Linux Solutions

Canonical, the commercial sponsor of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, is now a member of the Linux Foundation (LF). A non-profit organisation, which supports the accelerated growth of Linux, made the announcement of Canonical’s membership on Tuesday.

Ubuntu community members have been active participants in a variety of workgroups at LF, including the Linux Standard Base, Desktop Architects and Driver Backporting groups. As well as this, Canonical supports a range of other open source projects including Bazaar, Storm and Upstart.

Andrew Rodaway, director of marketing for Canonical, said of the announcement: “Ubuntu has a huge user base and substantial community support around the world. We think the passion these users have for Linux and the open source movement generally will be important in helping the Linux Foundation to accelerate the uptake of Linux in organizations of all size.”

According to Linux Foundation officials; with the support of Canonical, user interests for both commercial and community version of Ubuntu will be represented.

Mr Rodaway noted that the LF is becoming an increasingly influential organisation in the enterprise market, and Canonical is increasing its own footprint in the same space.

“So it seemed logical for us to join the other major vendors supporting the Linux Foundation at this time,” he said.

Remarkably, despite Ubuntu’s popularity as a Linux distribution, Canonical has not been directly associated with the Linux Foundation until now.

Amanda McPherson, LF’s vice president of marketing and developer programs, said that “Even though [Canonical and Ubuntu have] been participating in our activities for the last few years, the direct association with them means we’ll have closer coordination across their organization. It also means they see enough value in what we do to financially support it.”

“We have great respect for all the other distros and the people that create and use them,” Rodaway added. “That’s a fundamental part of the Ubuntu philosophy. The many different types of distros are one of the greatest strengths of Linux over proprietary solutions, where you basically have to take what you are given.”