It would be news if Ubuntu users DID buy support
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Steven_Rosenber Oct 15, 2008 3:01 PM EDT |
I guess I've got to do a little digging, but I wonder exactly who is buying Canonical support. It's probably not hard to find companies using Ubuntu and not paying Canonical. |
| herzeleid Oct 15, 2008 3:23 PM EDT |
Those who need support will eventually come knocking, but in the meantime, letting ubuntu spread like wildfire is a good idea. |
| Steven_Rosenber Oct 15, 2008 4:29 PM EDT |
I'm not among those lying awake nights wondering now Canonical is going to make payroll. |
| tracyanne Oct 15, 2008 4:54 PM EDT |
Nor am I, that's Mark Shuttleworths problem. |
| garymax Oct 15, 2008 7:03 PM EDT |
This is the conundrum Canonical finds itself in with its business/profit model. They have already stated that they will not charge for their desktop or server versions–both are free to download and use. Instead, Canonical hopes that businesses will buy support contracts and support the effort that way. On one hand, this sounds plausible, but when people speak about Linux being free, paid support seems like a contradiction…to some. And many businesses already have IT staff that knows what they're doing. So, no support contracts are purchased. Canonical may not be running out of money any time soon thanks to Shuttleworth’s generosity; but Shuttleworth has made it clear that Ubuntu is an investment not a philanthropic project. He expects a return on his investment. And to turn out a product that is free to all without the need to buy support contracts will, I believe, eventually lead to Ubuntu’s decline unless…unless Shuttleworth changes his business model where the server is concerned. Even if Wikipedia brands every page with “Powered by Ubuntu”, it will not guarantee a revenue stream for Canonical. Quite the opposite. Others may see the cost savings, switch and still not buy one support contract. Why should they? Their IT staff knows what they're doing AND Canonical is providing FREE support by way of updates and bug fixes. Now who's laughing all the way to the bank? From now on, the question isn’t one of whether Ubuntu’s uptake is increasing. The question should now be “is Canonical gaining any additional revenue from the new adopters?” Every time a business switches to Ubuntu without buying any support from Canonical, it is a net loss, not necessarily a gain. After all, what would it profit Canonical if every desktop used Ubuntu but nobody paid for it? In this regard, smaller niche distributions with a product for sale (Slackware, Vector, etc) have a better business model than Canonical. Why? At least they are making money from their users. |
| tracyanne Oct 15, 2008 7:26 PM EDT |
In order to get paid support Canonical will have to create value add by creating targeted bundles like a Small Business server edition, then offering support on that. Small Business (1 to 10 people) editions of FOSS applications would be very useful. |
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