Mark Shuttleworth: 10 Thoughts On Ubuntu 9.10
During a phone briefing today, Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth described the Ubuntu 9.10 desktop, server and cloud strategy to members of the IT media. WorksWithU tuned in and posed some key questions to Shuttleworth. Here are 10 highlights from the call.
As you’ll recall, Ubuntu 9.10 is scheduled to debut Oct. 29. Shuttleworth’s thoughts from today’s call included:
1. The User Experience: “We wanted to bring design and user experience to [the Linux] desktop.” Shuttleworth believes Ubuntu 9.10 achieves those goals.
2. Competition with Microsoft, Windows 7: Shuttleworth concedes that Windows 7 is impressive but “it’s still proprietary and expensive.” Also, he says, OEMs have “no desire” to go back to a single-vendor operating system market.
3. On the Netbook Market: Shuttleworth concedes that Microsoft “clawed its way” back dramatically in the U.S. netbook market with Windows XP. But he hopes once the Windows 7 dust settles, vendors and users alike will realize Ubuntu netbooks are a natural choice.
4. On Oracle’s Buyout of Sun (and MySQL): Shuttleworth sees no reason for regulators to block Oracle’s buyout of Sun Microsystems nor, by association, the MySQL open source database. Shuttleworth doesn’t see an opportunity for Oracle to abuse its database power. Plus, he notes that open source code can quickly fragment if there’s community concern about the governance and leadership of a project.
5. On Canonical’s March Toward Profits: Shuttleworth says he has “no concerns” at this stage about Canonical’s ability to achieve profitability. If necessary, Canonical could quickly focus on specific business areas that are self-sustainable in the near-term, he asserted. But at this point in Canonical’s five-year business journey, Shuttleworth remains convinced that the best strategy is to make Ubuntu an end-to-end solution.
Translation: Shuttleworth isn’t ready to say how soon Canonical could achieve profitability. But he’s basically saying the company is willing to lose money in certain areas as new businesses ramp up and strengthen the overall Ubuntu ecosystem.
It’s a daring bet considering how many different areas of focus Canonical has taken on. But then again, I doubt we would have launched WorksWithU if Canonical only wanted Ubuntu to be a desktop operating system.
6. Simple Commercial Software Installs: The Ubuntu Software Center will gradually gain more and more commercial software options — though the exact details of those efforts are still being worked out.
7. Closed Source ISVs — Still A Challenge: Shuttleworth conceded that Canonical’s biggest weakness in the enterprise remains a lack of traditional closed source ISVs. The elephant in the room was Oracle…
8. But There Is ISV Progress: Still, Shuttleworth was quick to note continued ISV progress with such companies as IBM’s information management group, Alfresco (open source content management) and JasperSoft (open source business intelligence).
9. Amazon As A Cloud Standard: Shuttleworth said Amazon’s cloud APIs are emerging as a de facto cloud standard, though he expects open, vendor-neutral cloud standards to gradually materialize.
10. Sever Hardware Relationships: Shuttleworth conceded that he had no new server relationship or certification deals to disclose. From where I sit, it seems as if Amazon Web Services (particularly, the Elastic Compute Cloud/EC2) and Eucalyptus cloud technology are emerging as Canonical’s most reliable doorway into the server market.
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Joe:
Did Shuttleworth happen to mention which business areas would be self-sustainable in the near-term? What areas are really Canonical’s core revenue strength?
Anyone ask Shuttleworth for his reaction about HP discontinuing its Ubuntu based Mini Mi devices? The Mi interface was something Canonical was paid to develop. Are the package repositories that Canonical hosts for the HP Mini Mi going to be discontinued?
As for Canonical in the cloud. What exactly is Canonical’s service revenue model for the cloud? Are they planning on trying to turn Landscape into something that competes with RightScale as a cloud management platform solution?
-jef
Hi Jef: Sorry, but this was roughly a 45-minute QA session with multiple reporters on the call meaning that I was pleased to get in two questions. Specifically, Canonical’s potential march to profits plus Canonical’s ISV efforts. No specific question about HP netbook, though Shuttleworth conceded Microsoft has gained considerable momentum in US netbook market.
Separately, I am speaking with Canonical in the next few days regarding Landscape and will keep your question in mind.
Best
-jp
“1. The User Experience: ‘We wanted to bring design and user experience to [the Linux] desktop.’ Shuttleworth believes Ubuntu 9.10 achieves those goals.”
What, exactly, does that mean?
Scott: Sorry for such a brief, brief quote on item 1. Shuttleworth was making a more extensive point that Ubuntu’s user interface and basic usability (wireless, etc.) were vastly improved. My attempt to summarize the point somewhat killed the meaning. Sorry about that.
-jp
@joe:
You’ve just highlighted a serious problem with closed door press calls that do not have a complete archived transcript.
Is there a full transcript of the call, so we can all read exactly what was said without having to rely on any press misinterpretation?
