Canonical Launches Ubuntu Single Sign On
Canonical has launched a new service, dubbed Ubuntu Single Sign On. The effort seeks to simplify and unify all login services for all Ubuntu-related sites. Sound like a good idea? Here’s the deal…
The plan is to make it more “convenient for Ubuntu users and community members to access information, communicate, and contribute.” It’ll replace the Launchpad login service, but don’t worry — existing Launchpad accounts will still work with the single sign-on service.
Over the next few months Canonical plans on shifting the entirety of Ubuntu and Canonical related sites running Launchpad and migrating them to Ubuntu single sign on. It’s a bit ambitious, and Canoncial is going to start obviously, with their own sites, and then work with the community sites to get the transition done.
Canonical doesn’t want to make this hard, though, so Launchpad data will be copied over to the Ubuntu service during the transition. However, once you’ve signed into the new Ubuntu account and the transition becomes complete, your Launchpad one goes defunct. Both sites will use identical credentials, and while Canonical has noted this isn’t ideal, it’s necessary.
Here’s the added bonus in the transition. Ubuntu single sign-on is build on the OpenID standard. That means any site that accepts the standard will let you pop on with that account name. That’s actually kind of nice.
And why all the fuss?
The Launchpad login service has served us well for several years but Launchpad is not a familiar brand for many Ubuntu users. As Ubuntu grows, we’ll see more and more users who don’t understand the connection between Launchpad and Ubuntu and the new Ubuntu login service is intended to overcome this problem. It will also enable us to develop features which are more oriented to Ubuntu users.
Interesting. A small shift or a big change? In this case, conformity and uniformity seem to be good on the whole. I’m all for tidying up and simplifying the login situation.
So… the new service is NOT open source. How does this impact the open source launchpad codebase? Will a usable version of the old login service still be a part of the open codebase for anyone who is looking at building their own launchpad site?
-jef
Hi Jef,
It’s not open source, no, but Canonical’s official response has said that it’s built on open-source technologies like “python, django, apache and postgres amongst others” — sadly, there’s no official word on what will happen with the old version and the codebase.
The other question that springs to mind is this. Is Launchpad going to continue to be its own separate brand with a mission to service projects and distributions that are not Ubuntu-specific? Will you be required to have an Ubuntu single sign-on for all lauchpad accounts?
Launchpad does host other distribution services. For example PLD is listed as using Launchpad for bugtracking but not packaging. https://launchpad.net/pld-linux
and that’s an rpm based distribution..not even an Ubuntu-derivative.
Does it make sense from a branding perspective to have launchpad be a general distribution services provider but require it to require it to use Ubuntu branded signon? Seems to me Canonical needs to decide what role Launchpad is meant to play and brand it accordingly to prevent confusion. If its meant to be a generally useful service, servicing multiple distributions Ubuntu-derived or not..then they need to keep the branding agnostic. Or else ditch the external services and just rebrand Launchpad entirely as Ubuntu infrastructure and kill the Launchpad branding.
-jef
Jef you read to much into this. Launchpad isn’t going anywhere, if you only use launchpad for bug tracking then there’s no need to migrate. What the’re saying is Canonical was using the Login service portion of Launchpad for things that have more to do with Ubuntu than with Launchpad. This new service is meant to correct that.
I also didn’t read anything in the article that says after you migrate you would lose your Launchpad account. That doesn’t make any sense, many users of Ubuntu use Launchpad for its native services as well. If that is the case, I’d love to know how they are going to manage the issue.
snkiz:
The question that is left unanswered is this. Are all launchpad.net accounts going to require Ubuntu branded single signon from this point forward or is ubuntu branded single sign on going to be a login option side-by-side with the existing lauhcpad branded login facility?
-jef
Interesting conversation between John Q. Public and Mark Shuttleworth in regards to the mentioned new system.
I don’t like it. It’s a Step in the wrong direction. It’s a Owngoal when it comes to security. Just one account to hack ….