Profile: Canonical / Ubuntu
Authors
Rationale
There are so many subjects you could choose to profile, so why did you choose this one? What drew you into wanting to know more about the organization? How did you/your group decide on and agree?
Pharas did not have a preference. I am starting my own linux project (a first) so I was looking at different distros. Ubuntu seemed to be the one I liked the most, so why not find more about it?
Organizational Details
Is the subject of your profile a corporate entity?
Yes, Canonical Ltd.
What type?
A private company limited by shares.
When was it founded?
It was founded on March 5th, 2004.
By whom?
It was founded by Mark Shuttleworth.
Original founder(s) still active?
He is still active within the company.
Publicly Traded? Since when? Initial Stock Price? Current stock price?
The company is not publicly traded.
Has the company made any acquisitions? If yes, which companies, and what were their core products?
The company has made 0 acquisitions.
Has the company made any investments in other companies? If yes, which ones.
The company has made 0 investments.
Number of Employees?
Roughly 500 employees across 30 countries.
Where is HQ?
27th Floor,
Millbank Tower 21-24 Millbank,
London,
SW1P 4QP GBR
Does it have any other offices or locations?
Yes it has offices in London, Boston, Taipei, Montreal, Shanghai, São Paulo and the Isle of Man
Website?
Wikipedia?
Does your organization file any annual reports? Please include links to any relevant documents (i.e. 990, Annual Report, Year in Review, etc...)
Here is the Annual Report for 2013
Communications
Social media for Canonical / Ubuntu
Does your subject participate in social media? If yes, please list a URL for each account, and reach within that community.
- @Canonical - 841 Tweets, 564 Following, 32,000 Followers
- Google+ - 6475 followers, 125,973 page visits
- Facebook - 5086 Likes
Communications channels for Canonical / Ubuntu
What communication channels does your subject use to reach their public? Briefly describe and include a URL for each.
Canonical keeps mostly to the social media listed above for anything not work related.
Canonical / Ubuntu Conference Participation
Does your subject organize or participate in any conferences? If so, list them here, and provide links to any relevant sessions, keynotes, or content.
Ubuntu participates in several conferences. A list can be found here.
Community Architecture
Your subject likely runs or contributes to one or more Open Source products or projects. Choose one (or more) of these and answer the following questions (provide links is applicable).
The project's IRC Channel
Source Code repository
Mail list archive
Documentation
N/A
Other communication channels
N/A
Project Website and/or Blog
Describe the software project, its purpose and goals.
Ubuntu comes from the African word Ubuntu meaning 'humanity to others'. Ubuntu was founded in 2004 as a free and easy to use Linux Desktop that was designed to be part social and part economic: free software, available to everybody on the same terms, and funded through a portfolio of services provided by Canonical. This from Wikipedia.
Give brief history of the project. When was the Initial Commit? The latest commit?
The project started before the initial release on 20 October 2004, The Warty Warthog Release. Ubuntu's latest release was on April 23, 2015, The Vivid Vervet Release.
Who approves patches? How many people?
List - As far as we can tell, these seven.
Who has commit access, or has had patches accepted? How many total?
While the number is undoubtedly large, Ubuntu doesn’t have the information readily available to view. This is also tempered by which project you want to look at specifically.
Has there been any turnover in the Core Team? (i.e. has the top 20% of contributors stayed the same over time? If not, how has it changed?)
It doesn’t look like the team has changed all that much, at least according to this.
Does the project have a BDFL, or Lead Developer? (BDFL == Benevolent Dictator for Life)
No, there are several people that contribute to various portions of Ubuntu.
Are the front and back end developers the same people? What is the proportion of each?
While possible, it is doubtful that they are considering the amount of people using Ubuntu. It is more likely that there is more developing for the back-end though.
What have been some of the major bugs/problems/issues that have arisen during development? Who is responsible for quality control and bug repair?
There is very little forward facing information from Ubuntu, so it is hard to find anything concrete without delving into the mailing lists surrounding different project aspects.
How is the project's participation trending and why?
Ubuntu is fairly popular, mostly because of how they do business and the thoroughness that they have with their product
In your opinion, does the project pass "The Raptor Test?" (i.e. Would the project survive if the BDFL, or most active contributor were eaten by a Velociraptor?) Why or why not?
Yes, Ubuntu is backed by a huge, globe-spanning corporation and thousands, if not millions, of users.
In your opinion, would the project survive if the core team, or most active 20% of contributors, were hit by a bus? Why or why not?
See the above answer.
Does the project have an official "on-boarding" process in place? (new contributor guides, quickstarts, communication leads who focus specifically on newbies, etc...)
Does the project have Documentation available? Is it extensive? Does it include code examples?
There appears to be documentation for every project they have, with documentation even about adding to their documentation. There are code examples.
If you were going to contribute to this project, but ran into trouble or hit blockers, who would you contact, and how?
Depends entirely on which part you would be contributing to, as there are so many different IRCs, mailing lists, and wikis that are all organized by different people.
Based on these answers, how would you describe the decision making structure/process of this group? Is it hierarchical, consensus building, ruled by a small group, barely contained chaos, or ruled by a single or pair of individuals?
It is entirely dependant on which project you are talking about, as the core Ubuntu project seems to be headed by the previously mentioned group of 7, but smaller divisions are present and dedicated to different aspects of the experience.
Is this the kind of structure you would enjoy working in? Why, or why not?
Yes, the project is organized and has a good structure to it. It is also very popular, and depended on by so many people.
Technology/Product
Section adapted from EFF Worksheet
For this section we will take a look at one of Canonical's products used to maintain servers: Landscape.
Who invented, created, or sponsored the technology?
Landscape (Product). Landscape was created by Canonical.
What is the technology designed to do? How is it used?
Landscape is designed to assist in monitoring, managing, and updating an entire Ubuntu infrastructure from one single interface.
Who would benefit from using this technology?
Server owners/administrators, IT managers, and similar people who are in charge of the infrastructure or a part of it would benefit from using this product.
What kinds of companies or organizations (stakeholders) might have been concerned about the development of this technology? Why?
Since landscape is supposed to work mainly with Ubuntu, it would not be a direct conflict with other operating systems. Therefore only companies who are developing a similar kind of technology for Ubuntu, or developers of other distros that are in competition with Ubuntu would be concerned with the development of this technology from a business standpoint.
Does/Did an aspect of copyright law play a role in controversies about the technology? How?
Since the product is mostly limited as to what it can be used for, I don’t think it had any aspects of law or copyright law coming into question or being violated.
Business and Revenue Model
How was this organization funded originally?
There is no information about how Canonical was originally funded.
How does this organization make revenue?
Canonical makes its revenue through donations and services.
Which specific Open Source Revenue Models are utilized?
What investments/acquisitions has the organization made?
The company has made no acquisitions and no investments.