Canonical announces phone sync for Ubuntu One subscribers

Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution, announced today that its Ubuntu One cloud service will soon gain support for mobile contact synchronization. The feature will be available to users who are paying for the higher tier of Ubuntu One service.

Canonical officially launched the Ubuntu One service last year alongside the release of Ubuntu 9.10. The service allows users to keep files and some application data synchronized between multiple computers. The company is planning to roll out several significant new Ubuntu One features when Ubuntu 10.04, codenamed Lucid Lynx, is released later this month. The new Ubuntu One music store, which is integrated into the Rhythmbox audio player, will use Ubuntu One to deploy purchased music to all of the user's computers. Much like the music store, the new mobile synchronization features are opening up for testing, but will officially launch alongside Ubuntu 10.04.

Ubuntu One mobile synchronization is powered by Funambol, a mobile push synchronization platform that is partly distributed under open source software licenses. Ubuntu One contact synchronization will work on the wide range of devices that are supported by Funambol's client software. You can download the synchronization program for your specific device by selecting it at the beta phone page on the Ubuntu One website.

Canonical is also releasing its own branded Funambol-based mobile client applications for certain platforms. For example, the company is offering an Ubuntu One contact synchronization program for the iPhone, which is now available from the iTunes stores. Plugins are available for several desktop applications too, such as Thunderbird.

The underlying Funambol technology supports push synchronization for calendars, notes, and other kinds of data, but Ubuntu One's mobile sync only supports contacts at the present time. It's possible that its scope will be expanded as the service evolves.

Canonical developer Martin Albisetti described the new mobile sync feature in an announcement today on the Ubuntu One users mailing list.

"Getting contacts on CouchDB and replicating between desktops and the cloud was the first big step. The second, and much bigger step, is to actually get those contacts from and to mobile phones. To achieve this, we have partnered with a company called Funambol, who share our views on open source, and have an established a proven software stack that synchronizes thousands of mobile phones and other devices," Albisetti wrote. "Right now we're at a stage where we feel confident opening up the service for wider testing. We strongly recommend that [testers] have a backup of [their] contacts since we've only tested with a hand-full of phone models at this point."

Although the service is intended for paying Ubuntu One customers, nonsubscribers will get an opportunity to test it for free during a 30-day trial period. Albisetti says that the free trial will start following the release of Ubuntu 10.04. Right now, Canonical is seeking help from the user community to test the service. He encourages users to provide feedback in the #ubuntuone IRC channel and on the Ubuntu One mailing list.

When we reviewed Ubuntu 9.10 last year, we noted that the lack of mobile synchronization was one of the most glaring deficiencies of the Ubuntu One service. Many users already get contact synchronization for free through Google and other providers, but the feature could still potentially help make an Ubuntu One paid plan seem compelling to some regular end users.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Cloudy with a chance of Linux: Canonical aims to cash in

Although Ubuntu is generally regarded as a desktop Linux distribution, the sever variant is becoming increasingly popular in the cloud. It is silently infiltrating server rooms and gaining traction in enterprise environments. A recent survey published by Canonical provides some insight into adoption trends of Ubuntu on production servers.

As Ubuntu's presence in the server space grows, it is showing up in some unexpected places. Weta Digital, the New Zealand company that did the special effects for Lord of the Rings and some of the 3D rendering for Avatar, reportedly runs Ubuntu on its 35,000-core render farm and virtually all of its desktop computers. The Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind the popular Wikipedia website, rolled out Ubuntu on 400 of its servers in 2008. We even use Ubuntu ourselves on several of the key servers that power the Ars Orbiting HQ.

One of the factors that is potentially driving Ubuntu adoption on servers is the pricing model. Canonical makes Ubuntu updates available for free, but also offers commercial support as a separate service. As companies that deploy Linux cultivate better in-house support capabilities, they want commercial Linux support options that are more granular and less expensive.

Some of the major Linux companies like Red Hat have been slow to respond to that demand, creating an opportunity for alternatives like Ubuntu and CentOS to gain traction. We looked at this phenomenon in 2008 when Ubuntu was beginning its ascent on servers.

It's worth noting, however, that the Linux server market is big enough to accommodate a plurality of players with very different models. Canonical is still a small fry and won't be displacing the reigning incumbents in the immediate future. Even though companies that want to decouple support costs from updates are starting to shy away from Red Hat, it's pretty clear from Red Hat's latest impressive quarterly earnings that there is no shortage of companies for whom its current offerings are still highly desirable.

