Business Tech

Ubuntu Linux backer Canonical is changing top management in an effort to become more operationally disciplined, with founder Mark Shuttleworth passing the chief executive job to Chief Operations Officer Jane Silber by March 1.

Shuttleworth will continue working at the company, focusing on the company's desktop Linux product, its cloud-computing efforts, and meetings with partners central to the company's business. Silber, who has worked for the company for almost all its five-year history, will spend more of her time on Canonical's enterprise products for business customers.

Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth speaking at the Intel Developer Forum

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

"Within the company I can say very strongly everyone's expectations will be that Jane will bring a focus on financial performance as much as operational performance. It's something I want for the company," Shuttleworth said in a conference call with reporters Thursday.

Shuttleworth founded Ubuntu and Canonical in part as a reaction to Red Hat and Novell's Suse Linux, both of which are available as a free version that differs from the commercially supported product. With Ubuntu, the two versions are the same, meaning that those who want the better-tested and certified product need not necessarily pay for it. Canonical does offer support subscriptions and is working on gradually proving its server operating system's mettle beyond just test and development situations.

Canonical today has two other main lines of business besides its Linux server support: partnerships to help with operating-system technology for Netbook companies, including most recently Google for its Chrome OS; and selling support for Ubuntu's newer cloud-computing technology developed in partnership with Eucalyptus Systems. The Eucalyptus technology is compatible with Amazon Web Services options including the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3), but lets customers use the technology in their own data centers or in combination with Amazon.

Shuttleworth, who funds Canonical with wealth stemming from selling his Thawte Internet consulting business to Verisign in 1999, takes a long-term view of the company's finances.

"We are not profitable. But we continue to believe we're on the right trajectory," Shuttleworth said.

"Five years is a long time," he said, but Canonical wants to be a platform company on which others house or build their own technology. "Those take a substantial amount of time to get a foothold. We continue to invest in areas that make us a complete platform rather than focusing on the things that could achieve profitability fastest."

The company presently has more than 300 employees, he said.

Canonical releases new versions of Ubuntu every six months, the most recent being 9.10, called "Karmic Koala." Version 10.4, or "Lucid Lynx," is due in April. It will be one of the LTS versions that comes with long-term support for customers who don't enjoy upgrading their operating systems frequently. Canonical releases LTS versions every two years.

Canon's new S90 high-end compact camera.

(Credit: CNET)

Adobe Systems released beta software on Wednesday to support raw images from Canon's higher-end new compact cameras, the Powershot S90 and G11, Olympus' rival E-P2, Panasonic's FZ38, and a host of SLRs.

The software updates are betas of Lightroom 2.6, the Camera Raw 5.6 plug-in for Photoshop CS4, and the DNG Converter 5.6. All the software uses the same raw-image processing engine.

Raw images provide more flexibility and image quality but require more processing; typically only higher-end cameras support raw file formats. Most folks are happy with JPEG, but many photography enthusiasts prefer raw.

It's a hassle, though: Adobe and various competitors spend a lot of energy reverse-engineering each new camera's format before software such as Lightroom, Aperture, or Picasa can open and edit the photos.

Raw images are the norm for SLRs. The new beta software supports raw images from Canon's higher-end EOS 7D, and Nikon's new professional-grade D3s, the Pentax K-x, and Sony's A500, A550, and A850. Also on the list are medium-format models from Mamiya and Leaf. For a full list, check the blog post announcement from Lightroom Product Manager Tom Hogarty.

The new software also corrects an error in Lightroom 2.5 and Camera Raw 5.5 that could mar images from some Sony, Olympus, and Panasonic and from various medium format digital camera backs. The glitch only affected people with PowerPC-based Macs.

Update 8:02 p.m. PST: As Michael Reichman observed on the Luminous Landscape site, Canon's S90 is a member of a newer breed of camera that corrects lens distortion on its own, making parallel lines parallel again. Naturally, I was curious if Adobe's raw processing techniques did the same, because the distortion can be pretty severe, and fixing that manually is impossible in Lightroom and a hassle in Photoshop.

So I asked Adobe. The answer: yes.

"The S90 raw support in the release candidates (Camera Raw 5.6 and Lightroom 2.6) provides distortion correction that allows our raw processing results to match the optical characteristics of the JPEG output and what's viewed on the camera LCD," Hogarty said.

IBM has unveiled a new Netbook software package designed to help businesses in Africa.

Partnering with Ubuntu Linux sponsor Canonical, IBM announced on Wednesday that its new software package will use a Linux-based operating system and cloud computing, offering users in Africa an alternative to conventional and costly PCs and applications.

