ubutnu's efforts to improve linux desktop ??

[Matthew Flaschen]

ashwin kesavan iyengar wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I would like to know how ubuntu gives back to the community in general
> (not just ubuntu community, but linux in general). There are certain
> software products that it has developed that it has chosen to keep it
> to itself, unlike the other big guy here ( Redhat) which gives most of
> its developed software to the community.

Ubuntu does the same, with the notable exception of its server software.

 AFAIK the software i am talking about are rosetta, launchpad & upstart.
I am sure rosetta is
> proprietary but i am not sure of the other two (correct me if i am
> wrong).

Upstart is free as in freedom
(http://packages.debian.org/changelogs/pool/main/u/upstart/upstart_0.3.8-1/upstart.copyright).
 The other two are proprietary.

> Coming back to the topic of my post, i would like to know how
> much of the time & money of ubuntu & its developer are spent on
> improving the desktop scene in linux rather than the server space.

I believe most of Canonical's effort is devoted to the GNOME desktop.

> There has been lot of development & contribution to making linux more
> suitable as a server OS of choice. Redhat, suse & other have known to
> spend a lot of money & developer resource on improving the state of
> linux as server. But very little is done to making linux suitable for
> desktop.

That's really not right.  Red Hat has always been a major contributor to
GNOME.  SuSE has contributed too, especially to KDE.

 I find ubuntu as the first distro to concentrate on desktop
> space as well. But since they have a server market as well, which is
> of course more profitable.

Not necessarily, given that the server market is more saturated.

Matt Flaschen