One way in which Canonical is aiming to differentiate its server offerings is by emphasizing Ubuntu's support for the cloud. In the Ubuntu server survey, Canonical cites statistics from Cloud Market which show that Ubuntu is the most popular platform on Amazon's Elastic Compute Cluster (EC2), representing over 30 percent of all EC2 platform images.

Cloud Market also has a timeline that shows the usage rates of various platforms on EC2 since May 2009. The chart shows a trend of massive and rapid growth for Ubuntu starting in October 2009. This correlates with the release of Ubuntu 9.10, the first version of Ubuntu for which official Amazon EC2 images were made available.

Although EC2 is relatively popular, there are some workloads for which it is not a particularly good value and there are a lot of companies that are unwilling to entrust sensitive data to a third-party provider. When consulting firm McKinsey & Company tackled these issues last year, they pointed out that companies for whom EC2 is a poor fit can still improve cost-efficiency by using virtualization technologies to boost server utilization in in-house data centers.

One potential solution is Eucalyptus, an open source framework that allows companies to create their own self-hosted elastic compute clusters. Eucalyptus is built to be interoperable with EC2 APIs, which means that it is largely compatible with tools that are designed to work with Amazon's cloud. The researchers behind Eucalyptus launched a company last year with the aim of commercializing the technology. They recently brought in Marten Mickos, former head of MySQL, to be the new CEO.

Eucalyptus is said to be a compelling option for companies that want to have elastic computing capabilities in their own data centers. Canonical uses the Eucalyptus technology as the foundation of its Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) package, which allows companies to roll out a private Ubuntu-based cloud. Canonical sells a number of services on top of UEC, including consulting, training, support, and management tools.

Canonical is building a roster of partners to boost the strength of UEC. In an announcement earlier this week, Canonical revealed that Dell will offer UEC software and technical support with several enterprise hardware packages. The bundle will be based on the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04, a long-term support release.

"Behind the scenes we've worked with Dell's DCS team for over six months to test and validate the integration of the [Ubuntu] cloud stack on their new PowerEdge-C series," wrote Canonical global alliances director Mark Murphy in a statement. "This is the first major offering of a true open source Cloud solution backed by a major corporate vendor."

The cloud is playing an increasingly central role in Canonical's evolving business strategy. The company's commitment to UEC and Ubuntu's popularity on EC2 are both clearly growing. At the same time, Canonical is attempting to monetize the desktop with its integrated Ubuntu One cloud service. As Canonical climbs towards profitability, the cloud-centric strategy could give it a lift.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Ubuntu 10.04 beta 1 is looking good, less brown

Canonical has announced the availability of the first Ubuntu 10.04 beta release. The new version of Ubuntu, codenamed Lucid Lynx, is scheduled to arrive in April. It will be a long-term support (LTS) release, which means that updates will be available for three years on the desktop and five years on servers.

Although the Ubuntu developers have largely focused on boosting stability for this release, they have also added a number of noteworthy new features and applications. One of the most visible changes is the introduction of a new theme—a change that is part of a broader rebranding initiative that aims to update Ubuntu's visual identity.

Canonical's Ayatana team has continued its effort to overhaul the panel. Ubuntu 10.04 introduces a new application indicator system that will streamline the panel notification area. The panel has also gained a new menu—referred to as the Me Menu—for managing instant messaging presence and posting short messages to social networking Web sites. The social networking functionality is powered by Gwibber, my open source microblogging application, which was added to Ubuntu for version 10.04. Another application that's new in Lucid is Pitivi, a simple video editing tool. In a controversial move, the Ubuntu developers have decided to remove the GIMP, the popular image editing program.

The new theme has benefited from further refinement since its initial inclusion. Some of the more garish elements, like the strong hash marks on the scrollbars that we saw in the original version, have been smoothed out and made more subtle. Several bugs have also been addressed, such as the problems we previously encountered with OpenOffice.org menu highlighting. The Ubuntu Software Center has also gained an improved look that matches the new Ubuntu branding.








The beta is not quite ready for use in production environments, but it's already fairly robust and ready for widespread testing. You can download it from the Ubuntu Web site. If you would like to test it in a virtualized environment without having to change your current Ubuntu installation, you might want to try the TestDrive tool. For more details about 10.04 beta 1, check out the official release notes.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Canonical's new COO gets religion on Linux desktop

Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution, is undergoing significant changes in management. Founder Mark Shuttleworth has stepped down from his role as the CEO so that he can increase his involvement in the software design and development process. Jane Silber, who has long served as the company's chief operating officer, will be taking over as CEO. To fill the COO vacancy left by Silber's ascension, Canonical has recruited Matt Asay, the former vice president of business development at open source content management software company Alfresco.

