Canonical Ltd. (Ubuntu’s company of origin) has yet to turn a single dollar in profit. Mark Shuttleworth, the founder and main funder of Canonical and Ubuntu, stated in 2008 that the company would wait for the business to become profitable for another 3 to 5 years. We are currently approaching 2 years. If funding for Ubuntu is pulled would Ubuntu continue? Most likely. The biggest changes would be in the way it is developed and maintained. The development of Ubuntu would become far more a collaborative community effort, and the kinds of outrage we saw over the movement of window buttons would likely all but disappear. Another possible downfall would be the return of Linux to obscurity in the mindshare of the world’s populace. Before Ubuntu, most people had never even heard of Linux. Those who had heard something about Linux considered it incredibly nerdy, difficult to use, and something more for programmers and tinkerers than anyone else. Ubuntu has changed all of that.

Where is Ubuntu headed in the next 3 years? Will there still be a Canonical? Will all those wonderful Ubuntu designers be out of work? It’s been years since I considered the fate of Ubuntu. Unlike Debian foundation, at some point in the very near future Canonical is dependent on profit to continue.

(Source: elevenislouder.blogspot.com)