Post-Canonical Linux?

[Bill Tetzeli]

I've started wondering lately, what would be the fate of the dozens of Ubuntu-based derivatives if in the next few years Canonical either goes out of business or decides to stop supporting Ubuntu? I've read that Shuttleworth has said he'll put his money into Ubuntu for another few years, but no word of what's beyond that. Would the Ubuntu-based distros survive? Would Canonical allow someone else to maintain their repositories, which Ubuntu-based distros depend on? Or would we all have to move on to Debian, Arch, Mageia, Fedora or OpenSUSE and their derivatives?

I'm a semi-distro hopper myself - hopping, but mainly in the Ubuntu puddle. I could probably adapt easily enough to jumping outside it (certainly easier than my transition from Windows), but the Ubuntu-based distros always seem the easiest to install and set up an SSH-secured VNC connection with (which I do with all of my computers). So like I said I could adapt to a post-Ubuntu world, but I'd like the derived distros to stick around if that's possible.

Sorry if I'm being a worry-wart. The Windows 8 fiasco taught me it's better to anticipate change than be caught off guard by it, though.

[mastablasta]

as i udnerstand it the OS is made by community anyway. Canonical just glues it all together, adds some of their own enhancements, coordinates all, offer profesional support...

debian has been arround far longer and is purely community driven.

[sffvba[e0rt]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Foundation

$10m assurance of continuance for some time to come if needed.

[3rdalbum]

Mark Shuttleworth has put a couple of million dollars into the Ubuntu Foundation "in case I get hit by a bus". If anything happens to Canonical, the community can continue making and releasing Ubuntu.

Linux Mint made an edition based on Debian, so even if Ubuntu wasn't around, you'd probably get the stronger derivatives basing themselves on Debian instead. Perhaps banding together a little to maintain a common Ubuntu-like base from Debian, maintaining many of the Ubuntu-specific tools and utilities (Software Center, Jockey, Ubiquity, Unity).

In short, I wouldn't worry too much. I worry more that Unity and Mir would be abandoned if Canonical went under, as these are the more complex and less essential parts of Ubuntu in the community's eyes.

[tgalati4]

The bigger threat is for Canonical to be bought out by Oracle or Yahoo! or--wait-for-it--Microsoft.

[grahammechanical]

Ubuntu is open source. Whether Ubuntu will continue to be developed if Canonical was sold and the new owners took Canonical in a purely profit making direction will depend upon community developers (including you and me) being willing to do the work to keep it going.

As for all the derivatives, well they are already being independently developed. They will continue as they are until the developers get fed up or pushed out or die. The derivatives are an example of what could happen if Canonical was no longer involved in developing Ubuntu. It is called "forking the code."

Linux distributions come and ago.

Regards.

[craig10x]

Perhaps google would buy it...maybe ubuntu would become the future Chrome Os (as a full fledged OS and not just a cloud oriented one)...

[Bill Tetzeli]

Agreed on all counts. Lots more questions, but I figure there's only so much speculating one can do before being lost completely in the weeds. I suppose I should just be grateful that there are enough options out there that will be far less of an adjustment than switching to Windows was for me. As long as there's an OS out there that's easy to install, works with my hardware and will allow me to connect via SSH-secured VNC from one computer to another (prior to login on the remote computer, natch! which means the wireless is up and running by then), then I have zero zip zilch worries.

Muchos gracias, todos!

[sffvba[e0rt]

Perhaps google would buy it...maybe ubuntu would become the future Chrome Os (as a full fledged OS and not just a cloud oriented one)...

If Google wanted to go that route they simply fork and re-brand, except if they needed all of the people and infrastructure that Canonical has, which I doubt looking at the size difference in companies.

[craig10x]

Good Point, not found...and Chrome Os of course is linux and i think i read somewhere that it is loosely based on ubuntu (at least originally it was)...Chrome Books are selling pretty well...if only we would see ubuntu computers in the stores in the United States and other major countries as i think that would help a lot to make canonical more profitable...and assure it's longevity