QUESTION 1
Despite Dell's decision to offer Ubuntu on selected consumer desktop and notebook products, at the present-time (2009), one can find only a limited and low-end range of desktops and notebooks offered with GNU/Linux pre-installed, and only to a limited number of countries. Therefore, GNU/Linux users, who often are power users, are obliged to buy systems with windows pre-installed. One option, to deal with it, is Canonical and the Ubuntu Community to put pressure on PC manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc, to offer Ubuntu on the whole range of their desktop and notebook products. Another option is to give the choice to the final user, i.e. Canonical and the Ubuntu Community to ask manufacturers to ship any desktop or laptop with Ubuntu linux and/or windows pre-installed, single or dual -boot, depending on what the final user asks for. A third option is to enable and motivate the final user, i.e. Canonical and the Ubuntu Community to put pressure on manufacturers to ship desktops and laptops with any operating system they wish, but to have a “GNU/linux certified” or “Ubuntu certified” sticker on each desktop or notebook, as well as to accompany each item they ship with a Ubuntu live-cd. What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you have any specific action plan?
ANSWER 1
Canonical has a specific, pretty large team called OEM Services that are based in Lexington, MA and in Taipei in Taiwan as well as numerous people working remotely. Their job is to work with OEMs (which is the generic term for PC manufacturers) to pre-install Ubuntu on their machines.
OEMs will do what makes them money. They have no real driver other than that. This works for Canonical and Ubuntu and against us. Microsoft has done a very good job of making money for these companies. But the OEMs are aware that it is not good for them to be a monopolistic market. Microsoft extracts all the value from the market. So there is an opportunity for Ubuntu.
These companies deal in millions of machines. By all means the Ubuntu community should and is vocal in demanding their preferred operating system on the machines they buy. But it will require much more that for it to happen. For a start, there is the work to make sure Ubuntu works properly on a given machine. This is a commercial service that Canonical provides and it is not a trivial exercise. Mainstream users are not going to go to the command line to make their sound work and if Linux is to succeed it needs to succeed in the mainstream so these things have to be fixed in the factory.
OEMs need to know there is a sufficiently large market or that one can be created. The success on netbooks for Ubuntu (if not all Linux)has helped companies like Dell. HP and Toshiba embrace an alternative to Linux for the first time. But it is a very long road ahead. It will require a lot of persuasion and investment and the building of a commercial ecosystem around Ubuntu that makes money for all participants in order for them to continue to invest.
The community though needs o remain vocal. It needs to question why governments are using their tax dollars to fund Microsoft's shareholders' dividends. It needs to ask why schools are educating students to learn dependency on the applications and operating systems from one provider. And it needs to ask its local P manufacturers to provide a Linux alternative on a machine they want to use. It is a vital role
QUESTION 2a
Beyond the traditionally great adoption of GNU/Linux in servers, GNU/Linux and especially Ubuntu seems to have very good chances with non-gamers home users. For small companies, or professionals, or gamers, though, the transition to GNU/Linux is often problematic due to missing Linux versions (free or proprietary) of mainstream games and most importantly of professional software such as CAD drawing, image and video editing, bookkeeping etc.
ANSWER 2a
We don't and likely never will have a good gaming story. Consoles do games better now anyhow and you need only look at the constantly shrinking PC game section in any retails store to know it is not a fight worth making. ...and professional software is also area where we may never win.
QUESTION 2b
Given that the average user uses the same system for anything he does, thus someone who needs windows for his job or pleasure is unprobable to have also Ubuntu installed (dual-boot) for the rest of his work, what are your thoughts and plans about this?
ANSWER 2b
We deal in the mass market. Gamers, video editors etc. are not that mass market. There are solutions like
wine etc which can work well. But for a small business we would likely recommend that they retain 1 or 2 licenses of Windows if they have some software that they cannot live without. The problem with most businesses is that they have all Windows licences even though machines are performing functions like office applications or the Internet which work equally well on Linux. They are the ones that ripe to change.