-jef
Jef: You’d have to ask Canonical.
Well, Windows XP “come back” in the netbook sector has been dirty as usual
http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20090619161307529
@Joe: thanks for the news! Is this related to your previous post regarding 8 questions for Mark? Or are you going to have a separate conversation with him?
[…] http://www.workswithu.com/2009/10/26/mark-shuttleworth-10-thoughts-on-ubuntu-910/ a few seconds ago from Gwibber […]
Did Mark talk at ALL about the fact that Kubuntu has been garbage with each release lately? The last good release of Kubuntu was 6.06 and have gone steadily downhill. Performance, stability and coherence have lacked in each release where Ubuntu has become better. As a KDE user I have just jumped ship from Kubuntu to OpenSuSE because of a better KDE experience.
[…] members of the IT media. WorksWithU tuned in and posed some key questions to Shuttleworth. Here are 10 highlights from the […]
@Tony. What garbage? It runs great here. Yes, there were a couple rough patches, notably shipping a broken package manager in Jaunty, but this was a bad decision the Kubuntu team made (along other very good decisions), what’s Mark supposed to do?
[email protected]: I tried to make sure my “eight questions” for Mark were covered during the press conference. Some other media folks asked the questions before I could raise them (netbook momentum/challenges, OEM agreements, etc.). I only had a chance to cover two of my questions during the call. But overall, I think the blog post above addresses most of those eight original questions.
-jp
[…] Sólo quedan 2 días para el lanzamiento oficial de Ubuntu 9.10, y su fundador Mark Shuttleworth ofreció una ronda de preguntas acerca de este nuevo release. El sitio WorksWithU que participó en esta actividad, publicó una selección de 10 temas tratados en la conversación con Mark: […]
[…] Sólo quedan 2 días para el lanzamiento oficial de Ubuntu 9.10, y su fundador Mark Shuttleworth ofreció una ronda de preguntas acerca de este nuevo release. El sitio WorksWithU que participó en esta actividad, publicó una selección de 10 temas tratados en la conversación con Mark: […]
[…] Sólo quedan 2 días para el lanzamiento oficial de Ubuntu 9.10, y su fundador Mark Shuttleworth ofreció una ronda de preguntas acerca de este nuevo release. El sitio WorksWithU que participó en esta actividad, publicó una selección de 10 temas tratados en la conversación con Mark: […]
[…] Sólo quedan 2 días para el lanzamiento oficial de Ubuntu 9.10, y su fundador Mark Shuttleworth ofreció una ronda de preguntas acerca de este nuevo release. El sitio WorksWithU que participó en esta actividad, publicó una selección de 10 temas tratados en la conversación con Mark: […]
[…] Sólo quedan 2 días para el lanzamiento oficial de Ubuntu 9.10, y su fundador Mark Shuttleworth ofreció una ronda de preguntas acerca de este nuevo release. El sitio WorksWithU que participó en esta actividad, publicó una selección de 10 temas tratados en la conversación con Mark: […]
http://www.fewt.com/2009/10/dear-mr-shuttleworth-canonical-and.html
http://www.fewt.com/2009/10/dear-mr-shuttleworth-canonical-and.html
[…] http://www.workswithu.com/2009/10/26/mark-shuttleworth-10-thoughts-on-ubuntu-910/ […]
[…] Via FayerWayer, del original (en inglés de) WorksWithU […]
[…] Mark Shuttleworth: 10 Thoughts On Ubuntu 9.10 1. The User Experience: “We wanted to bring design and user experience to [the Linux] desktop.” Shuttleworth believes Ubuntu 9.10 achieves those goals. […]
Hi Joe:
thank you for sharing. Did Shuttleworth give any hint on (a new) strategy to target the SMB servers market? Thanks again.
—
javivazquez
[…] 29 de octubre. WorksWithU hizo algunas preguntas que junto con sus respectivas respuestas generaron un interesante artículo que resume 10 ideas de Shuttleworth. Me permito hacer un extracto a […]
i’m using 9.10. the first goal, definitely, is achieved, as well as other.s
[…] te są związane z dążeniem do stanu, w którym Ubuntu będzie przynosiło zysk, tzn. nie będzie zmuszone korzystać z prywatnego kapitału Marka Shuttlewortha dla dalszego […]
[…] te są związane z dążeniem do stanu, w którym Ubuntu będzie przynosiło zysk, tzn. nie będzie zmuszone korzystać z prywatnego kapitału Marka Shuttlewortha dla dalszego […]
[…] wird Ubuntu 9.10 und Mark Shuttleworth endlich, CEO von Canonical vorgestellt sein, er gab einigen Tips, von wie er sein wird und welche Ziele sie gehen werden, mit Karmic Koala zu erreichen. Die Erfahrung des Benutzers: Sie haben Entwurf und Erfahrung des […]