I think a company dedicated to providing a Linux based desktop OS is essential if we want to see Linux move forward. We need a company the OEMs like Dell and HP and Asus etc can work with and get behind to provide a quality desktop Linux OS.

It’s great that Ubuntu is completely free to use. But even free to use needs to be funded some how. Developers need to eat. Canonical have proven with Ubuntu and it’s many branches it has the chops to deliver a quality user experience on the desktop.

Taking the desktop would also open up the server market for Canonical. Sort of like a right of passage. A Canonical OS would be on the desktop. Then on the servers of SMBs. File servers and print servers etc. And from their the worlds your oyster if you get it right.

Yes I know everything is meant to be headed for the cloud. But that won’t happen. And even if it does. We still need our desktop PC or terminals to host access to the cloud.

By the way. I know the vast majority of people think taking the desktop from Microsoft is impossible. I don’t think it is. I might be insane but I consider such a defeatist attitude pitiful. I think all that is needed is the right incentive for business and consumers to make the leap. That incentive is applications.

When a Linux distribution can provide the full range of applications the desktop market needs. Linux will take the desktop. It doesn’t matter if those applications live in the cloud or are native to Linux. Applications are the key to the desktop.

Dave

It’s much easier for Canonical to let you and others repeat inaccurate estimates like they are gospel fact than it is for Canonical to submit to any level of transparent scrutiny of how the count. If you care about accurate deployment numbers you need to convince Canonical to at a minimum explain how they are making their estimate. A number without methodology has no meaning.

-jef

In any case, this is an interesting topic and I’d like to explore it further–maybe in another post. Looking forward to your continued thoughts.

When Shuttleworth is on record as saying that Canonical has no idea what the actual Ubuntu clients in the wild…the burden of proof is on anyone making the claim that Ubuntu is a dominate linux desktop marketshare. Methodology matters. Stop repeating hearsay like its unassailable fact and start producing credible objective information which supports the claim.

Chris, if you don’t think its a matter of debate then you aren’t talking to the right people. If all you do is talk to people who want to believe that Ubuntu is dominate so badly that they don’t care about whether the available data supports the claim or not.. then no of course you aren’t going to find yourself in a debate. I’m not one of those people however. Neither is the Xandros CEO:.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/03/xandros_custom_linux/print.html

“We have the largest paid installed base of consumer Linux users,” boasts Smith. “We’ve got millions of these things out there, and while Ubuntu has a lot, too, most of theirs are free.”

Unlike Canonical..when Xandros CEO’s says millions he’s talking about actual paid-for installs…installs he can count without hand-wavy estimating. When Canonical talks about millions they are talking about installs they can’t count, they can’t track. And they sure aren’t talking about their OEM pre-install figures…numbers they know without hand-wavy estimation.

-jef

sinaisix: thanks for the comment and glad you enjoy the posts. I’m checking out yours right now.

1) Your’s is a strong accusation. You are saying that Canonical is lying (or are you directing the last sentence at Chris?). Either way, do you have any evidence whatsoever to back up your accusation? Surely the burden of proof is on you to show that Canonical or Chris are repeating lies.

2) chill out, man. You could have made exactly the same point without coming across as a strident, opinionated troll. Surely you appreciate civilized conversations? We are all friends here.

All I’ve seen are numbers pulled out of thin air. Canonical execs have NEVER deemed it necessary to explain how they come up with the estimated 8 million users. They don’t explain how they track that or what they track. Until they go on record and explain how they come up with that estimate..that estimate is fantasy. Repeat a lie enough times and it becomes true.

-jef