Canonical joins Linux Foundation
Canonical, the company that sponsors the Linux-based operating system Ubuntu, has joined the Linux Foundation.
Ubuntu community members had already been participating in workgroups at the foundation, including the Linux Standard Base, Desktop Architects, and Driver Backporting groups. Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth has been a member of the Linux Foundation board since early 2007.
The Linux Foundation, formed in January 2007 to promote the uptake of Linux, announced Canonical's official participation Monday. Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, welcomed Canonical to the organization.
"Canonical is an important new member for the Linux Foundation," said Zemlin. "We are extremely pleased to work even more closely with Canonical, as we push Linux to the next stage of growth."
User interests for both commercial and community versions of Ubuntu will be represented, the foundation stated.
Open-source analyst Jay Layman wrote in a blog post that the only surprise about Canonical joining the Linux Foundation was that it "had not joined until now," given that the company "oversees development and distribution of the most popular desktop Linux (distribution)."
Layman wrote that as a silver member within the foundation, Canonical would have the same standing as Red Hat. Members with platinum or gold status include Novell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, IBM, Oracle, Google, and Cisco Systems.
However, Shuttleworth being on the Linux Foundation board may prompt Red Hat to raise its profile within the Linux Foundation, if he participates in a Canonical capacity, Layman speculated.
A Red Hat representative had not responded to a request for comment at the time of writing.
In addition to promoting Linux around the world, the Linux Foundation sponsors the work of Linux kernel project lead Linus Torvalds.
Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.
They are great at marketing, but yet can't deliver a solid up to date OS on the same level of a Red Hat or Novell.
They also are restrictive by limiting options and telling its users what they want.
They are also eternally behind the development curve set by Novell.
Ubuntu is a lot like Windows in comparison to OSX. Windows follows OSX as Ubuntu follows Fedora and openSuSE.
I think Linux would be a better place without them. Less hype and it is not like they contribute much to the technological advancement of Linux and its applications. It is simply another 'me-too' OS.
In other words, like Microsoft, Canonical adds little to the proceedings.
This is a good move in my opinion.
-- This is true
"They also are restrictive by limiting options and telling its users what they want."
-- This is actually a key to their success because most people don't know what freedom is or how to use it. By limiting it they keep it from being too confusing for most people which is why it is considered the most popular Linux distro.. because people can use it.
"They are also eternally behind the development curve set by Novell."
-- Not everybody can be bleeding edge and not everybody should be. CentOS / Red Hat may not be "bleeding edge" on desktop and laptop utilities and drivers but that is not their focus.
"I think Linux would be a better place without them."
-- And where was Linux before Ubuntu became known? Still wallowing in its hobbyist niche of uber-geeks. Ubuntu helped bring Marketing muscle (as you mentioned) to Linux and has helped increase the awareness of Linux to people that would otherwise not even touch it.
Ubuntu is good for the average Windows user, while openSUSE and Fedora (maybe) is good for the Windows Power User. OpenSUSE is actually good for both, but hasn't gotten the same marketing lined up for whatever reason so "you snooze you lose"
~ Drew
openSUSE 11, Edubuntu 7.10, IPCop and Windows
They are great at marketing, but yet can't deliver a solid up to date OS on the same level of a Red Hat or Novell.
They also are restrictive by limiting options and telling its users what they want.
They are also eternally behind the development curve set by Novell.
Ubuntu is a lot like Windows in comparison to OSX. Windows follows OSX as Ubuntu follows Fedora and openSuSE.
I think Linux would be a better place without them. Less hype and it is not like they contribute much to the technological advancement of Linux and its applications. It is simply another 'me-too' OS.
In other words, like Microsoft, Canonical adds little to the proceedings.
- by leonardobarba August 20, 2008 11:33 AM PDT
- I strongly disagree with The_Decider. We have CentOS and Ubuntu boxes in our company. Both CentOS and Ubuntu are very good GNU/Linux distributions, CentOS in servers and workstations and Ubuntu only in workstations. The_Decider, if you discovered Ubuntu isn't a solid up to date operating system that gives you unlimited options, you can choose another GNU/Linux distro like OpenSuSE or who knows an Unix OS like FreeBSD or Mac OS X. You can deny Ubuntu's pros and criticize it a lot, naturally, because it's your opinion, not a verdict. Did you try Ubuntu latest version, 8.04 LTS? I'm using it and it works very well. You advocate some cutting-edge GNU/Linux distro. What? Red Hat's? Novell's? OpenSuSE? I can't clearly identify it because you rant a lot instead of writing useful information about your preferred GNU/Linux distro.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(8 Comments)All players have their place in the Market, even Canonical and Microsoft. Can you deny it?