“2004 has already been an eventful year for Linux,” writes ZDNet's Jack Wallen. “As I reported at the time, SCO was trying to put Linux out of business. Red Hat was shutting down Red Hat Linux 9 and launching Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for businesses, Abandoning Linux end-user fandom for customers. Oh, and South African tech billionaire and astronaut Mark Shuttleworth. [also a Debian Linux developer] We started Canonical, the parent company of Ubuntu Linux.
“Little did I, or anyone else, imagine that Canonical would become one of the world's leading Linux companies.”
Mark Shuttleworth answered questions from Slashdot readers in 2005 and 2012. And this year, Canonical celebrates his 20th anniversary. US ZDNet reports as follows.
From the beginning, Canonical's purpose has been to support and share free and open source software. Then, as now, Ubuntu was based on his Debian Linux. Unlike Debian, which missed deadlines it could never meet, Ubuntu was set to update to the latest desktop, kernel, and infrastructure with new releases every six months. Canonical has maintained that pace for 20 years, with the exception of the Ubuntu 6.06 release…
Released in October 2004, Ubuntu Linux quickly became synonymous with ease of use, stability, and security, bridging the gap between the power of Linux and the ease of use demanded by end users. Canonical's early years were characterized by rapid innovation and community building. The Ubuntu community, a vibrant and passionate group of developers and users, was at the heart of the project. Forums, wikis, and IRC channels were active, with people from all over the world coming together to contribute code, report bugs, write documentation, and support each other.
Canonical's influence extends beyond the desktop. For example, Ubuntu Linux is the number one cloud operating system. Ubuntu started as a community desktop distribution but is now a major enterprise Linux powerhouse [also widely use as a server and Internet of Things operating system.]
This article mentions that Canonical created the Unity desktop in 2011. (“Ubuntu Unity is still around, but the open source project has had his nine lives, but is now on the sidelines. Ubuntu has renewed his commitment to the GNOME desktop… ”)
But the article also notes that 2016 saw the arrival of Ubuntu Snap, a containerized way to install software, which, along with rival Red Hat's Flatpak, helped Linux gain desktop popularity. He also claims that there is.
