Canonical's Latest Ubuntu Developer Pitch
Canonical is making multiple moves to engage and energize Ubuntu software developers. The latest example involves Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week, scheduled for March 1 to 6, 2010. Here are some quick details plus the implications for Ubuntu in business.
Rewind to September 2009. At the time, Canonical was busy polishing Ubuntu 9.10 for its October 2009 launch. But some Canonical insiders (such as John Pugh) had already shifted their attention to Ubuntu 10.04 — a long term support (LTS) release.
The big priority: Making sure Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) had a growing base of ISV support when it arrives in April 2010, thereby improving Ubuntu’s chances of catching on with businesses, service providers and cloud providers.
Two Moves Worth Watching
Fast forward to the present and Canonical has made multiple moves to strengthen the Ubuntu ISV story. Incoming COO Matt Asay arrives with a big Rolodex filled with ISV contacts and boardroom relationships.
Next up, Jono Bacon, Canonical’s Ubuntu Community Manager, is preparing an online learning event called Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week. It’s scheduled for sometime around March 1 to 6. During the event, Bacon hopes developers will share stories about how “you put together an application, how it scratched your itch and what tools you used.”
Multiple Small Successes
Sure, Canonical still wants big ISVs like Oracle to support Ubuntu Server Edition and Ubuntu’s desktop and mobile counterparts.
But Canonical seems to be focusing on smaller, quick-hit ISV wins — involving everyone from systems management companies Groundwork Open Source to antispam specialists like Mailspect.
WorksWithU will closely watch the Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week for more potential signs of progress.
Quickly and Ground Control look like good tools for Ubuntu 10.04, but Canonical needs to put out a developers’ CD which makes it easy to get started in development. This CD should include a fully plugged-in editor, Ground Control, and all the relevant documentation to get developers up to speed fast.
At least make a meta-package for it.
Daeng: I will be sure to ask Canonical about their developer CD plans next I I speak with them. Thanks for raising a good topic for me to explore.
-jp
Editorial Director
WorksWithU
How many projects using quickly have been founded by someone not working for Canonical? I’m not aware of one yet. Canonical employees are dogfooding quickly pretty hard right now.
The real test of the opportunistic workflow based on quickly will be when there are a handful of external developers outside of the Canonical fenceline who pick up quickly and start trying to use it to maintain scratch your itch projects. If this workflow stays primarily dogfooded by in-house Canonical staffers then it won’t have a critical mass adoption impact in the same way eclipse has had.
-jef