently attracted MySQL to move its code over to the Launchpad service.

I don't recall Launchpad starting with this third-party code hosting premise in mind, but it certainly has gone there fast. OStatic has an excellent write-up on its new features, and whether they're compelling enough to put your open-source project there.

For a new project, it's definitely an interesting choice. But the larger question is whether an established project - especially commercial projects - gets adequate value from any hosting service to justify hosting with a prefabricated hosting service. SugarCRM moved from Sourceforge to hosting its own project, and other companies have done the same. (My own company is in the process of exploring options.)

Why host your own project? Why take on that cost?… Read more

Canon updates AVCHD flagship camcorders

Canon today unveiled two new AVCHD camcorder models that will be available in Japan in September for the Japanese equivalent of about $1,300. The iVis models--the overseas version of the Vixia brand--will include an addition to the HF line of flash-based camcorders and a replacement for the HG10 hard-disk based unit.

The HF11 is a higher-end line mate for the popular HF10; it adds a higher bit-rate 24Mbps recording mode and an increase to 32GB built-in flash memory, up from 16GB. The hard-disk-based HG21 has the same innards as the HF10/11 and gets a boost to the 12x … Read more

Ubuntu looks to open-source applications to boost its server business

The VAR Guy has the scoop on some upcoming Ubuntu news: Ubuntu and Openbravo are teaming up to help push Ubuntu into the enterprise.

Now, Canonical is seeking killer server applications for Ubuntu. MySQL, the open-source database now owned by Sun, has backed Ubuntu quite a bit. And now Openbravo is joining the party...Smart move by Canonical and Openbravo. CIOs, midmarket IT managers, and solutions providers don't care much about server operating systems. It's all about the applications.

I agree, and so do Red Hat and Novell, which built their formidable server businesses by focusing on applications.

It's interesting, however, where Canonical/Ubuntu is focused. It started with some select, big-name partnerships with IBM and others, and is now focused on shoring up that story with open-source applications. Openbravo is the first to leak, but there are others in the works.… Read more

Canon's EOS Rebel XS

updated 7/8:  Today, Canon USA announced pricing and availability for the U.S. it looks like the company's only selling a kit version, with the EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens, for $699.99, and it's slated to ship next month.

(June 9) Say what you will about the rumor mill, it frequently comes through. In this case, except for the small detail of when it would be available, rumors about the Canon EOS Rebel XS turned out to be true. However, instead of waiting until Photokina to announce it, Canon debuted the new entry-level dSLR today.

The new Rebel, which replaces the XTi as the baby of its dSLR line, retains the 10-megapixel CMOS and 2.5-inch LCD, while moving up to the body of the more recent XSi. However, it also uses the newer Digic III processing chip--albeit with 12-bit processing rather than the XSi's 14-bit--so we expect to see some differences in photo quality, especially at higher ISO sensitivities, compared with the XTi. And the XS will ship with the image stabilized version of the EF-S 18-55mm lens; the XTi currently ships with the non-IS lens. The camera also adds Live View mode and, according to Canon, will have improved battery life.

Check out our preview video and comparative specs after the jump.… Read more

Canon's 3-in-1 mouse takes a dubious turn

We're not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but Canon seems to be getting some dubious product-design ideas from those mass-market gadget makers in Asia. Case in point: Its new 3-in-1 mouse that includes a calculator and numeric keypad.

The last time we saw one of these, it was from a Taiwanese company called Ezkey and bore a remarkable resemblance to a miniature George Foreman Grill. It's far from the weirdest mouse combinations we've seen, of course, which include everything from hand warmers and back massagers to gamepads and label makers.

Granted, it costs … Read more

Canon 5D Mark II book on Amazon.com becomes blogospheric oopsie

There's something to be said for missing a big rumor because of a national holiday. Unless there's some real information, I don't really care about posting every time a new product name surfaces in software, or in this case, on a book title on Amazon.com.

While I was relaxing on my day off, non-vacationing bloggers had already spread the rumor about a Canon 5D Mark II book appearing on Amazon.com (Engadget, PhotographyBay, Gizmodo, and lots more), which was then discredited by the book's publisher in a Dpreview forum as simply a placeholder entry.

Frankly, … Read more