With traditional computers often too pricey, many businesses in Africa have opted instead to equip their employees with low-cost Netbooks. The IBM Client for Smart Work takes advantage of that trend by providing a collection of open-source software specifically for Netbooks and other thin clients, said IBM.

Running on Canonical's Ubuntu Linux operating system, the package offers open-standards-based e-mail, word processing, a spreadsheet application, communication tools, and social-networking features. In addition, users can collaborate with each other through a cloud-computing model. IBM said the package can also work on virtual desktops using the VERDE system from Virtual Bridges, which will be available through business partners.

"Businesses in emerging markets are looking to gain the freedom and flexibility afforded by open standards," said Bob Picciano, general manager for IBM Lotus Software. "The IBM Client for Smart Work builds on the movement toward open standards and Web-based personal computing by giving people the power to work smarter, regardless of device."

Along with the new package, Big Blue will offer a subscription to LotusLive.com starting at $10 per month. The LotusLive network will let businesses connect with partners, suppliers, and customers through file sharing, virtual meetings, instant messaging, and social networking.

With a focus on health care, IBM will also provide a voice computing option whereby a doctor can access the Smart Work package by voice to better collaborate with other medical professionals from remote locations.

IBM said that a network of local providers will offer the software package to governments, schools, and businesses throughout Africa. IBM will also work with universities to spread the software to the academic community.

Though available only in Africa for now, the software package is being tested in other emerging markets around the world.

Big Blue estimates that the package can save businesses up to 50 percent per user over a Windows-based desktop. The company did not announce specific prices, saying that they would depend on the configuration and support requirements.

Updated on September 16 at 6:30 a.m. PDT: adding information from Hironori Kasahara, a professor of computer science at Waseda University

Large electronics companies are building a chip for consumer electronics devices in Japan, while a China-based device manufacturer said it is working on devices using the ARM chip design, according to reports.

Waseda University's Hironori Kasahara wrote software for chips that Japanese companies are developing.

(Credit: Waseda Daigaku)

In Japan, some of the country's largest electronics and chip manufacturers are collaborating in an effort to develop a new low-power processor design for consumer electronics devices, according to Nikkei, which Forbes reported earlier.

The Japan-based group includes Fujitsu, Toshiba, Panasonic Renesas Technology, NEC, Hitachi, and Canon. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will offer between 3 billion and 4 billion yen (between $32 million and $43 million) to support the project, according to Nikkei.

Each company will develop their own central processing unit, or CPU. The report claimed that the chips would be compatible with "energy-saving" software developed by Hironori Kasahara, a professor of computer science at Waseda University, Nikkei said. Kasahara said he was developing an application programming interface (API) for multi-core processors, in response to an e-mail query.

A prototype is able to operate using less than 30 percent of normal power consumption and works even when a power outlet is not available, according to Nikkei.

Once a standard is established--the companies are targeting 2012--the CPU will be used in TVs, digital cameras, and other products. The companies may also sell the chip to other companies for use in automobiles, servers, and robots, Nikkei said.

That doesn't mean, however, the CPU will be adopted across Asia. Following the Nikkei article, Taipei-based Digitimes reported that circuit board makers in Taiwan are not enthusiastic about the prospects of a new CPU architecture.

A more immediate threat to Intel--and possibly a more potent rival to any chip that emerges from the Japan-based chip consortium--is ARM, the power-stingy processor design already used by a host of chip manufacturers including Samsung, Texas Instruments, and Qualcomm.

Hon Hai--also referred to as Foxconn--the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, is readying small laptop designs based on the ARM processor, according to various reports.

A special assistant to the Hon Hai CEO was quoted by Reuters as saying that the company has "a few smartbook projects" based on the ARM chip. Smartbooks are essentially a smartphone in a larger format, such as a small laptop or tablet. These designs are being promoted by Qualcomm, Nvidia, and Freescale, among other chip manufacturers.

Intel is developing a new version of the Atom processor, a so-called system-on-chip, or SOC, that is slated for use in smartphones as well as consumer electronics products. The smartphone and consumer electronics segments are already highly competitive, unlike the PC market, which is dominated by Intel.

In open source or in product development generally, one of the biggest mistakes is to take on a deeply entrenched incumbent on its own turf. Almost inevitably, if you play someone else's game, even if you're a little cheaper/faster/better, you're going to lose. Inertia favors the incumbent, and there's a whole lot of inertia involved in switching vendors.

