
A new vantage point: Canonical CEO Jane Silber to step down - Nightshaxx
https://insights.ubuntu.com/2017/04/12/a-new-vantage-point/
======
erikb
It is not surprising if one follows their development, though. Neither Unity,
nor mobile, nor Amazon integration was a move that anybody liked. And many of
these were just announced to be dropped. That this strategical shift also
means a shift in leadership is normal.

And honestly, I have to say: Finally! Nothing of these things were really
doing any good to the community as a whole, and therefore also can't be in the
long term financial interest of Canonical.

The only thing I wonder is if this Jane Silber, who I've never heard about
before, is really responsible for all these failures or if she's just the goat
that gets slaughtered for the oracle of public opinion.

~~~
4ad
Well if we're speculating, I'll speculate something else. Mark is shopping the
company around, trying to find buyers. The buyers told him he needs to axe
some projects and fire Jane. These things might not be related outside this
context.

It even says in the other article that they are downsizing due to an "external
analysis". External analysis happen when you are about to be bought.

~~~
ybaumes
I think 4ad has a good point here. It's been a long time since I has the same
kind of thinking: Shuttleworth won't spend all his money in Ubuntu
indefinitely and/or he wants his firm to be financially sustainable over time.
They've tried hard to make a living out of desktop market, and it never worked
out. Now they cut it and focus on B2B markets. No longer expect Canonical to
make innovation for the end user market in foreseeable future.

The way he is expressing his bitterness to the open source community in its
Google+ post is telling.

We may expect Ubuntu to drift slowly into the once-in-a-time-popular
distribution graveyard.

------
TorKlingberg
I suppose it makes sense given the change in strategy, and she has been the
CEO for quite a while. I sincerely hope this is not a sign that Canonical is
in trouble. They have done a great job putting together a convenient Linux
Desktop. There have been occasional things I disliked, and they have tried a
lot of things that didn't work out, but the core product is great. A refocused
and committed Canonical will be good for the Linux ecosystem.

------
aruggirello
Is it possible that Canonical is about to be bought by Microsoft?
Collaborating to Windows 10's WSL IMHO hints at that, and no doubt it would be
a brilliant move by the latter - swallowing almost the whole server market
(which is something they have been wanting since when Windows NT was a thing)
in one move. And then we might see Ubuntu integrate more tightly with Windows,
or perhaps even turn into the first GNU/Windows distro... (though I'd rather
wish Microsoft would replace their kernel, and collaborate with WINE instead,
but the latter could intriguingly come too, as a natural consequence of
becoming the "largest" distro in the market)

I don't how the market would react at that though: panic, and everybody moving
to Debian, or rather _enthusiastic adoption_?

Edit: clarified

~~~
type0
I hope not, it would be damaging to Canonical brand, the same way it was
damaging to Nokia - and look what happened to them in the phone market.

~~~
simonh
To be fair what was already happening to Nokia in the phone market just kept
on happening.

------
bflesch
I had to look hard to find out the CEO's name, Mark was mentioned a couple of
times throughout the text.

Now that I know her tenure began at 2010 I wonder what Mark would've done
differently in her position? I look at her CV and am surprised there are no
notable OSS affiliations apart from her stint with Ubuntu in the enterprise /
ubuntu one area:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Silber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Silber)

It is weird to see conflicting interests of enterprise users / normal users
and people moving away from Ubuntu in such an obvious way.

~~~
vacri
> _I had to look hard to find out the CEO 's name_

It's immediately under the title.

------
kevinr
Why must there be something bad going on here? All good things come to an end,
leadership positions among them, and the sign of the best leaders is a
measured and orderly transition and an organization which lives on long after
them.

------
orkoden
Canonical has NO job vacancies at all currently
[https://www.canonical.com/careers/all-
vacancies](https://www.canonical.com/careers/all-vacancies)

Is something wrong with the company?

~~~
nxc18
Don't want to add fuel to the acquired-by-microsoft rumor fire, but when
Xamarin was being acquired they had a hiring freeze in place for the duration
of the process. I understand that is standard practice for acquisitions, but
might be wrong on that.

------
petrikapu
I think Canonical is preparing to get acquired by Microsoft

~~~
pkd
I've thought about this too. It is entirely possible but I doubt it this will
end up well for Ubuntu on the desktops. Everybody should remember the backlash
against SUSE when they made a deal with Microsoft back in the decade.

~~~
oblio
It's been a decade, though. Probably 20% of the current Linux community hasn't
even experienced the whole SCO story first hand because they were in
elementary school at the time :)

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shimon_e
tldr; Mark to become CEO again

I'd assume their are some behind the scenes politics that will leak in the
coming weeks.

~~~
ktta
I doubt it. The post talked about how there will be 'transitioning' for three
months. That doesn't happen in case there are politics serious enough for her
to step down.

~~~
4ad
Steve Ballmer transitioned for a full year.

------
franciscop
Titles in HN are supposed to be meaningful when the original is not.
Suggestions:

> Canonical CEO retiring plan

> Canonical CEO seeking new challenges

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slazaro
OT: Again, HN changing the title to the original title makes everything worse.
"A new vantage point" means nothing to me unless I go to the article or
comments. "Canonical CEO steps down" is short, to the point, and is a perfect
description of the topic.

~~~
Doctor_Fegg
Yes, there would be virtue in clarifying the title in brackets, just as HN
often suffixes titles with "(2011)" or similar.

