Canonical, promoter of the Ubuntu Linux, is hosting an Ubuntu Hardware Summit for PC partners on September 24. The big news involves uTouch, a multi-touch technology, plus a Canonical push to promote dual-boot strategies where Ubuntu and Microsoft Windows coexist. The big question: Can Canonical convince more PC and mobile device makers to embrace Ubuntu amid rising competition from Google Android? Here are some best guesses from The VAR Guy.
First, the facts: During the Ubuntu Hardware Summit, which is expected to attract 200 PC industry members, Canonical will discuss:
- how Canonical works with Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs);
- boot time optimizations, hardware enablement;
- debugging;
- multi-touch;
- networking and more.
This is the second year Canonical is hosting the Ubuntu Hardware Summit. The event, located in Taipei, Taiwan, arrives roughly five months after Canonical shipped Ubuntu 10.04, a long term support (LTS) release designed for servers, desktops, mobile devices and private clouds. As an LTS release, Ubuntu 10.04 potentially provides customers and partners with long-term peace of mind on the support front.
Mobile and Desktop Moves
Canonical wants to attract more mobile device makers to Ubuntu. With that goal in mind, the conference will include:
“A session on the uTouch gesture suite that will make its first appearance in the 10.10.10 build of Ubuntu. The code is published under GPLv3 and LGPLv3. Updating from Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04 to 10.10 will automatically include uTouch and Unity uTouch.”
At the same time, Canonical remains committed to the traditional PC market. Instead of positioning Ubuntu as an all-or-nothing replacement for Windows, Canonical is educating PC makers about potential dual-boot strategies. Specifically, the conference includes a Canonical session that describes:
“how Ubuntu can be included as a dual boot option with Windows. A discussion technically on how this is done without BIOS modification.”
Rising Competition
The Ubuntu Hardware Summit arrives as Canonical faces rising competition across multiple markets. During 2007 and 2008, Canonical seemed to have significant momentum — particularly in the netbook and desktop PC markets. At the time, Microsoft’s Windows Vista was a stalled operating system on PCs, and Microsoft didn’t have a competitive answer on netbooks.
Fast forward to the present and many of Ubuntu’s target markets have changed drastically:
- Netbooks: Microsoft got its act together with Windows 7, and it’s now difficult to find Linux netbooks in the U.S. retail channel.
- Notebooks: Here again, Windows 7 has won widespread respect, and Apple continues to dominate the higher-end ($1000.00+) notebook market.
- PCs: Aside from niche suppliers like System76 and ZaReason, Canonical has not attracted major U.S. PC makers to promote Ubuntu as a PC preload.
- Emerging Mobile Devices: Canonical in 2008 or so had hoped to develop a market for so-called Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). But today, it seems like Apple and Google Android are locked in a war to dominate tablets and smart phones.
Next Moves
Despite those competitive threats, Canonical apparently remains in growth mode. The company’s career site currently lists nearly 30 job openings — a pretty large number, considering Canonical has roughly 350 employees.
Meanwhile, Canonical continues to diversify and has been attracting new ISVs to Ubuntu. Pushing beyond its core Ubuntu business, Canonical is trying to build revenue streams around personal cloud computing (Ubuntu One), remote systems management (Canonical Landscape), and service opportunities for enterprises and consumers.
On the ISV front, Canonical is expected to host the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Orlando (Oct. 25-29, 2010).
The VAR Guy will be listening closely for OEM and ISV reaction from both the Ubuntu Hardware Summit and the Ubuntu Developer Summit.
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I have visited with the Canonical folks several times over the last few years, and as exciting as they are there is still no way for many 3rd parties (software/hardware) to work with them to generate revenue. There is no ‘real’ Canonical app. store to speak of, and no way to market to the install base. Until they solve this real issue (and I am encouraged that they understand and are working on this) Ubunutu commercial growth will remain pretty stagnant IMHO.
I agree with Andrew there. It’s pretty difficult to define what Canonical is and does, get hold of them and really develop on their platform. However, that’s not unusual since it’s pretty difficult for many third parties to develop along with any Linux distribution.