QUESTION 2c
Which do you think is the most realistic goal?
That Canonical and the Ubuntu Community put pressure on gaming companies and on software houses, such as Adobe or Autodesk, to make their suites available for GNU/Linux, and if yes how(?), or that we focus our efforts on the “
wine” project and on virtualisation in order to enable users to run these windows applications in their Ubuntu system?
ANSWER 2c
We work with Adobe and they are moving some of their products over to Ubuntu. But there are others where they cannot see the return on the investment. So Photoshop is unlikely to ever be on Linux, but for the vast majority of users (in my opinion) what is in GIMP and the online image manipulation tools is fine for all but the professionals. So investing in making the Linux or online alternatives better and great is the best focus in my opinion.
wine is a great system but remember – we are not interested in recreating Windows. We want to build a different experience, a better experience not simply windows without the licence fee.
QUESTION 3a
Is there a critical market share (5%, 10%, 20%, or what?) beyond which most hardware manufacturers, software houses, and gaming companies will have to treat GNU/Linux equally to windows (i.e. providing GNU/linux drivers, GNU/linux versions of applications and games, GNU/linux pre-installed, etc), causing GNU/Linux and Ubuntu to boost?
ANSWER 3a
It is hard to give an exact percentage as it varies. Certainly 20% would do it but that is a few years off.
QUESTION 3b
Which are the cornerstones or key-factors (netbooks, GNU/Linux pre-installed, cloud computing, ...or what?) that could drive PC-users to GNU/Linux and Ubuntu?
ANSWER 3b
All of the above. It will not be one driver. Cloud computing will certainly make the specific operating system less important – what will really matter is how well it runs the cloud-based apps. So apps will be built to run well through a browser and so that should resolve many of your issues with apps begin built for windows. But this will be a process that will take time and most of the world does not have broadband, which is another gating factor too of course.
QUESTION 3c
Which are the worst case and the best case scenarios regarding the time required for GNU/Linux to reach such a critical market share
ANSWER 3c
Only a fool makes predictions like that
QUESTION 3d
Which market share does Ubuntu currently have among GNU/Linux users, and which is your goal?
ANSWER 3d
On desktop we think we have a pretty big slice but there are no reliable figures so I do not want to mis-claim. On server we are very pleased with share considering how late we are and how well established are the incumbents.
QUESTION 4
What is it like to travel in space ...sorry but do we have to ask? ...actually everyone has heard and read a lot about it, so we would prefer to ask: Beyond personal satisfaction or pleasure, was the space travel after-all a wise and conscious business choice?
ANSWER 4
No idea but I'd say it's pretty cool.
QUESTION 5a
People know Ubuntu, however, I am not sure they know Canonical, the company that supports and sponsors Ubuntu, the company whose business model is based on selling services in a ecosystem built on a completely and utterly free Ubuntu. To what extent does Ubuntu depends to Canonical?
ANSWER 5a
Canonical employs around 200 developers who work full time on Ubuntu or on infrastructure or services that support Ubuntu. So it is a very large dependency although not a total dependency.
QUESTION 5b
What if you sell Canonical or if it goes bust?
ANSWER 5b
Well were Canonical to be sold one would assume the buyers would want to continue to support ?Ubuntu. If Canonical goes bust Ubuntu would continue as an open source project and would survive to thrive depending on how active the community remains around it.
QUESTION 5c
Or, what if Canonical stops supporting Ubuntu and starts supporting another similar but commercial distro with just a different name and license?
ANSWER 5c
I don't think that is realistic
QUESTION 6a
What kind of services does Canonical provide (i.e. what do you mean by saying professional services or engineering services)?
ANSWER 6a
I am going to copy the new company description which I think does a good job of summarising our services.
