Canonical Blog

Gavin Clark at the Register recently reported that only 10% of people upgrading to 9.10 had a satisfactory experience. Serdar Yegalup at Information Week then reported that 40% of people upgrading to Ubuntu 9.10 had issues that they considered unfixable. Both of these conclusion were based on a poll on the Ubuntu support forums.

Serdar had the wisdom to point out that the poll is self-selecting (but still reported it). However, and I write this so you heard it here first, I don’t think we will have to wait long for a Microsoft shill to report his figure as fact and reference Information Week as evidence.

So let’s look at this poll. While we don’t have exact figures it is reasonable to assume that hundreds of thousands of people upgraded to 9.10 in the last few days. The quoted poll has a sample of 2158.

The poll is also on a support forum.

I upgraded to 9.10 a while ago. Flawlessly. So I saw little need to go tell a forum. This is where people go when they have problems. Gavin and Serdar were shocked to find people with support issues on a support forum. I have no doubt the help line at Microsoft has taken a lot of calls recently, but I would not extrapolate from that a large percentage of Windows users are having upgrade problems.

Tellingly and almost the last word on this are the polls from our previous releases, none of which were considered or reported as upgrade disasters:

Jaunty Poll

Intrepid Poll `

Hardy Poll

Gutsy Poll

A very useful summary of these findings by Nicholas Ipsen is here. I am linking to these polls not because I want to provide evidence that the Karmic upgrade experience is or was good or bad, there are other more qualified to comment on that, but that there is nothing new here.

All this of course is of little consolation if you are affected by an issue. Which is why we have the forums and Launchpad so that we can gather data, isolate the issues and fix them if they are an issue with Ubuntu or alert someone who can if they are not. We do this all the time with every release and we are doing it with Ubuntu 9.10.

So what we seem to have here is a poll that has existed for some 5 releases being ‘discovered’ and the data used to support a pre-disposed position. As we operate in the open and publish feedback good and bad, this is the risk we take I guess. Gavin and Serdar had some broader points that we could engage on regarding the readiness or otherwise of Linux for mainstream computing. But to base or support their arguments on this poll does little to illuminate and a lot to obfuscate.

Gerry Carr

Head of platform marketing, Canonical

Cloud management dominates the theme for Landscape 1.4 with new features that allow you to manage your private Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) as easily as you manage your instances on Amazon EC2. Also released are new features that help system administrators be more efficient including time based package updates and role based access. These new features will be available this week on both the Hosted and Dedicated Server Editions of Landscape.

Cloud Computing: UEC Support

Building upon our support for Amazon’s EC2 Cloud, users can now start, stop and manage their private Ubuntu instances on their UEC from within Landscape. Users simply enter their credentials directly through Landscape to start, stop and manage an instance. We’ve designed Landscape to work directly with both Amazon and Eucalyptus console pages so you can manage your instances without having to use any other tools. Landscape securely stores your security credentials making is easy to spin up new instances on UEC or EC2 at anytime. Once the instances are initiated, they all display on the same page allowing you manage all your physical, virtuali and Cloud instances in one place.

New Timed Package Updates

Users can now schedule package updates, system reboots and shutdowns in the future with minute increments. This gives System Administrators the flexibility to schedule activities for systems to occur during planned maintenance windows or low use periods to minimise the impact on the network. Now that we have developed the time / scheduling function, look for us to add this to other areas of Landscape where it it makes sense, like scheduling scripts in the future.

Administrator Roles

As Landscape is deployed in larger enterprises the need to delegate and limit access to systems has become a key need. Now, in addition to having a master admin who can manage all systems within a Landscape account, you can delegate access to systems to other administrators. This builds on our tags function (which allows you to tag computers performing the same function and update them with a single command) to allocate full access to systems by admin. Typically this means sys admins in different areas can be given full access to their local systems, but not to those in another area or country. Like tags, assigning systems to other administrators is completely flexible so you can use what ever criteria you need.

