The VAR Guy

Canonical’s CEO crown officially transitioned from Mark Shuttleworth to Jane Silber on March 1. During a phone discussion with The VAR Guy yesterday, Silber shared her top priorities for Canonical and Ubuntu. She also disclosed plans to make another key executive hire at Canonical. And, Silber shared some views on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx), the cloud — and the potential sale of Linux rival Novell to a hedge fund. Here’s a recap of the discussion…

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, is considering a new version of its Landscape remote management tool that may appeal to solutions providers and service providers. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

At first glance, Google Apps and Microsoft are the horses to beat in the online software suite race. But The VAR Guy remains preoccupied with a dark horse called Zoho, which just launched Writer 2.0 and continues to gain moment across multiple software as a service (SaaS) fronts.

On desktops and Netbooks, it has been a stellar year for Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux distribution. But on the server, Ubuntu continues to face long-term challenges in terms of application and vendor support. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

Businesses don’t buy operating systems. They buy applications. With that fact in mind, Canonical is gradually expanding its online store for Ubuntu Linux applications. It’s a smart move — but solutions providers will need to keep their expectations for the store under control. Here’s why.

Businesses are catching on to Ubuntu, Canonical’s Linux distribution. The latest example: Gameloft, a major mobile games developer, has moved more than 1,000 desktops to Ubuntu, according to a source who reached out to The VAR Guy. But Gameloft isn’t alone. The VAR Guy’s research is tracking hundreds of companies moving to Ubuntu. Here’s the scoop.

Some small businesses and start-ups are standardizing on Ubuntu Server Edition because it’s a low-cost alternative to Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 and 2008. The VAR Guy wonders: Could a bigger trend be coming? Will hundreds — or thousands — of small businesses make the move to Ubuntu Server Edition?