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Mark Shuttleworth to step down as Canonical CEO in March

By | December 17, 2009, 5:00pm PST

Summary: Mark Shuttleworth will step down as Canonical’s CEO in March of 2010 but his commitment to the Ubuntu Linux project is expected to remain strong. Shuttleworth will continue to be active on the Ubuntu Community Council and the Ubuntu Technical Board and will focus his attentions on the Linux distribution’s development, partnerships and customers. Effective March 1, Jane [...]

Mark Shuttleworth will step down as Canonical’s CEO in March of 2010 but his commitment to the Ubuntu Linux project is expected to remain strong.

Shuttleworth will continue to be active on the Ubuntu Community Council and the Ubuntu Technical Board and will focus his attentions on the Linux distribution’s development, partnerships and customers.

Effective March 1, Jane Silber, currently COO of Canonical, will become CEO of Canonical. Canonical, based in Europe, is the commercial arm of the Ubuntu project. Silber has been with the company for five years and has helped establish and manage Ubuntu One, OEM Services, Corporate Services, Marketing, Finance, Legal and other roles.  She started her career as a software developer and before coming to Europe for an MBA at Oxford she served as a vice president at General Dynamics.

Shuttleworth and Silber aim to establish a strong commercial industry for Ubuntu and a separate open source community. “One thing this move will bring about is a clearer separation of the role of CEO of Canonical and the leader of the Ubuntu community,” said Silber. “It will be two different people now, which I think will be helpful in both achieving their joint and individual goals more quickly.”

Shuttleworth will be the technical guru, much the way Linus Torvalds runs the Linux kernel and others run the Red Hat and Novell commercial distributors of the Linux operating system. He will continue to serve at Canonical but only in a technical capacity, he noted.

“I will focus on my passions of product design and development. I want Ubuntu to succeed as the open platform of choice for almost all use types whether on netbook, notebook, desktop, server, embedded device or wherever people compute,” Shuttleworth wrote on his blog today. “That is a large undertaking and being able to focus on that, thanks to Jane, is a great privilege. I will also spend more time talking to and visiting partners and customers about what they demand from an open platform and feeding that back into the product through the community and Canonical.”

Canonical was founded in South Africa in 2004.

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Topics

Ubuntu, Mark Shuttleworth, CEO, Silber, Linux, Open Source, UNIX, Operating Systems, Software, Paula Rooney

Paula Rooney is a Boston-based writer who has followed the tech industry for almost two decades.

Disclosure

Paula Rooney

Paula Rooney owns no stock in the companies that she covers. She holds a 401K that is managed by Morgan Stanley.

Biography

Paula Rooney

Paula Rooney has covered the software and technology industry for more than 20 years, starting with semiconductor design and mini-computer systems at EDN News and later focused on PC software companies including Microsoft, Lotus, Oracle, Red Hat, Novell and other open source and commercial software companies for CRN and PCWeek. She received a silver award from the American Society of Business Publication Editors in 2005 for her profile on Linus Torvalds and edited and co-authored "Partnering With Microsoft," a book about Microsoft's channel published by CMP Publishing in 2004. Rooney graduated from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1997. In her off time, she enjoys scuba diving, sailing, sun worshipping, running, reading, surfing (the net) and hanging out with her family. She resides on the shores of Scituate, Massachusetts.

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RE: Mark Shuttleworth to step down as Canonical CEO in March
edward polling Updated - 4th Jul
To give money to a cause is something anyone can do and doesn't prove anything, but to become actively involved and putting your time into one shows integrity and ipad bag blog sutudeg education news and pclos hwdb commitment. l
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RE: Mark Shuttleworth to step down as Canonical CEO in March
Loverock Davidson Updated - 17th Dec 2009
Awesome! Mark Shuttleworth saw the light and doesn't want to be the one responsible for when linux, Ubuntu, and Canonical fail. He's bailing out early. First we have Linus Torvalds who calls linux bloated and scarey, also considering dropping out from linux, then this news of Shuttleworth leaving linux as well. Lets just say my night has been made! happy Christmas came early. Expect this trend to continue of people dropping out of the linux community.
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Thank you, oh wise one, for your words of wisdom.
Arm A. Geddon 17th Dec 2009
Not!! But I'll give you a 7.5/10. wink
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RE: Mark Shuttleworth to step down as Canonical CEO in March
zakkiromi Updated - 26th May 2011
Shuttleworth will be the technical guru, much the way Linus Torvalds runs the Linux kernel and others run the Red Hat and Novell commercial distributors of the Linux operating system. k
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RE: Mark Shuttleworth to step down as Canonical CEO in March
edward polling Updated - 4th Jul
To give money to a cause is something anyone can do and doesn't prove anything, but to become actively involved and putting your time into one shows integrity and ipad bag blog sutudeg education news and pclos hwdb commitment. l
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Either you haven't taken your anti-crazy pills or your reading skills...
The Mentalist 18th Dec 2009
as lame as your drivel.
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RE: Either you........
fatman65535 18th Dec 2009
Quote: Either you haven't taken your anti-crazy pills or your reading skills...

