Comment 96 for bug 375345

I think something profound is happening here.

The views expressed in this thread illustrate a fundamental redefining of the relationship between a business and its customers.

By intent or not, Mr. Shuttleworth has created a company with a truely symbiotic relationship to its customers. This issue rises from a clash between the traditional commerce-centric view and this developing symbiotic view where any party that significantly effects the success of the other must be considered least a conflict cause both to fail.

Canonical would cease to exist without the Ubuntu Community and the Ubuntru Community would morph into another Linux distro (U-No?) if Canonical failed.

The decision to create Ubuntu One and use that name feels like one promoted by commerce-centric thinking where the vast majority of Canonical customers -- The Ubuntu Community -- are not really thought of as customers since we don't produce direct revenue, but rather as a massive public relations campaign. The "free" TV programming whose real business purpose is to sell the products in the commercials?

On the flip side of this inseparable relationship, I have no doubt that Ubuntu could not have risen to its nearly dominant market position in the community of Linux distros without the hard work that the drive for commercial success has brought.

Ubuntu One has caused many in the Ubuntu Community to feel betrayed by our leaders. Rules of behavior were set down by those leaders and then ignored by them when they became an obstacle to profits.

The pact in its simplest form is...

... Ubuntu, and anything bearing the text "ubuntu" or close variation of it, is free.

... Canonical and anything bearing the text "canonical" or close variation of it, is commercial.

To keep credit where it is due, my own submission to the name game is...
... "Canonical One"

With the tag line...
... "from the makers of Ubuntu"

Robert