Ubuntu and Progeny

When I was at DebConf in Brazil recently, I learned that Mark Shuttleworth (the founder of Thawte who also became the second space tourist on the International Space Station) was getting involved in Debian development by funding a bunch of Debian people. At the time, it wasn’t clear how things would shake out, but they just announced their future direction: a new Linux distribution, based on Debian and focused on the user. Scott James Remnant, one of the Canonical people, posted a little blurb on his blog about the future of Ubuntu and Canonical’s game plan.

Many of their future plans involve things Progeny has been wrestling with for some time now: relationships with Debian and the wider community. So, here follows some advice for the Canonical people, for what it’s worth. (Nothing?)

• Recognize your differences. It’s a fact that Ubuntu is a fork. It’s also a fact that Canonical will have different priorities and opinions than the Debian project. If these weren’t true, Canonical could just use straight Debian. It’s important to not expect otherwise, both for Canonical and for Debian; otherwise, frustration tends to come up when things don’t mesh like you want them to. Being a fork isn’t good or bad; it’s how you handle the fork that makes the difference.
• Be aware of your limitations. Debian has a lot of needs, and many of these will align strategically with Canonical’s needs. That doesn’t make those needs the right ones for Canonical to solve, unless Canonical truly has the resources to take them all on at once. It’s too easy to bite off more than you can chew. Don’t be afraid to make resource decisions that might differ from those the Project might make.
• Be careful when expecting things from the community. Often, things happen at their own pace, and there isn’t a whole lot a company can do to force things that doesn’t also make the company look like a bully. It’s best to expect that you’ll have to do all the work, and let yourself be pleasantly surprised. The pleasant surprises do happen, and frequently, but it’s not wise to take them for granted.
• Don’t rule out cooperation with “competitors”. So far, most of the Linux world has taken the attitude that cooperation is a good thing, even among competitors. I have experience in this through working with Red Hat on Anaconda, who have been very helpful with our efforts despite being competitors with us in several ways.

I suppose one more Debian company makes for competition for Progeny, but I do hope we all can find niches to prosper in. So, good luck to Ubuntu and Canonical. Progeny looks forward to taking advantage of your good work (heh heh).

(ObDisclaimer: I am speaking for myself here, not Progeny.)