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Ubuntu Linux Claims 12,000 Cloud Deployments

darthcamaro writes "The cloud is more than just hype for Ubuntu. Canonical COO Matt Asay is now saying that they can count 12,000 deployments of the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud. He also thinks the cloud is where Ubuntu can make money — because in his view, the company for the last five years wasn't set up to generate revenue. From the article: 'The conversion of non-paying to paying users is often a difficult ratio to report for any open source effort, and Ubuntu is no exception. Asay noted that Canonical plans to get more aggressive at tracking its free-to-paid ratio on Ubuntu Linux and its related services and technologies. "For the first five years of the company's life, it wasn't set up to make money," Asay said. "The company was set up to make a fantastic Linux distribution and other tools around it and get it out there and get people using it. That was the focus." That's now changing at Canonical as the emphasis is now shifting to generating revenues.'"

13 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. Related Timing? by Requiem18th · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just when I was moving to Debian.

    --
    But... the future refused to change.
    1. Re:Related Timing? by greg1104 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Plymouth originated as a RedHat technology, so expect to see it there too. Wouldn't be surprised to find it in the next Debian too--it's where everybody else is going. The ability to "degrade" back to simple text mode is supposed to be there. I expect that months from now, part of the standard set of tricks every Linux server admin knows will be how to force Plymouth into text mode. I believe this works:


      plymouth-set-default-plugin text

      /usr/libexec/plymouth/plymouth-update-initrd

      ...presuming that you can get your server booted via single user mode or via rescue disk to execute the commands. Not sure if there's a grub-based solution here that always works; adding "nomodeset" is the first thing to try.

  2. Good for them. by MZeora · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ubuntu is a very nice starting distro to get into the knowledge of Linux. I'm glad they make it work as well as they have (in my experience I had minor issues between 9.04/9.10)
    I hope they can find a way to make proper funding and really make improvements to the other flavors (KDE variant Kubuntu being sometimes quite broken)

    1. Re:Good for them. by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 4, Informative

      If they start charging to get Ubuntu, then the balance tips back in favor of the defacto "standard" OS that everyone else uses.

      They aren't charging people to install Ubuntu on their laptops. They're starting to charge people for support on Ubuntu server and for in the cloud services. The only way you'll be paying for Ubuntu on your desktop is if you need support or if you want to backup your machine online with Ubuntu.

      This is a GPL product. If they were to start charging for a copy, one guy would buy it then give it away for free to everyone else. That's not much of a business model for anyone.

    2. Re:Good for them. by Eevee · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Tightwad and unethical have nothing to do with each other.

  3. 'set up to make a fantastic Linux distribution...' by D4C5CE · · Score: 4, Funny

    The company was set up to make a fantastic Linux distribution and other tools around it and get it out there and get people using it. That was the focus." That's now changing at Canonical as the emphasis is now shifting to generating revenues.

    We're fine with moving priority to the new objective as soon as you've completed the former. ;-)

    Ubuntu 10.04 presumably is not it just yet.

  4. Re:Why choose Ubuntu? Why not something else? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Packetmanager and base layout. The community also counts.

  5. Re:Why choose Ubuntu? Why not something else? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Pure fanboyistic bullshit. If these people were reasoning their choices out, they would use Microsoft Windows 7, the finest operating system yet to come from Redmond. The pure joy of using Microsoft Windows 7 is a bargain at twice the price, I assure you. And security? Brother, let's not even talk about security. Microsoft Windows 7.

  6. Re:So when does Canonical need to start making mon by monoqlith · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Shuttleworth, as far as i can tell, never planned to make money with Canonical and Ubuntu. He's rich enough to subsidize the two indefinitely. So the fact that Ubuntu might now actually start to generate self-sustaining or even profitable revenues is extra credit, and always was. I think any future changes in the companies are still going to reflect the culture of emphasizing a good, widely deployed Desktop Linux rather than necessarily turning a profit.

  7. RHEL by DaMattster · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If I were looking for paid support Linux, I would go with RHEL. They have more experience in this kind of thing and have been around longer. Plus, I like RHEL for enterprise use. It has good tools for use in the enterprise - a certificate management system, a good directory server, deployment tools, etc.

  8. Re:Why choose Ubuntu? Why not something else? by FoolishOwl · · Score: 4, Informative

    The community counts a lot. Also, popularity helps a lot, especially for a FLOSS project. When I go looking for walk-throughs or tutorials for some FLOSS application, Ubuntu is nearly always used as an example. Every distribution has its idiosyncrasies, which of course is why there are different distributions, so it makes life easier if the idiosyncrasies of the distribution you're using are specifically addressed.

    There are some things I like about Fedora -- in general, that it's more conventional in several respects. Canonical is developing a habit of innovating first, documenting later, for important features -- take Upstart, for instance, which handles startup and shutdown processes.

    I notice that I'll read sysadmins saying they like to use Ubuntu on their personal computers, but some other distribution on their servers, usually Debian or CentOS. One expects different things from different computers.

  9. Re:Why choose Ubuntu? Why not something else? by darkpixel2k · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm using Ubuntu right now, but a coworker told me he prefers Fedora (quote: "Any OS that fits on a single CD can't be any good."). Meanwhile my company is using Red Hat for their development.

    What makes one Linux better than another?

    I say the same thing about programming languages. Any application that doesn't carry a runtime dependency of at least a few hundred megs can't be any good. That's why I use the .NET framework. Oh--I also hate freedom and kick puppies.

    --
    There's no place like ::1 (I've completed my transition to IPv6)
  10. Re:You're on to something by Abstrackt · · Score: 4, Funny

    The music industry were complaining that "pirate" was too glamorous. Perhaps they adopted the term "rapist" then copyright infringement would have a bigger stigma.

    I think the music industry already has the whole "raping music" thing covered.

    --
    They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett