hailgautam
Youngling
Shamelessly Copy/Pasted from Here (aka Source)
Ubuntu Linux was started in 2004 by Mark Shuttleworth: an entrepreneur that made his fortunes [to the tune of 600 million US] by selling his company Thawte to VeriSign; and is famous for having purchased a flight to the IIS [International Space Station, not the web server] via one of the Russian Soyuz missions.
Ubuntu is a Linux distribution that primarily focuses on the average end-user.
Everything about Ubuntu screams "desktop" -- from the website design, to the slogan "Linux for Human Beings". The goal of Ubuntu is to create a Linux distribution that "just works" for the average joe.
According to distrowatch.com, Ubuntu has held the number 1 spot for several years as the most popular Linux distribution. It receives media attention often, and has an ever-growing community base.
Canonical Ltd. are the official sponsors of Ubuntu Linux, with Mark Shuttleworth providing the funding, via Canonical, to move Ubuntu forward. So far, about $15-20 million has been spent.
And even at this point in time, with the top Linux distribution, the future is very uncertain. Mr. Shuttleworth has stated himself that it might take another two years before he even knows whether Canonical/Ubuntu has a chance to become profitable.
Users are simply not converting to paid customers... And why would they? The product is always free with the GPL, and the support is optional.
Now think "Red Hat"...
Red Hat figured out that all the money with support and services was server-side and moved away from the desktop as fast as possible. They cut the dead weight, gave up that #1 desktop distribution standing completely, never looked back, and turned a profit.
Since then, many have tried to capitalize the Linux desktop, and all have failed miserably.
Is Ubuntu really any different? Does that even matter?
To answer my own question "Is Ubuntu Linux slowly dying?", I would have to say "Yes." For the simple reason that there is no money to be made offering support on the desktop. For a Linux distribution to be profitable, it has to cater to businesses. Businesses will purchase support contracts as a safety cushion, to have someone to blame, and for real support issues [and sometimes in that exact order]. The average end-user will not. This lesson has been learned many times, and even I'm starting to see the light with the direction of DeveloperSide.NET.
Simply put, Ubuntu cannot compete with Red Hat server-side: Red Hat is simply too well established and no one is going to deploy Ubuntu Server, over RHEL, and keep their job at the same time.
Losing money can only be fashionable for a limited time. Ubuntu will survive, as Gentoo Linux has, but profits will not be made. At some point, the paid team that develops, supports, and markets Ubuntu will be out of the job, and things will go down hill fast afterwards
Ubuntu Linux was started in 2004 by Mark Shuttleworth: an entrepreneur that made his fortunes [to the tune of 600 million US] by selling his company Thawte to VeriSign; and is famous for having purchased a flight to the IIS [International Space Station, not the web server] via one of the Russian Soyuz missions.
Ubuntu is a Linux distribution that primarily focuses on the average end-user.
Everything about Ubuntu screams "desktop" -- from the website design, to the slogan "Linux for Human Beings". The goal of Ubuntu is to create a Linux distribution that "just works" for the average joe.
According to distrowatch.com, Ubuntu has held the number 1 spot for several years as the most popular Linux distribution. It receives media attention often, and has an ever-growing community base.
Canonical Ltd. are the official sponsors of Ubuntu Linux, with Mark Shuttleworth providing the funding, via Canonical, to move Ubuntu forward. So far, about $15-20 million has been spent.
And even at this point in time, with the top Linux distribution, the future is very uncertain. Mr. Shuttleworth has stated himself that it might take another two years before he even knows whether Canonical/Ubuntu has a chance to become profitable.
Users are simply not converting to paid customers... And why would they? The product is always free with the GPL, and the support is optional.
Now think "Red Hat"...
Red Hat figured out that all the money with support and services was server-side and moved away from the desktop as fast as possible. They cut the dead weight, gave up that #1 desktop distribution standing completely, never looked back, and turned a profit.
Since then, many have tried to capitalize the Linux desktop, and all have failed miserably.
Is Ubuntu really any different? Does that even matter?
To answer my own question "Is Ubuntu Linux slowly dying?", I would have to say "Yes." For the simple reason that there is no money to be made offering support on the desktop. For a Linux distribution to be profitable, it has to cater to businesses. Businesses will purchase support contracts as a safety cushion, to have someone to blame, and for real support issues [and sometimes in that exact order]. The average end-user will not. This lesson has been learned many times, and even I'm starting to see the light with the direction of DeveloperSide.NET.
Simply put, Ubuntu cannot compete with Red Hat server-side: Red Hat is simply too well established and no one is going to deploy Ubuntu Server, over RHEL, and keep their job at the same time.
Losing money can only be fashionable for a limited time. Ubuntu will survive, as Gentoo Linux has, but profits will not be made. At some point, the paid team that develops, supports, and markets Ubuntu will be out of the job, and things will go down hill fast afterwards