The Landscape 1.4 client is available today and is included with Ubuntu 9.10 server edition. Details are at www.canonical.com/landscape

Ken Drachnik, Landscape Manager

We are hosting a couple of events aimed at large businesses in New York City and London in over the coming weeks. NYC is next Monday and there are still (a few) slots left. Registration is free and it should be a great evening.

The aim is to give an overview of our cloud strategy and introduce businesses to the private cloud and to Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud in particular. Al Gillen of IDC has been kind enough to do the introductory overview. Simon Wardley and John Willis, Canonical’s cloud gurus will give their opinions and, for me, the highlight of the night will be the live demo conducted by Nick Barcet the Ubuntu Server product manager

We have a fantastic audience registered already but if you are free next Monday 26th and working at a business interested in exploring cloud please do join us.

The London event takes place on November 10th in 195 Picadilly. Similar agenda but we are delighted to have James Governor of Redmonk do the introduction. We hope we can accommodate you at that event if you are in the London area.

Gerry Carr, Canonical

The ShipIt program has been at the core of the Ubuntu project since its inception. The goal was to make sure that there are no restrictions, as far as was possible, to people having access to Ubuntu. In the last five years we have shipped millions of CDs and seen Ubuntu’s popularity and reach grow in ways that would be impossible without ShipIt.

And that aim continues. We need to make Ubuntu available to as many people who need it, particularly those for whom the download options are limited. The goal has not been to supply a CD to every Ubuntu user of every version of Ubuntu.  Remember, one of the coolest things about Ubuntu is the way you can upgrade from one version of Ubuntu to another – without the need for a CD!

While these CDs are often referred to as “free CDs”, they are of course not free of cost to Canonical.  We want to continue this programme, but Ubuntu’s growth means that some changes are necessary. Therefore we are adjusting how we handle CD requests to try to find the right balance between availability of CDs and the continued viability of the ShipIt programme.

We will continue to supply CDs to LoCo teams and Ubuntu members.  And we hope to make CDs available to everyone who is just discovering Ubuntu.   And we continue to search for additional ways to make Ubuntu and Ubuntu materials available to everyone. But we are limiting shipments to people that we think have alternative paths of getting Ubuntu.  For instance,

* you can upgrade to the new release without a CD
* you can download your own CD for free
* you will be able to download the CD wallet artwork
* becoming an Ubuntu member by contributing to Ubuntu, and thereby becoming eligible for more CDs
* And finally, you can purchase CDs.

We will change the language on the ShipIt site to make it clearer what we are doing. We hope that you support this effort and realise that the intent is to continue to make Ubuntu available on CD to everyone who needs it.

Jane Silber, Canonical

The Ubuntu One beta is going very well. We have appreciated every bug, IRC message, Launchpad Answers question, and Ubuntu Forums post about the service since the beta launch in early May. This community feedback has been extremely important to the decisions we make and have made in developing the service.

With the release of the Ubuntu 9.10 Beta last week which features Ubuntu One as a default option, we thought we’d share a few more recent updates.

More storage
Ubuntu One offers two subscription plan options: 2 free GB for everyone’s essential storage needs and a $10 USD plan with more capacity. We’re happy to announce that we have increased the size of the paid plan from 10 GB to an incredible 50 GB. Ubuntu One paid subscribers can now backup, sync, and share more of their music, photos, and movies.

Expanded services
Ubuntu One started with files and folders. Now we’re expanding the service to synchronize more desktop applications that people use each day. In Ubuntu 9.10, Ubuntu One will backup and synchronize Tomboy notes, Firefox bookmarks, and Evolution contacts.

Easy setup
Ubuntu 9.10 is the first Ubuntu release with Ubuntu One pre-installed. It now only takes a few clicks to enable automatic file synchronization for your Ubuntu computer or computers.

Subscribe now to try out all of these features and more.

Matt Griffin, Product Manager for Ubuntu One

The inaugural Ubuntu Hardware Summit in Taipei came to an end on Tuesday evening with over 170 delegates in attendance. This was the first time a major Linux OSV has run this type of event in Taiwan, generating real excitement in the press beforehand (some sample coverage for those who read Chinese).

