Canonical (company)
Canonical (company)
Canonical Ltd. is a British privately held computer software company founded and funded by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. Based in London, the company is best known for developing and maintaining the Ubuntu family of Linux-based operating systems, as well as related projects such as the Snap package manager and the GNOME desktop environment. Canonical also provides enterprise support and services through its Ubuntu Advantage programme.
Canonical was established in 2004 with the goal of creating an easy-to-use, free, and open-source Linux operating system that could compete with proprietary alternatives. Since then, Ubuntu has become one of the most widely used Linux distributions, powering desktops, servers, cloud instances, and IoT devices worldwide. The company also operates the Launchpad collaborative development platform and maintains the Ubuntu One file‑sharing service (discontinued in 2014).
History
The company was launched in 2004 with initial funding from Shuttleworth's proceeds from the sale of his earlier company, Thawte. The first version of Ubuntu, 4.10 ("Warty Warthog"), was released in October 2004. In 2005, Canonical established the Ubuntu Foundation and began providing long‑term support (LTS) releases every two years.
During the 2010s, Canonical expanded into mobile and cloud computing. It developed Ubuntu Touch for smartphones and tablets, though the project was later shelved as a community effort. In 2014, the company introduced Ubuntu Core and the Snappy package manager, aiming at IoT and embedded devices. In 2017, Canonical announced it would stop funding Unity and Mir in favour of reinstating GNOME as the default desktop.
Canonical has faced financial challenges over the years, but has achieved profitability in several quarters through its enterprise support and cloud partnerships, notably with AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
Features
- Ubuntu LTS releases: Canonical provides five years of security and maintenance updates for desktop and server versions, with extended support available through Ubuntu Advantage.
- Snap packaging: A cross‑distribution package format that offers automatic updates and confinement, used by Ubuntu and other Linux systems.
- Ubuntu Cloud Images: Pre‑built images optimised for major public cloud providers.
- Ubuntu Core: A minimal, strictly‑confined version of Ubuntu designed for IoT and embedded devices.
- Launchpad: A web‑based platform for hosting and managing open‑source software projects.