Canonical provides engineering, online and professional services to Ubuntu partners and customers worldwide. As the founder of the Ubuntu project, Canonical is committed to the production and support of Ubuntu - an ever-popular and fast-growing open-source operating system. It aims to ensure that Ubuntu is available to every organisation and individual on servers, desktops, laptops and netbooks. Canonical partners with computer hardware manufacturers to certify Ubuntu, provides migration, deployment, support and training services to businesses, and offers online services direct to end users. Canonical also builds and maintains collaborative, open-source development tools to ensure that organisations and individuals can participate fully in innovations within the open-source community.
QUESTION 6b
What kind of services does Canonical's customers mainly ask for?
ANSWER 6b
OEMs ask for Ubuntu, often customised to ship on some range of product. Larger businesses ask for help with migration from one operating system to another. Businesses also ask for their new Ubuntu infrastructure to be supported.
QUESTION 7a
Do you have any plans about opening offices or subsidiaries of Canonical in European Countries, Greece included, to provide support and other services to professionals, companies, or even governmental agencies? … our feeling is that a local support office is a necessity!
ANSWER 7a
No plans at this point for Greece. We will likely partner there to deliver a service like that.
QUESTION 7b
If your answer is that Canonical's choice is to provide support for companies that provide support for Ubuntu, first, many free software experts in Greece who work as free-lancers would like to know whether Canonical also provides support for professionals that provide support for Ubuntu, and, second, it would be useful to give us the general framework of such a partnership as well as a few examples to make it comprehensible.
ANSWER 7b
That was my answer
There is a partner program which you can read about on the website. The process is to apply there stating what kind of partner you want to become. If you want to resell our support services or provide local support you need to join the programme and be verified that you have the required skills or have taken the required training.
http://www.abiss.gr is a Greek partner I think providing solutions based on Ubuntu. I would think it is a good idea to ask them about the process.
QUESTION 7c
The quality of support that is provided from the Ubuntu community, both in Greece and worldwide, is outstanding! How do you think that a Canonical's local office should be positioned in the local market in order to support and not de-motivate the members of the local Community?
ANSWER 7c
Local community support and the commercial support offered by Canonical are not the same thing. A contract with Ubuntu provides IP infringement indemnity. It guarantees a response in a certain time period. It is also an insurance policy for a business who will never risk converting their services or desktops to an unsupported OS. It is also only ever going to be used by a small number of people compared with those who use the free/community support. And those that use it will continue to participate in the open support forums. So there should be no demotivation – the two are compatible but different.
QUESTION 7d
Which would you wish to be the relationship between Canonical and Ubuntu Community?
ANSWER 7d
That's a good question and a long answer. The two should support one another. The long term survival of the Ubuntu is dependent on the success of Canonical. And the success of Canonical is dependent on the health of the community. So the two are inextricably co-dependent. There is a suspicion about the activities of Canonical by some or many in the community that is unhealthy at times and conversely, there can be a lack of understanding within Canonical about the key role that the community plays. The solution to both is communication and mutual co-operation. As a company Canonical is unusually open, it needs to be and we are willing (even if it takes a long time) to respond to and explain what it is we are doing. So this is a great opportunity for example. I feel sometimes that we do not get asked often enough and that this breeds suspicion as to our motives and actions.
So internally we work hard so that new employees understand the cloud. We do need to work harder, probably st finding ways to interface with the community. The community on their should probably be more interested in what we do. I have been told on more than one occasion by community members that they don;t care what Canonical does. I think that attitude is mistaken.
QUESTION 8
Ubuntu-gr, the Greek community of Ubuntu, is based on meritocracy, i.e. those who participate and have a significant offer to the Community make the decisions in a democratic way. This model, based on emergent leadership from within the community, is not very clear to someone outside the community, but reality indicates that it works fine. What are your thoughts on the community and the ways it functions?
ANSWER 8
A democracy is not a meritocracy though - you can't have both and as the Greeks invented them you should know this
I am not an expert on the community and how it works. It does however seem to work very well and is certainly more a meritocracy and than a democracy as those who contribute more should have more of a say in how things are run.