The show was aimed at engineers and technical teams within ODMs in Taiwan. This is part of our programme to improve Linux skills and familiarity in Taiwan to make it easier for manufacturers to ship Linux. Content included detailing the Ubuntu desktop roadmap, kernel device driver development, networking in Ubuntu and working with the Linux kernel community.

Throughout the one-day summit, delegates were updated on all the latest news from Canonical and given first-hand experience working with Ubuntu. Guest speakers were flown in from Europe and the USA, presenting keynote speeches and more in-depth break-out sessions.

The Ubuntu Hardware Summit will be the first of a series. We were delighted to have members of so many leading ODMs and OEMs in attendance as well as members of the local Debian community. Once the details are fixed, we will post notice of the next event on this blog.

John Bernard – OEM Marketing Manager, Canonical

The cloud is getting a lot of attention. Understandably and rightly so – it is one of the hottest topics around. An on-line panel discussion on how businesses can incorporate cloud computing into their existing datacenter operations will take place in a webinar hosted by rPath on 24 September 2009. You’ll hear from the some of the most experienced experts in the field:

Michael Crandell, Chief Executive Officer of RightScale

Erik Troan, founder and Chief Technology Officer of rPath

Dr. Rich Wolski, Chief Technology Officer of Eucalyptus Systems

Matt Zimmerman, Chief Technology Officer of Canonical

David Berlind , Chief Content Officer of TechWeb

We’re looking forward to participating on this webinar, so please join us on 24 September 2009 at 11:00 a.m. PST.

For more information and registration please go to the the rPath registration page.

Canonical’s certification of Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition for a range of HP ProLiant servers has now been officially recognised by HP through reference on their website – yup, Ubuntu now has its own page – www.hp.com/go/ubuntu.

More good news for users of Ubuntu Server on HP ProLiant hardware -  the ‘HP ProLiant Support Pack for Ubuntu’ is now available for 9.04, with lots of management agents and drivers to make life easier for you.

These are strong steps forward in the recognition of Ubuntu as a server OS for enterprise deployment by many users. We have worked with HP over many months to push this forward enable Ubuntu on HP ProLiant servers and have been very pleased by their commitment to provide a very wide range of operating system choices user preferences.

We expect there is more to come and we remain committed as ever to enabling Ubuntu to run really well on the hardware that our users prefer

Gerry Carr, Head of Platform Marketing

Next week (31 August through 3 September) VMorld 2009 kicks off in San Francisco at the Moscone Center. For the second year, Canonical has a booth to demonstrate Ubuntu’s virtualization and cloud computing capabilities.

Last year VMWorld 2008 was in sunny Las Vegas. We talked to thousands of people throughout the show, and only found a handful who hadn’t used Ubuntu – don’t worry we sent every one away with a free CD so they could put that right! It was a great show with lots of interest in Ubuntu following on from the 8.04 LTS release, and our virtualization solution.

We expect the 2009 show to be just as much fun. Ubuntu has been on the top of the VMWare charts as a base OS for many virtual machine images, so we hope that the new virtualization features coming in 9.10 will be well received. In 9.04 we previewed Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) our private or on-premises cloud. This gives anyone who has their own servers the ability to set-up a cloud similar to Amazon’s EC2.

We’ll be presenting a talk for enterprises on how cloud computing can help them at the Solution Exchange Theatre on Wednesday 2nd September at 11:50 am. Entitled “The Clear Path to a Cloudy Enterprise”, it will be given by John Pugh, one of Canonical’s Partner Managers. If you would like to hear about the future of cloud computing, how open source offers a real alternative, and how Ubuntu can be used in this scenario then this talk should be informative and fun.

If you are going to be at VMWorld then please come along to the Canonical booth (#2403) and say hello to us. We would love to talk to you about Ubuntu, how you’re using it, and how you can get more from it – see you
in San Francisco!