Mark Shuttleworth talks about Canonical's next steps
Do Differently
We sat down with Mark Shuttleworth, the founder and CEO of Canonical, to talk about the future of Ubuntu and the company.
Canonical has sponsored the popular Ubuntu Linux since the founding of the Ubuntu project in 2004. Over the years, Ubuntu has become one of the most popular desktop operating systems, and Canonical has branched out into several other areas of the IT space. On the enterprise side, the company has emerged as the third major Linux vendor, alongside SUSE and Red Hat.
Over most of its history, Canonical has been a fixture in the consumer space, where it tried to establish Ubuntu as a viable alternative to Windows and almost succeeded. Canonical has also taken on big players like Apple and Google for a place in the phone market. The company has launched many in-house projects, including the Unity desktop, the MIR display server, and the Snap package environment.
Eventually, Shuttleworth and other Canonical leaders realized the company was trying to bite off more than it could chew, as it fought on simultaneous fronts with heavyweights such as Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Samsung. Canonical is now restructuring and is getting out of the consumer space to focus on the enterprise market.
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