Ubuntu man Shuttleworth dissects Hardy Heron's arrival

Will bird's flight usher in Linux peace?

"Team Canonical bought into the virtualization hype by slotting KVM into the Ubuntu kernel," he told us. "I have to wonder whether or not this move caters more to Canonical's business needs than the suggested larger goals for Ubuntu of mass adoption.

"Much of Ubuntu's success to date has been tied to a maniacal focus on the desktop. But now we're seeing that focus whittled away by the rise of more platform projects that manage to gain prominent billing as well as proprietary enterprise solutions that the community might see as eating into developer time."

Similar issues are cropping up on the developer front as well, according to Owens.

"Well-known developers can flag up issues and have them dealt with in an expedient manner," he said. "This is in part due to their good standing but also because they know how to navigate the system.

"Unfortunately, many developers will find that their bug reports are ignored and their contributions are deemed a nuisance simply because they don't know the ways of the bureaucracy. All FOSS projects face similar issues, but it's time for Ubuntu fans to realize that agile bug fixing will fade as the size of the project increases."

Shuttleworth takes such gripes very seriously or at least he said as much.

"It is cutting criticism because Martin is in the know," Shuttleworth said. "He is not a fringe guy. I would very much like to address his concerns."

"I am very conscious of the real stresses that happen when there is sort of universal expectations that a particular platform or piece of software will meet everyone's needs. The thing that I hope is that free software is the answer here - that folks will take Ubunutu and fork it to meet the needs of the people we are failing in a particular way. To me, that is healthy and the source of some relief."

Looking forward, Shuttleworth would like to see Ubuntu expand its reach on a couple of fronts.

For one, Canonical expects to open an office in Asia at some point and perhaps one in Silicon Valley as well.

In addition, Canonical wants to bring more server makers on board with Ubuntu.

Sun will certify Hardy Heron with some of its x86 gear, and Shuttleworth hopes HP, IBM and Dell will follow this lead.

We'll have more from Shuttleworth later this week. ®