Imagine you are Mark Shuttleworth. You run Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux. You’re eager to line up more independent software vendors (ISVs) and server partners. Meanwhile, Michael “Monty” Widenius — one of MySQL’s founders — has resigned from Sun Microsystems. Hmmm. The VAR Guy thinks Shuttleworth needs to dial Monty and say “Let’s Make a Deal.” Here’s why.
First, The VAR Guy isn’t looking to start any rumors. By all indications Widenius has left Sun to launch his own company — called Monty Program Ab. You’ll find some perspectives about Widenius in Matt Asay’s blog — The Open Road.
Looking ahead, might a consulting relationship be in the making between Widenius and Canonical? The VAR Guy sure hopes so. Let’s look at the situation:
- MySQL has the rather incredible ability to recruit ISVs (independent software vendors) to its database platform. Thousands of ISVs and OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) back MySQL.
- Roughly 2,000 of ISVs and customers will converge during the MySQL Conference in April.
- Surely, Widenius has a massive Rolodex of ISVs and partners that rallied to MySQL’s cause.
- Meanwhile, Canonical is making a server push but needs more ISVs and hardware partners.
Hmmm. The potential synergies here seem obvious to The VAR Guy. But will Canonical pick up the phone and call Widenius?
The VAR Guy is updated multiple times daily. Don’t miss a single post. Subscribe to his newsletter, RSS feed, Twitter feed and Resource Center.
Read More About This Topic
Share This Post
Interact: Add a Comment | Trackback Link | Permalink
Subscribe: RSS Feed
Don't miss Charlene O'Hanlon's weekly columns...
Just one problem, Monsieur le VAR: Monty hasn’t been actively involved in MySQL operations for…years. He’s not the guy that has set up MySQL’s business operations. Far from it. He’s not the business side of MySQL. He’s a great technical leader, but even in that department he’s been offline for MySQL for a long time.
This isn’t to disparage Monty, but rather to disparage the idea that he’d be much of a help with Canonical’s business, which is already heavy with ideals and needs more capitalist pigs.
Matt: You reply to blog posts nearly as quickly as The VAR Guy writes them. You have a solid point re: Monty not being involved in MySQL business operations. But developers are a tight bunch. And Canonical could certainly use access to Monty’s Rolodex …
Still, you’ve shot down The VAR Guy pretty aggressively here. So our resident blogger is wondering: Is the blog post off base or will readers rally to our blogger’s cause? (That’s a thinly veiled S.O.S. from The VAR Guy to readers…)
Networking. It could not do Canonical one little bit of harm to add to its list of friends. Maybe Widenius needs Ubuntu in some way…
Robert: Perhaps it’s time for somebody to send Monty a gift-wrapped netbook running Ubuntu, with all the browser home pages set to Canonical.com…
Did you ever consider that Monty may already use Ubuntu? You may be pleasantly surprised.
Really, TVG what does Monty bring? The reason Ubuntu is lacking ISV’s is not because they cannot recruit them. You will find a HUGE list of ISVs supporting Ubuntu, but where is the “master” list? I guess you need to ask Steve George. Canonical really needs to publish this list because I do believe you will be pleasantly surprise as to the number of supported applications that do exist out there, but are not compiled into one, easy to find directory. I would venture to guess that this list rivals that of Red Hat and Novell.
Linux Loner: Yes, Ubuntu is gaining ISVs. But The VAR Guy doubts they are close to Novell and Red Hat on actual ISV numbers. During LinuxWorld companies like OpenBravo vowed to port their applications to Ubuntu. But The VAR Guy hears some ISVs are behind on their promised Ubuntu support.
And yes: You’re absolutely right. Canonical needs to publish that list of ISVs and celebrate/promote it. Thanks for reading.