Sean Michael Kerner writes that Ubuntu is not cash flow positive, despite its massive user base.
“We can’t make money selling the desktop that’s why we focused on a zero licensing cost business model,” Shuttleworth said. “The only way to build a business on Linux is to focus on services.”
Canonical is not a highly-ranked provider of services to the enterprise or to consumers. Like Novell, they are working with partners to build a support ecosystem around their product. However, without major brand-name backing, it is unlikely that large enterprises will want to purchase support services from unknowns.
It would not surprise me to see Canonical announce a large Desktop services deal with a major brand name provider, possibly Sun. Canonical is already tied up with Sun on the server side.