I think you have one word wrong, I think it should read:

"Either you haven't taken your anti-crazy pills and your reading skills..."

BTW, I wonder what would LD's reaction will be when his Lord and Messiah, Steve Ballmer leaves Microsoft?
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No no. He forgot to put "are" at the end of his subject line. Yours is..
xuniL_z Updated - 18th Dec 2009
Either you haven't taken your anti-crazy pills and your reading skills..."
...as lame as your drivel

That sounds like my Son when he was 2.

So again, it should read
"Either you haven't taken your anti-crazy pills or your reading skills.. are as lame as your drivel"

Why would LD care if Steve Ballmer stepped down? He's just a figurehead at this point. The Ozz man and Mundie run the technical show.

What Open Source zealots don't realize is that not all Windows users like Steve Ballmer.
He's not as bad as the huge overstuffed neaderthal aka Dick Stallman, but I don't like the man and would love to see a change in the CEO position. Hard for zealots to comprehend, isn't it? Windows users are wide and varied and from all walks of life. We are not mostly all white male geeks who've still never seen a woman naked (except for the magazines and box of kleeex they keep by their cot in their Mom's basement) such as is the Linux crowd by and large.
  • Flagged
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Hey InAction Man, NBC called and wanted you to know the "Mentalist"..
xuniL_z 18th Dec 2009
has been dropped.

It's being replaced by the "Ventriloquist" and they want you as the dummy!

LOL!!
  • Flagged
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You're pitiful, Lovey.
djchandler 18th Dec 2009
You poor soul, taking delight in what you perceive as someone else's disappointment. I truly feel sorry for you. Doesn't anything else make you happy?

But your real problem is you misread the situation entirely due to your obsidian-tinted glasses. Shuttleworth is doing just the opposite of what you claim. He's making a move towards being able to do what he loves, being part of the creative team rather than an administrator.

It takes a wise man to realize his limitations. You could learn a lot from him, LD.

Just curious. What have you accomplished in your life that facilitates any foresight on your part? Make sure we can verify your credentials.
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Ha ... ha ... ha ...
orionds 19th Dec 2009
"[i}Lets just say my night has been made! happy Christmas came early. Expect this trend to continue of people dropping out of the linux community."

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
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I didn't see that coming
AndyCee 17th Dec 2009
Probably a good decision considering all his other projects.

So much for Ubuntu being a "boys club", eh Carla?
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Wise and strategic decision
root12 18th Dec 2009
Mark can put his energy where his interest lays and no doubt
Jane Silber is very capable. Canonical is in very good hands.
The future of Ubuntu and Linux is bright.
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Good Call
shaunehunter 18th Dec 2009
They might start turning a profit soon. I'm excited to see how this plays.
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Marks says "I want to be like Bill"
xuniL_z 18th Dec 2009
I want Ubuntu to succeed as the open platform of choice for almost all use types whether on netbook, notebook, desktop, server, embedded device or wherever people compute
While he is still just dreaming, his aspirations are in line with his hero Bill Gates who has already made Windows the platform of choice for almost all users, period.
Keep at 'er Mark, you may someday get Linux based OSes above that 1% barrier.
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Definitely not like Bill ...
orionds 19th Dec 2009
You got it all wrong. Shuttleworth wants to be Shuttleworth ... giving to Linux and tech users all over the world and not TAKING like Bill ...
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It's very dangerous when the CEO wants to switch to technical lead....
xuniL_z Updated - 18th Dec 2009
That's like Steve Ballmer changing places with the Ozz man.

Gates was a different story founding the company and building it from the ground up as a technologist first

I wonder how many other CEOs of large companies will go on to work tirelessly trying to save the world from hunger and poor living conditions.
To give money to a cause is something anyone can do and doesn't prove anything, but to become actively involved and putting your time into one shows integrity and commitment.
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Attaboy, Mark!
orionds 19th Dec 2009
I hope Shuttleworth will be true to his words because if he is, Ubuntu's future should rise even faster than in the past few years.

Having had the experience, I know what it's like to be spread thin and not being able to put more into what's closest to my heart. Since I've retired from my official post at work, I can now concentrate on promoting and advancing the areas of my previous career that I felt most important and I'm seeing some fruit rather than the frustration and unhappiness at the hands of bureaucracy and autocratic superiors.

Go, Mark, go!

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