Asay seems like a good choice for Canonical in some key ways. He accumulated knowledge of the enterprise Linux ecosystem during his time at Novell and he brings a wealth of real-world expertise in monetizing open source software from his experiences at Alfresco. Despite these strong points in his favor, there are also some reasons why he is a surprising choice for Canonical. In particular, Asay has always been an extremely vocal skeptic of Linux's viability on the desktop. During the month that he has been working for Canonical, his views on the matter seem to have evolved considerably.

Asay's opinions about Linux and open source software are well known because he writes a blog at CNET. He has consistently been supportive of Ubuntu's vision and identified it in 2007 as Linux's best chance for desktop success. Despite his enthusiasm about Ubuntu's commitment to usability, he doubted its potential to make a real impact.

"I will admit to being a Linux desktop nonbeliever. It feels a bit like yesterday's battle fought with the wrong weapons: geekiness rather than ease of use. There's a chance—still a slim one, but a chance nonetheless—that Ubuntu will change that," he wrote in 2007.

In a more strongly-worded piece a year later, he declared that Linux on the desktop was a lost cause. He thought that Ubuntu might have a chance on netbooks, but argued that the real opportunities for open source are in the cloud.

"I am an ardent open-source advocate, but I admit to perplexity as to why the Linux community so desperately wants its year on local systems. Who cares?" he wrote in 2008. "It's time to move on. Next year won't be the year of the Linux desktop anymore than 2010 will be. Why? Because we don't need a Linux desktop. We need to accelerate efforts toward the cloud, which is open source's game to lose."

Apple leads in some areas, but I think if we were to tally up its total record against Linux, and not simply in the narrow categories it chooses to target, we'd see the balance weigh heavily in Linux' favor.

A short time after he joined Canonical, he had a revelation. In a complete reversal of his previous position, he boldly declared that the year of the Linux desktop isn't just imminent, but has already arrived. He came to this new conclusion about desktop Linux after spending a few days running Ubuntu. Yes, all it took to convince Asay of Ubuntu's viability was actual hands-on experience with the software. A dedicated Mac user since 2002, he apparently never bothered to seriously test a Linux desktop distro until after he joined Canonical.

"In my new role at Canonical, I've switched to using Ubuntu on my Lenovo ThinkPad X200s and have found Linux comfortably routine. Like my Mac, it just works—no drama with day-to-day Internet activities like e-mail, Web browsing, IM, Twitter. It lets me do all the things I used to do, and still largely with the same applications I used on my Mac," he wrote recently. "The desktop battle is largely over for Linux. There's really no reason not to use it, other than habit."

In an interview with the Linux Foundation that was published yesterday, he elaborated on some of his new opinions. Pointing to the strength of Linux in the mobile and embedded markets and Ubuntu's improvements to Linux usability, Asay said in the interview that Linux has an opportunity to surpass rival Apple.

"Apple leads in some areas, but I think if we were to tally up its total record against Linux, and not simply in the narrow categories it chooses to target, we'd see the balance weigh heavily in Linux' favor," he said.

The mixed messages and conveniently sudden transformation into a true believer could raise some serious questions about his credibility. I happen to think that his reversal of opinion is genuine (he wouldn't have joined Canonical if he thought it was doomed), but he seems to be overcompensating a bit in his newfound enthusiasm for desktop Linux. It could be problematic because he risks making his endorsement of the platform sound insincere.

It's going to take him a while to earn the trust of the Ubuntu community. Practically all of Canonical's previous and ongoing efforts to monetize the distro have been met with a certain degree of concern by some users and contributors. The volunteers who have helped to make Ubuntu a success are wary of being exploited and are slow to accept Canonical's monetization strategies.

As the COO, Asay will play an important role in making Ubuntu become commercially successful. If the community is distrustful of Asay's motivations and agenda, it could exacerbate the friction that arises when Canonical seeks new revenue streams to make Ubuntu sustainable. He needs to prove to the Ubuntu community that he truly cares about Linux on the desktop and is not just out to make a quick buck. His previously dismissive attitude about the relevance of desktop Linux is obviously not particularly conducive to that. It's not an insurmountable obstacle, however.

Although Asay's views about the Linux desktop have a clear continuity problem, it's important to acknowledge that his position about open source business opportunities has largely been consistent. He has always been a strong proponent of seeking success in the cloud. This is a strategy that Canonical is already starting to embrace: over the past year, we have seen the company place an increasingly strong emphasis on the cloud in its commercial offerings. The Ubuntu One service is emblematic of that shift.

He doesn't know much about the Linux desktop, but Asay is well-equipped to help guide Canonical's cloud strategy and turn it into a successful business that will sustain the company as it pursues its desktop ambitions.

Source: Arstechnica.com