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Canonical (company)

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Canonical Ltd
Company typePrivate company limited by shares[1]
GenreSoftware Development
Founded5 March 2004
FounderMark Shuttleworth
HeadquartersMillbank Tower, London, United Kingdom
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Mark Shuttleworth
Jane Silber
ProductsUbuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Launchpad, Bazaar, Landscape, Ubuntu One, Upstart
Revenue$30 million (2009)[2]
Number of employees
500+[3][4]
SubsidiariesCanonical Group Ltd [5]
Canonical USA Inc.
Canonical China Ltd (Chinese: 科能软件股份有限公司)
Canonical Brasil Ltda
Canonical Canada Ltd
Canonical Ltd Taiwan Br. (Chinese: 英屬曼島商肯諾有限公司臺灣分公司)
Websitewww.canonical.com
Footnotes / references
Formerly "M R S Virtual Development Ltd"[6]
Ubuntu, the company's most well known product

Canonical Ltd.[7] is a private company founded (and funded) by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth to market commercial support and related services for Ubuntu Linux and related projects. Canonical employs staff in more than 30 countries and maintains offices in London, Boston, Taipei, Montreal, Shanghai, Sao Paulo and the Isle of Man.[8]

Projects created or maintained by Canonical

Canonical Ltd. has created and continues to back several projects. Principally these are free/open-source software (FOSS) or tools designed to improve collaboration between free software developers and contributors.

Open-source software

Projects and services

Mark Shuttleworth (standing) and other Canonical employees discuss Launchpad at a design sprint in Germany
  • Landscape,[14] a proprietary web service for centralized management of Ubuntu systems.
  • Launchpad[15] a centralised website containing several component web applications designed to make collaboration between free software projects easier:
    • Rosetta, an online language translation tool to help localisation of software (cf. the Rosetta Stone)
    • Malone (as in "Bugsy Malone"), a collaborative bug-tracker that allows linking to other bug-trackers
    • Soyuz, a tool for creating custom-distributions, such as Kubuntu and Xubuntu.
    • Code, hosting of Bazaar branches
    • Answers, support tracker
    • Blueprints, a tool for planning features of software
    • PPA, personal package archives
  • Ubuntu One, a service for file synchronization and other uses
  • Canonical supplies some of the core engineering to Linaro which invests in upstream projects.

Business plans

In a Guardian interview in May 2008, Mark Shuttleworth said that the Canonical business model was service provision and explained that Canonical was not yet close to profitability. Canonical also claimed it will wait for the business to turn into a profitable one within another 3 to 5 years. He regarded Canonical as positioning itself as demand for services related to Free Software rose.[16] This strategy has been compared to Red Hat's business strategies in the 1990s.[17] However, in an early 2009 New York Times article, Shuttleworth said that Canonical's revenue was "creeping" towards $30 million, the company's break-even point.[18]

In 2007, Canonical launched an International online shop selling support services and Ubuntu branded goods; later in 2008 expanding it with a United States-specific shop designed to reduce shipment times.[19] At the same time, the word Ubuntu was trademarked in connection with clothing and accessories.[20]

Subsidiaries

Employees

Ubuntu Developer Summit October 2010 Orlando, Florida—a mixture of Canonical employees and Ubuntu community members

Canonical has over 500 employees[3] with main offices on the 27th floor of Millbank Tower near Westminster, London.[21] In the summer of 2006, Canonical opened an office in Montreal to house its global support and services operation.[17] Taipei 101 is also home to a Canonical office.[22] There is also an OEM team in Lexington, Massachusetts.[3]

Current

Notable current employees of Canonical include:

Past

Notable past employees:

References

  1. ^ The Isle of Man Companies Registry, Annual Return 2005 for Company no. 110334C (non-distributable, available for a fee of £1.00)
  2. ^ Vance, Ashlee (2009-01-11). "Ubuntu and its Leader Set Sights on the Mainstream". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-04-28. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ a b c "UBuntu for Android". Canonical Ltd. Retrieved 2012-02-21. We have over 500 staff in more than 30 countries, with offices in London, Boston, Taipei, Montreal, Shanghai, and São Paulo.
  4. ^ "Ubuntu: Canonical's New CEO Discusses Top Priorities". TheVarGuy. Retrieved 2010-03-05. 3. On Canonical's Size and Financial Performance: Canonical now has about 320 employees..
  5. ^ "Canonical Group Limited". Companies House. Retrieved 2010-01-07. Company No. 06870835
  6. ^ "Company no. 110334C". The Isle of Man Companies Registry. Retrieved 2005-05-18. [ Previous names: ] M R S VIRTUAL DEVELOPMENT LIMITED [ Name type: ] PREVIOUS
  7. ^ UK registered trademark #E4059218 "CANONICAL", filed 2004–09–29.
  8. ^ "About Canonical". Canonical Ltd. Retrieved 2012-03-06. We've come a long way since our launch in 2004. We now have over 400 staff in more than 30 countries, and offices in London, Boston, Taipei, Montreal, Shanghai, Sao Paulo and the Isle of Man.
  9. ^ UK registered trademark #E4059119 "UBUNTU", filed 2004–09–29.
  10. ^ UK registered trademark #E4541661 "KUBUNTU", filed 2005–07–08.
  11. ^ UK registered trademark #E4541678 "EDUBUNTU", filed 2005–07–08.
  12. ^ UK registered trademark #E5152467 "BAZAAR", filed 2006–06–21.
  13. ^ Canonical Releases Storm as Open Source |Ubuntu
  14. ^ UK registered trademark #E5152418 "LANDSCAPE", filed 2006–06–21, published 2007–08–06.
  15. ^ UK registered trademark #E6251219 "LAUNCHPAD", filed 2007–09–04.
  16. ^ Moody, Glyn (2008-05-22). "'Linux is a platform for people, not just specialists'". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  17. ^ a b Shankland, Stephen. Canonical seeks profit from free Ubuntu, C|NET, 2006-10-06. Retrieved on 2007-10-19.
  18. ^ "A Software Populist Who Doesn't Do Windows". The New York Times. 2009-01-11. Retrieved 2010-11-08.
  19. ^ "Canonical launches U.S.-based shop.ubuntu.com in time for holiday season". Canonical Ltd. 2008-11-18. Retrieved 2009-02-09. an U.S.-based on-line shop for Ubuntu-branded merchandise and software. With a new fulfillment house in St. Louis, Missouri, shipments are faster and less expensive
  20. ^ "UK registered trademark #E7426265". UK Intellectual Property Office. 2008-11-27. Retrieved 2009-02-09. Mark text: UBUNTU ... Class 16: Stationery; ... Class 18: Luggage; ... Class 25: Articles of clothing ... CANONICAL LIMITED
  21. ^ http://bazaar-vcs.org/SprintLondonMay07 ("Where?")
  22. ^ http://www.flickr.com/photos/37452853@N00/3479931232/
  23. ^ Remnant, Scott James, Leaving Canonical, accessed 2011-01-22
  24. ^ http://blog.canonical.com/?p=566

External links

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