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 Channel Futures

Cloud


Shuttleworth Clears Ubuntu 10.04 for Liftoff

  • Written by The VAR Guy 1
  • April 27, 2010

It’s official: Ubuntu 10.04 Long Term Support arrives April 29, and this particular blogger was privy to the press conference about it. Canonical Chairman Mark Shuttleworth and CEO Jane Silber discussed the plans and progress of new operating system, and then fielded some Q and A. The key news:  More than 80 ISVs are supporting Ubuntu. But here’s what it means for the desktop users and Canonical as a whole…

Ubuntu 10.04 is now certified on over 50 servers and laptops, and OEM support is taking off worldwide. Dell has embraced Ubuntu Enterprise Clouds, and Lenovo has just launched Ubuntu machines into China.

Of course, Ubuntu 10.04 comes with some tweaks, most notably the ‘social’ desktop. Chris Tozzi has the nitty gritty details, but the basic rundown is an integration of your social media into your desktop for easy blogging, tweeting, and general communication.

During the press conference, Mark Shuttleworth spoke about the new design featured in 10.04:

“10.04 is a substantial step forward [and a] shift in the look and feel. For six years [we designed] around [the motto] “linux for human beings” and drove our work [into the] community….now we’ve shown Linux is not just for computer specialists; [it] can be a warm, positive and friendly-constructive desktop environment.”

Shuttleworth also commented on how he wanted Ubuntu to be ‘light-ware’ or lightweight software that didn’t feel weighed down or bloated.

“[We want Ubuntu to] feel lightweight, agile. Visually [we worked] on the theme of light, too.”

And indeed, screen shots of 10.04 show a somewhat similar background to Mac OS X’s Aurora light show. But enough about the good looks, let’s get back to the software and those ISVs. Since Ubuntu is gaining traction in the market, I asked Shuttleworth:

“With increased support form ISVs, do you see this as Ubuntu taking a step towards gaining a foothold as a more widely and commonly developed platform like Mac or Windows?”

Silber, then Shuttleworth responded:

“[It’s] strong signal about general acceptance [with] growth in consumer space and enterprise space. ISVs won’t support [a platform] unless there’s a commercial or strategic reason to do it…ISVs and OEMs [make] a strong endorsement [and help]growth and traction”

Shuttleworth took it a bit farther, and brought up the comparison to Apple and the app store…

“[There’s] a number of things we’re doing to increase attractiveness. [Right now] we’re a cycle early to highlight [these things]. In our next release we intend to make it possible to have a consumer experience around the software built into the Ubuntu Software Center…aimed at making it straightforward [for] developers [to] publish their software free or commercial. Ff we are able to deliver Ubuntu across a comprehensive set of OEMs we’re very well positioned for opportunistic developers in a large development market.”

There was also some talk about delivering a special channel in the Software Center for devs that want to introduce software that hasn’t gone through Canonical’s 6 month testing cycle in effort to connect publishers more directly to end users. Shuttleworth hinted that wouldn’t be around ’till Ubuntu 10.10.

Silber noted that this is the highest amount of ISVs ever signed on to support Ubuntu, and they’re committed to an ongoing relationship where Ubuntu can continue to be a distribution channel for software.

And as for challengers like Microsoft and Apple? Silber noted:

“I think…many people have more than one computer, so decisions [to pick Ubuntu] are additive instead of a replacement decision. But they (Apple and Microsoft) are competitors we look at and our users [will] decide… [But] we look at their products and features and use that to help inform some of our strategic decisions…”

Lastly, is Canonical making any money on this thing, yet?

Short answer? No. Shuttleworth sounded confident as ever though, as he noted they’re continually driving towards profitability and are keenly aware about the “depth of the channel and scale of investment required in markets” to make such a business profitable. But with all the OEM support, Shuttleworth seemed at ease.

