What Canonical Is Doing Right To Boost Ubuntu Market Share

      by Wyatt Walter

No, this isn’t one of those “year of the Linux desktop” posts. Linux on the desktop as well as the community have a long ways to go in usability as well as other issues before it’s ready for mainstream. It’s not that I don’t like using Linux on my desktop or that I don’t like promoting it. It’s that I can’t drive to Best Buy and pick out software to run on my Ubuntu machine. There are some great things, though that Canonical has done to give Ubuntu a pretty good-sized market share.

Desktop usability initiative
Canonical has launched its “One Hundred Paper Cuts” initiative that is focusing on eliminating one hundred “paper cuts” or annoying usability bugs in Ubuntu by the release of 9.10. The program allows users to submit bugs from Canonical’s Launchpad as “paper cuts”. Through the initiative, Canonical has shown interest in the end user as well as focus on getting rid of annoyances for end users. This is crucial as often one of the biggest complaints (as well as my own) is that the GUI tools take one most of the way to where one needs to be, but then you have to jump to the command line to get the rest of the way. This is fine by me, but quite annoying for users coming from Windows.

Directory services server
While Canonical has let us know that they have very limited resources to throw at this project right now, they are working on a centralized management service for Ubuntu-based networks, much like Active Directory. This is an absolute must in larger environments where large amounts of desktops need to be managed by a relatively small amount of administrators. There is already a version called Edubuntu that allows administrators to create network-bootable images so machines boot off the network, but that’s significantly different than standalone managed desktops.

Backing by major PC manufacturers
Canonical seems to have made significant strides in achieving support from major PC manufacturers, but they seem to be really making some headway with HP. End users don’t want to drive home from the PC store, download an .iso, burn it to a CD, install the OS, and then finally start playing with their new PC. Pre-built machines exist, but aren’t pushed with large manufacturers’ full weight behind them. Users also don’t want to buy a PC and risk hardware compatibility. Canonical’s move to ‘certify’ Ubuntu 9.04 on on HP Proliant servers will hopefully be copied into the consumer market and with other manufacturers. The market certainly isn’t ready for a step away from WIndows en mass by large manufacturers, but Canonical seems to be going in the right direction with its relationship with HP. There are smaller PC makers like System76 who sell Ubuntu-based PCs exclusively, but, unfortunately, big names and brands do a lot more in the consumer market than smaller ones.

A thriving community
Canonical has built an incredible community around Ubuntu. Their forums are alive and active and full of helpful people. Sure, there’s some trolls like any forums, but for the most part the forums are a great place for help as well as a very vibrant, supportive community. The Ubuntu community also rises to the occasion when their operating system is insulted. Sometimes to the extreme. Of course, extremism is not good, but it shows the power and draw of the community.

While Ubuntu certainly has a long ways to go, Canonical has positioned itself quite well and has been gaining some momentum in a very big way. Currently, Ubuntu seems like a very dominant Linux distro, but with the right strategy it could become a dominant player in the overall operating system market.

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Filed under Tech Trends : Comments (0) : Jun 18th, 2009

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