For this reason, I agree wholeheartedly with Bill Weinberg's suggestion that Linux's opportunity in Netbooks is to focus on the mobile side of the market, rather than bringing a traditional, personal computer bent to the market.

Weinberg writes:

...(O)ne strategic error made by purveyors of Linux Netbooks was to covet the volumes of the global mobile telephony market while following the business models and channels of the legacy notebook marketplace. Linux fans--.orgs, Linux ISVs, and device OEMS--unfortunately approached the Netbook opportunity as a downward extension of the desktop and portable PC business, with volumes of 297M units in 2008 (IDC).

Instead, the Linux ecosystem needs to envision Netbooks (and MIDs and tablets) as building on the worldwide mobile handset business, with its 1.28B annual unit shipments (Gartner) the most lucrative slice of which, smartphones, constitutes 14 percent (ABI) with 20 percent annual growth rates.

Microsoft owns the traditional personal computer market, and probably will forever. But don't lose hope: the best strategies going forward are disruptive, in the Clayton Christensen sense. Microsoft is weak in mobile. This is where Linux proponents should focus their "desktop" strategies.

Apple is gaining on Microsoft in personal computers as much because of its iPhone revolution as its beautiful laptops. If Linux wants to win in Netbooks, and it can, it must do so by undermining Microsoft, not by confronting its desktop dominance directly. Netbooks must be more "Net" than "book," just as mobile phones are more about "mobile" than "phone."

If this is true, Google's Android, which is targeting smartphones first and Netbooks second, may have the upper hand on Intel's Moblin, which aims at Netbooks first, and is largely designed as a Windows replacement.

Malcolm Gladwell recently reminded the world that David beats Goliath with a sling, not a sword. Linux-based Netbooks, playing David to Microsoft's Goliath, should approach the market with a mobile bias, rather than with a personal computer bias.

"Hit 'em where they ain't," said Willie Keeler, which is as true in hitting baseballs as it is in competing with Microsoft.

Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.

Canonical has begun beta-testing a file-synchronization service called Ubuntu One for its Ubuntu Linux desktop operating system.

The closed beta test began Monday for invited members of the Ubuntu user community, with further testers able to sign up by requesting an invitation, Canonical said.

Ubuntu One offers file synchronization for systems running Ubuntu 9.04, code-named Jaunty Jackalope, and is intended to be available to the general public in time for the launch of Ubuntu 9.10, code-named Karmic Koala, in October, Canonical said.

The system is integrated into Ubuntu's Gnome desktop software via a downloadable client, and once installed creates an Ubuntu One folder in the user's home directory, Canonical said.

When modifications are made to any of the files stored in this folder, the modifications are automatically uploaded to the Web service and propagated to the user's other computers, according to the company.

Users currently get 2GB of storage for free, or 10GB for $10 per month, although Canonical said this pricing could change.

Individual folders can be shared with a third party via a right-click contextual menu. Once the folder is shared, it appears on the recipient's desktop in a "Shared With Me" folder.

Ubuntu One also provides a web interface that can be used to manage and access files without the need to use the client software.

Unlike competing services such as Dropbox, Ubuntu One supports only a single operating system, although Canonical said third-party developers could adapt the Ubuntu One client to other platforms such as Mac OS X or Windows. Dropbox supports Windows, Mac and Linux clients.

Canonical said it plans to add more features, such as synchronization of application data and preferences, as well as support for the KDE desktop software.

Charles McLellan of ZDNet UK reported from London.

The next version of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, code-named Jaunty Jackalope, went into beta phase late Thursday.

Ubuntu 9.04, as it is more properly known, includes a range of enhancements over its predecessor, Intrepid Ibex, or Ubuntu 8.10. These include a new notifications system, changes to the start-up process, and the distribution's first foray into cloud computing.

The new version of the operating system also includes updates to the Gnome interface (now version 2.26, which comes with the Brasero all-in-one CD-burning application and offers improved handling of multiple monitors), the Linux kernel (now version 2.6.28) and the X.Org server (now version 1.6). The ext4 file system is now also supported.

Ubuntu is set to make a major move into cloud computing with Karmic Koala, the version that will follow Jackalope. But the server version of Jackalope takes a step toward this with its technology preview of the Elastic Utility Computing Architecture for Linking Your Programs To Useful Systems (Eucalyptus).

Eucalyptus is an open-source software infrastructure for the deployment of applications into the cloud. Its interface is compatible with the application programming interface (API) for Amazon's EC2 cloud-computing service, and its inclusion in Jackalope means users of the distribution can deploy and test their own private clouds that match the EC2 API.

According to the feature Web page for Jackalope's beta, users will be able to "dynamically create virtual machines, configure multiple clusters into a single cloud and even provide an EBS (elastic block storage) equivalent and an (Amazon) S3 compatible storage manager."

There are several known issues with the beta--these are listed on the Jackalope page--and Canonical, the company behind the distribution, is inviting users to test the release ahead of April 23, when the final incarnation of Jaunty Jackalope is due.

David Meyer of ZDNet UK reported from London.

The average person likely won't even notice, but Webmasters can rejoice that Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft have banded together to support an unofficial standard for steering search engines in the right direction.

All three on Thursday announced they'd support a technique by which a little extra code in a Web page can indicate the address of its "canonical" version--essentially, the original, primary URL. The move will make it easier to tell search engines what they should pay attention to and to avoid treating duplicative Web pages as different.

Today, the search engine bots that scour the Web for pages to index don't have any particular way to know whether they should be pointing to a "http://www.somepage.com/index.html" or "http://www.somepage.com/index.html?lang=en"--the latter with an optional extra tidbit at the end that indicates the Web server should show the English-language version of a page. The new canonical tag can steer search engines toward the desired primary page, which in this example might ease browsing for non-English speakers.

In all likelihood, most people won't notice much of a difference. Perhaps that the URLs in search results on which they click will be a bit shorter, and perhaps that search engines won't be cluttered with repeats of the same pages in search results.

But the bigger benefits are for Web site operators, which can ensure a more consistent experience for people using their sites and cleaner data collected about how people use their sites, and for the search engines themselves, which won't have to make as many guesses about the pecking order of similar pages.

Also notable is that Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo are cooperating. Standards aren't always easy to hammer out, even informal ones such as this. Supporting canonical tags, though, probably won't mean give any search engine any new advantage or disadvantage, so this was probably relatively easy to create.

Now if the companies could only join forces better on e-mail identity authentication and instant-message interoperability, the world would actually look better for the average person, too.

Freescale Semiconductor is expected to launch new silicon for Netbooks--devices that it believes will come in below $200--at the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas.

The ARM chip architecture-based i.MX51 processor is designed to enable "low-power, gigahertz performance netbooks at sub-$200 price points," according to Freescale, formerly Motorola's chipmaking arm.

Freescale envisions sub-$200 Netbooks

(Credit: Freescale Semiconductor)

The definition of a Netbook seems to get redefined every month, as different companies push their distinct vision of the device. And Freescale is no different. While Freescale, like Intel, believes the Netbook is a companion device to the PC, it envisions devices that are more frugal with power consumption and run the Linux operating system. Intel-based Netbooks using the Atom processor typically offer better performance than ARM-based devices and run the Windows XP operating system.

"Because the primary function (of a Netbook) is accessing the Internet, Linux and Firefox are a good operating system and application for that purpose," Glen Burchers, director global marketing for Freescale's consumer products group, said in an interview.

He doesn't see ARM competing directly with Intel Atom processors, which target a higher-end Netbook segment. "ARM based processors can have a play, in addition to x86 (Intel)," Burchers said. 'We don't believe ARM processor will replace x86, but will augment them for a certain segment of the market." Ideally, the Freescale chip would be used in Netbooks that get about eight hours of battery life and sport an 8.9-inch screen.

And ABI Research, a market research firm, forecasts that there should be plenty of space for competing visions of the Netbook over the next several years. ABI expects consumers to purchase 60 million netbooks in 2013, compared with only 182,000 sold in 2007.

Freescale has been working with Pegatron, a wholly owned Asus subsidiary, to develop a reference design that features the 1GHz ARM Cortex A8-based i.MX51 processor, Canonical's Ubuntu operating system, Adobe's Flash Player software, a new power management chip, and the SGTL5000 ultra low-power audio codec.

Freescale's netbook reference design is available now. The company says it is currently sampling the i.MX51 processor and MC13982 power management device to tier-one Netbook customers. Volume production for the i.MX51 device is planned for Q2 2009 to power netbooks designed for the 2009 holiday shopping season, Freescale said.

(Note about Apple Netbook speculation: Freescale says that the "speculation is inaccurate" that its i.MX51 chip will be used in an Apple Netbook, as some reports have stated. "Freescale's netbook approach is unambiguously an ARM/Linux play, and any suggestion otherwise is inaccurate," a Freescale spokesman said Sunday night.)