Lastly, it was noted that Canonical is doing well enough that they’re slated for the next LTS release in April 2012 and they’re happy about the “rich ecosystem” Ubuntu and the Debian base have provided

Tags: Cloud Service Providers Digital Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs Cloud Mobility Open Source

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7 comments

  1. Avatar Zac April 28, 2010 @ 9:25 am
    Reply

    Looks very promising. For so long I wanted them to recognise that ease of software availability and distribution for both free and commercial and also working with OEM’s and getting it certified on hardware platforms will be the key to growth and mainstream Linux adoption. In order to compete with Microsoft they also need Ubuntu machines on the shop floor. But first they need the fully featured Software Centre, this feature will make Ubuntu attractive. They need to put as much effort into the Software Centre as possible. Time cannot be wasted.

    Very happy Ubuntu user for 4 years now. Half that time was a transition from Windows, but now I don’t need it. A slow transition showed something vastly better.

    I do believe that Ubuntu can compete with Microsoft. If it has for me, it can for many others.

    Happy Ubuntu 10.04 release day folks!

  2. Avatar Jef Spaleta April 28, 2010 @ 2:02 pm
    Reply

    1) is there a written or audio transcript of the press conference?

    2) Do you know where the full list of ISVs will be published? The hardware cert page will be easy to locate once they publish the 10.04 certificated hardware page. But verifying the ISV claim will be harder to verify as I’m not sure what it actually means. Are they saying that many ISVs are going to be publishing into the Canonical partner repository?

    3) Any new OEMs mentioned concerning worldwide OEM support?
    Does Canonical have a list of OEMs in different regions to use as a guide. It seems to be increasing difficult of late to find Ubuntu in online retail stores…not easier.

    4) Any mention of ARM porting work?

    -jef

  3. Avatar Pat April 29, 2010 @ 12:39 am
    Reply

    Loved your column and I’d love to hear more. I’m also interested in the answers to Jef’s questions. And maybe a little more explanation for non-insiders like me:)

    When you say Ubuntu 10.04 is now certified on over 50 servers and laptops, does that mean it’s guaranteed to run on those machines without hardware compatibility issues?

    And when you say OEM support is taking off worldwide, can you give us some more examples? I only know of three or four in North America — Dell (such as it is), System76 and ZaReason are all I can recall.

    I assume the immediate importance of the ISV support is it demonstrates that these creators of mostly free (open-source and proprietary) software feel Ubuntu is worth whatever effort it takes to get their software to easily install and run on it. What are the broader implications for Ubuntu, in concrete terms?

    It sounds like the strategy is to make Ubuntu better and better, so that when more people discover it their experiences will be positive.

    Mine certainly has been. When I replaced Windows with Ubuntu about a year ago, I had only one app (which I use for work) that would only run on Windows.

    Thanks to Canonical’s excellent Advanced Desktop Support, that has now been solved. I can’t imagine ever going back to Windows at home. Now if I can only consider my workplace to consider Ubuntu….

  4. Avatar Jef Spaleta April 29, 2010 @ 1:29 am
    Reply

    Pat:

    The hardware certification stuff can be found here:
    webapps.ubuntu.com/certification/

    10.04 isnt listed yet..but I’ve no doubt it will be sometime in the next week.

    Canonical has specific definitions for what “certified” means. Read the pdf linked on this page: http://www.canonical.com/services/certification

    -jef

  5. Avatar Pat April 29, 2010 @ 10:48 am
    Reply

    Thanks, Jef, for the link to the certified hardware list. Dell is the leader.

    But does anyone know why System76 and ZaReason don’t have any systems listed as certified or compatible? I would have thought that was a given….

  6. Avatar Jef Spaleta April 29, 2010 @ 1:36 pm
    Reply

    Pat:

    I see currently available system76 server systems listed as certified for the last LTS release 8.04.

    The laptops they have listed as certified are no longer available.

    -jef

  7. Avatar Jef Spaleta April 30, 2010 @ 7:37 pm
    Reply

    David:
    A followup.

    the ceritified hardware list landed today at
    webapps.ubuntu.com/certification

    I count a total of 20 “Certified” servers for 10.04.

    No laptops No desktops.

    So what gives? The press conference said over 50 laptops and servers?

    -jef

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