Honestly, I am OK either way. But I will say right here and now that if they decide to start supporting servers, thus allowing their desktop venture to lose importance, I will be greatly disappointed with them.

Anyone who follows Linux closely knows that Ubuntu is the most popular community distribution. But, is that enough for Ubuntu to make a go of it as a commercial business distribution? It looks like we’re going to get to find out.

Canonical Ltd., Mark Shuttleworth’s UK-based company, has never made a secret of the fact that it has intended to support Ubuntu both as a free of cost Linux and as a commercial venture.

That last part, though, has often been overlooked. During the last year-and-a-half, however, it has become clear that Canonical is moving toward making a real business of providing commercial support and customized distributions for business Ubuntu users.

Specially, Shuttleworth has said, in his Ubuntu wiki, that Canonical “will never introduce a ‘commercial’ version of Ubuntu. There will never be a difference between the ‘commercial’ product and the ‘free’ product, as there is with Red Hat (RHEL and Fedora). Ubuntu releases will always be free.” However, “There are proprietary apps that are certified for Ubuntu. Some Ubuntu-derivatives, like Impi (a South-African customized business Linux distribution) are targeted toward vertical markets that demand specific software, currently proprietary, which they bundle.”

Indeed, Shuttleworth started off the Ubuntu Foundation with a $10-million donation “to distinguish the philanthropic and non-commercial work that is at the heart of the Ubuntu project from the commercial support and certification program that is the focus of Canonical Ltd.”

Since then, Canonical has been putting the bricks in place for a major commercial Ubuntu launch…. Source: Linux Watch

[tags]distribution,ubuntu,business,commercial,canonical[/tags]