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Canonical Close To $30M Critical Mass; Should Microsoft Worry?
ruphus13 writes "Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical, claims that the company is very close to the $30M mark, at which point, they will be a self-sustaining company. While people feel that this should not worry Microsoft, the real question is whether a 10,000 person effort on a failure like Vista can actually be the paradigm of a long-term strategy. From the article: 'Microsoft had 10,000 people [the article is unclear whether these were all developers, or administrative and support staff were factored in] working on Vista for a five year period ... huge profits in any given year can mean relatively little five years on. Canonical's self-sustaining revenue may not be threatening — but it leaves one wondering how sustainable Microsoft's development process really is.'"
I'd love to have a 'failure' like Vista!
I disagree. Most guides out there for ubuntu involve terminal commands. If you want to do something simple, like isntall wow, your gonna be inside of the terminal.
Canonical is the company that produces Ubuntu.
Just like:
Microsoft is the company that produces Windows.
Apple is the company that produces OS X.
Ubuntu is the most popular desktop version of Linux, probably because there's a large focus on being user friendly. One of their main slogans is: "Linux for human beings".
Yes. See 'restricted drivers manager'.
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The article clearly describes it as revenue.
Maybe because, until very very recently, it was totally free to develop in .NET but you had to pay to develop commercial programs in QT? In fact, not long ago, even open source Windows programs in QT required fees. (Linux ones were free.)
Blame QT for that, not the developers.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
This is also true of my customers (I sell Ubuntu machines). Really. You can go awfully far without ever needing to know the terminal's there.
Hey, I finally got my first freak! Took you long enough!
I think this is already possible. I believe that on http://www.mythbuntu.org/existing-ubuntu all I pushed was "Install Mythbuntu" and it opened up the package manager with a big install button. I pushed it, inserted my password, and let it run.
I am a marketing droid. One of the things that has always been confusing to me is how I sign up. There seems to be lots of places where a developer can sign up, or even just start coding in spare time, submit a few changes etc. Perhaps I haven't looked lately, but I don't see any places that want my help.?
Maybe you didn't :)
This was the first hit of a simple Google search for me.
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
Same card here, has worked with the manager for ages (HP nc6400 FWIW)
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
Yes..
My blog
I wonder how hard it would be to make it possible to do links in a browser that install packages. Of course, you would need the appropriate messages and user interaction, but, say you could have an instruction page that says: Install [Apache] [PHP5] [MySQL]. The user clicks on Apache in their browser, it opens a package manager, and prompts them to confirm they actually want to install it.
It's been done; Klik is your answer. From the Wikipedia article:
.cmg file per application. Each one is self-contained: it includes all libraries the application depends on and that are not part of the base system. In this regard, it is similar to "application virtualization". One can klik a file even if they are not a superuser, or they are using a live CD.
.cmg file. In this way, one recipe can be used to supply packages to a wide variety of platforms.
klik does not "install" software in the traditional sense (i.e., it does not put files all over the place in the system). It uses one
klik is integrated with web browsers on the user's computer. Users download and install software by typing a URL beginning with klik://. This downloads a klik "recipe" file, which is used to generate the
It is what they're comfortable with, but trying to give people verbal of text instructions in a GUI is an exercize in plucking yourself bald hair by hair. Now click the little picture that looks kinda like a deformed dog.... No, the schnauzer, not the husky.
No matter how cryptic a text command might be, it is unambiguous in a text based document (just cut and paste if you want to be really sure). It can be relayed unambiguously verbally as well. That might be a pain, but describing similar looking icons verbally always leaves room for doubt.
It's not really that GUI instructions make the most sense, it's more that it's what they're used to however little sense it makes.
link to install gimp works on ubuntu 8.04
Not everyone wants to have to fuck with xorg.conf just to get multiple displays working. Hell I don't, but you still have to, even in Ubuntu.
That's no longer true with 8.10. Just installed it from scratch in new hard drive and activating the second monitor was as easy as it is in windows.
HTML is obsolete. It's time for a new, simpler and richer markup language.
That is already there Install apache should work on any ubuntu system on firefox.
This feature already exists.
On Ubuntu (and presumably other apt-based distros?) you can use apturl. It's in the ubuntu repo, though not installed by default. It's still pretty rare to run into an apturl link though (I ran into one on a forum somewhere once?).
Really, people who complain about copy/pasting command lines are just looking for something to complain about though, so I doubt this would satisfy them even if it were widespread. People use the command line because it's the easiest and fastest way to do things, even for a total beginner. Having started a bunch of people off on ubuntu, about half of them using synaptic, and the other half using apt-get, the ones using apt-get always had the easier time.
In any case, if you really want to, you can always try to hunt down the appropriate software online, and then pay for it just like you would for windows, so the whole argument is a little silly
This already works since Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) released over a year ago: https://wiki.edubuntu.org/AptUrl - just write a link that goes "apt:fortunes;frozen-bubble" instead of http://whatever/ and when an Ubuntu user clicks on this, it runs the equivalent of "apt-get install fortunes frozen-bubble". You can install any number of apps launched with a single click, and it's safe because they come from the repositories defined on the user's machine in /etc/apt/sources.list.
Already done. Try: install kaffeine install gimp It isn't cross packet manager however
The first thing you might have to do is change the way you look at things. In most free software development, we don't start with an idea and then try to sell it. Instead we start with a need and then try to fulfill it.
One of the reasons free software developers don't think about marketing is that it is often irrelevant to their goals. They have a need. They write software to fill the need. They are happy. If others also have their need filled, then the original developer is even more happy.
So doing things like market research isn't needed. It's the tail wagging the dog. We already know what we need, because otherwise we wouldn't be building it (we'd be on the couch drinking beer with the rest of humanity).
As a marketing person, you will have to ask yourself, "What do I want to accomplish?" What is *your* need? If it's that you want to "save the world", then maybe you should talk to the FSF. They have many projects for educating users about free software in general.
Maybe you simply want to help people around you. For instance, I like to help people learn how to use free software in the school I work at. So I volunteer some time to give demos and seminars. Other things you can do is work with people doing "install fests" of Linux. You can meet many ordinary people just wanting to try free software out.
Perhaps you just enjoy the intellectual exercise of finding the "next big thing". In that case, do your market research and present your findings. These days "Bar Camps" are an excellent way to show this kind of information. As you get more of a reputation, more people are likely to listen to you. As others have pointed out, having a tech blog is an excellent way to do this to. Write reviews, interview users, etc, etc, etc.
Finally, maybe you want to make money. Free software companies often need people in sales and marketing. The job entails making cold calls and convincing potential clients that your company can install a custom build of free software for *less* than buying generic software off the shelf. Probably not many places doing that right now, but Red Hat or IBM might be places to throw a resume.
Anyway, I hope that helps. Sometimes it's hard to understand that free software development is practically the reverse of other kinds of development. But one of the most powerful advantages is that initiatives are driven from the individual, not the group. We don't wait around for somebody to tell us what we should be doing. And you don't have to either. Do what you think is best. See what reaction you get. Modify to improve. Repeat. I'm sure you'll get there!