Mark Shuttleworth has announced he is stepping down as CEO of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu. When I first read this headline, I panicked a little and thought he was withdrawing his support from the Ubuntu project, but upon reading further, the opposite seems to be true. He plans to devote his energy to “product design, partnerships and customers“. The current Chief Operations Officer, Jane Silber, will take over as CEO in March next year.
To quote from Mark’s blog:
I’ve become very passionate about design and quality, and want to spend more time figuring out how we harness the collaborative process to build better, more insightful products. I can’t think of a more interesting challenge, and luckily I couldn’t think of a better person to take over my formal management and leadership responsibilities at Canonical than Jane.
I’m interested that he wants to devote more time to “partnerships” as I believe we can see the fruits of his labour here already. After five years, Ubuntu is becoming a real contender in the market. For example, Dell offers PCs and Laptops with Ubuntu pre-installed, as they have down for some time, however these models are no longer buried so deeply within their site that it is almost impossible to find them. Dell is giving Ubuntu a far higher profile than it has in the past. Also, when Windows 7 was released (a huge event in the computer world), many mainstream publications did a comparison between Ubuntu Karmic and Windows 7, as they were both released around the same time. Here in the UK, there was a review on the front page for the BBC News site for a few days, plus more coverage within the Technology News section. To be even mentioned in the same breath as Windows 7 shows just how mainstream Ubuntu is becoming. And late next year, there will be the release of Chrome Operating System – a collaboration between Canonical and Google – which will no doubt guarantee more publicity for Ubuntu. It will be interesting to see what other partnerships and developments come to fruition in the future.
I wish Mark every success in his new role at Canonical.
Welcome! I'm Mesanna, based in the UK, with a lust for computers, web design and other assorted geekery. I mostly write about Linux and tech news, but now and then I enjoy getting on my soap box for a good, old-fashioned rant. I'm rather fond of reading, Mexican food and rock music (sometimes all at the same time). I couldn't live without caffeine and my internet connection.