In a way, it’s a similar story to Novell. After six years, to be brutally honest, I don’t see that they have a platform in Ubuntu that is anywhere near attractive or different from competitors like Red Hat or even Novell. With a lot of initiatives like Ubuntu One, cloud computing and others it just feels like they’re shooting around hoping to hit something. What they should be doing is focusing on Ubuntu itself and having a long, hard and objective look at it because despite it’s apparent weight in the open source world it merely looks like any other distribution.
Oh, and once you start diluting things by promoting dual-boot your’re already telling people you’re not good enough. That’s the harsh reality.
Andrew: The VAR Guy will be sure to ask Canonical can market to Ubuntu’s installed base during the next briefing with Canonical. You raised a great point and The VAR Guy will be sure to follow up.
Segedunum: The VAR Guy agrees fully with your point about dual boot. When IBM promoted OS/2 as a dual-boot option with Windows, the strategy failed miserably because customers stuck with what they knew… Windows.
-TVG
The distro is called Ubuntu, not Ubuntu Linux.
2euro: The VAR Guy realizes your point is accurate. But The VAR Guy also worries constantly about search engine optimization (SEO)?
-TVG
>A discussion technically on how this is done without BIOS modification
Since when has Linux needed a BIOS modification to dual-boot with Windows?
This quote makes it sound like it does.
Wow that’s exciting that they’re hiring 30 people, that indicates to me as a complete layperson that they’re preparing to do even more awesome development. Ubuntu provides a stable, inviting, and very-fast computing environment for normal users to do what they need to do. Ubuntu is so much faster than Windows 7 on my laptop it’s not even funny. I hate waiting for Windows to load after logging in…with Ubuntu, its like BAM and it’s ready. Once major video game providers like Blizzard offer native Linux clients or some virtualization suite allows playing modern Windows games under Ubuntu, I’ll drop Windows. MS Office is a problem; OpenOffice just can’t cut it vs Excel 2007+ for lots of things (but not MOST things). Anyway I love Ubuntu; it’s so much easier to maintain, it’s faster, it’s more secure and stable, and I just feel better running it.
Well, Var, maybe the following quote might describe Ubuntu (and Linux in general) vs. Windows:
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Mahatma Gandhi.
Mark@8: The VAR Guy isn’t a dual-boot expert so he doesn’t have the answer handy.
Abi@10: The VAR Guy appreciates your comment. Yes, that quote seems to be applied frequently to Microsoft’s view of Linux. On the server, it seems like Microsoft dismissed Linux too long and wound up with a heck of a fight on its hands. In the mobile market, it seems like Windows 7 arrived just in time to win back the netbook market from early Linux progress…
-TVG
>The VAR Guy isn’t a dual-boot expert so he doesn’t have the answer handy.
No BIOS modification is necessary, indeed the BIOS’s function is only to initialise hardware, locate the bootloader, execute it, and pass control over to it.
The Linux GRUB or LILO bootloaders have never required BIOS modification… if they did, Linux wouldn’t work on a standard PC.
I’m guessing they mean either
a) without changing the Windows bootloader
or
b) without changing the partitioning scheme and/or file system… as in using the WUBI installer.
Mark@12: The VAR Guy appreciates your educated guesses.
-TVG
Hardware Partners for PC and Notebook should have also mentioned DELL!
Au Quang Hien: Fair point. Dell definitely deserves a mention. But the company’s pre-load options for Ubuntu have appeared and disappeared (and reappeared) on http://www.dell.com/ubuntu several times over the past two years or so…
-TVG
I think what Canonical need to do is to convince the likes of Adobe to port their apps to Linux and you will see much more people using Ubuntu. I made the move to Ubuntu about three years ago and almost all my systems are running Ubuntu but it is always difficult to make Dreamweaver et al run via wine.
I also think they should focus on emerging markets. Here in Nigeria for example, if Canonical can step up their marketing, a lot of companies may likely jump ship. What is holding people back is the awareness and support.
I have migrated quite a number of people to Ubuntu and they have not looked back…and these are noobs.
VARs will always support system that have the market. It’s all about the money.
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