> > A popular question in desktop circles is "Can anyone make money from the > Linux desktop?" Canonical <http://www.canonical.com/> CEO and > Ubuntu<http://www.ubuntu.com/>founder, Mark Shuttleworth's answer is "I don't > think anyone can make money > from the Linux desktop." > > Yes, that's right. The man behind what's almost certainly the most popular > Linux > desktop<http://practical-tech.com/operating-system/desktop-linux-on-the-rise>doesn't > think he, or anyone else, can make money from the Linux desktop. > Furthermore, he never really has. > > In a press call about the October 30th arrival of the next version of > Ubuntu, Ubuntu > 8.10<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9118058>, > Shuttleworth said that Canonical has always seen the desktop as a "zero > revenue" product. > > The point is, Shuttleworth continued, "I've never seen selling > shrink-wrapped packages of free software as a workable idea." Instead, > Shuttleworth sees "The only way to build business around software is with > [added costs] services." > > Shuttleworth added that he thinks Microsoft is shifting over to services > for revenue as well. He said, "I've heard creditable reports of Microsoft > offering XP at no cost to OEMs." > > When Microsoft was caught flat-footed by the rise of netbooks, which > couldn't run Vista, the company first re-offered Windows XP Home to > mini-laptop > vendors<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9074720>who > were going over to Linux. Then, as it became clear that Vista > had failed, Microsoft decided to continue to offer XP > Pro<http://blogs.computerworld.com/vista_r_i_p>to OEMs after all. Now, > there's little doubt that Microsoft will keep > offering XP until Windows 7 arrives. > > It's also worth noting that on the same day that Shuttleworth was saying > that the selling of "desktop bits" was no longer a successful business model > for Microsoft, Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie was announcing > Azure<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9118190>a > services-based cloud operating environment. Azure, which will compete with > Amazon's EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), won't be a product, its resources will > be sold as a service. > > Funny that. It makes me think, yet again, that the smartest man in the > open-source business world might well be Shuttleworth. > http://blogs.computerworld.com/ubuntus_shuttleworth_i_dont_think_anyone_can_make_money_from_the_linux_desktop
-- Vítor Baptista Ciência da Computação - UFPB Laboratório de Aplicações de Vídeo Digital - LAViD
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