[ubuntu-za] Ubuntu and Mozilla, the inevitable alliance

[David Robert Lewis (ethnopunk)]

Nic Roets wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 10:19 AM, Helge Reikeras 
> <helge.reikeras at gmail.com <mailto:helge.reikeras at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Yeah. Of course, Canonical doesn't own Ubuntu and as such it's not
>     theirs
>     to sell. If Canonical decides to make any decision the community
>     doesn't
>     agree with, the community is free to continue development on it's own
>     (potentially with another sponsor). However, the role played by
>     Canonical
>     might be difficult to replace. I wouldn't be surprised if Google
>     decide to
>     acquire Canonical. As with any acquisition we can only speculate
>     what the
>     implication for the current values and culture at Canonical will be.
>
>
> It's not going to happen: The Google people are hardnosed businessmen. 
> The only reason why they are in Open Source is to make it difficult 
> for companies closer to the end user to replace their default search 
> provider. Companies closer to the end user include telcos, hardware 
> manufacturers, even MS.
>
> Furthermore, if Google buys Canonical or take a lead role in Ubuntu, 
> they can seriously damage their brand if something goes wrong in Linux 
> land and they did not do their best to stop it.
>

Having Google as a sponsor might not be all that bad, come to think of 
it. We could always rename ourselves - Uboogle. :)