6 ms·

A new vantage point: Canonical CEO Jane Silber to step down

97 points by Nightshaxx 10y ago

petrikapu 10y ago
I think Canonical is preparing to get acquired by Microsoft
- skrebbel 10y ago
  Nice idea. How would a CEO swap help with that, though?
- pkd 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    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 :)
shimon_e 10y ago
tldr; Mark to become CEO again I'd assume their are some behind the scenes politics that will leak in the coming weeks.
- ktta 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    Steve Ballmer transitioned for a full year.
  - kevinr 10y ago
    No, that's a sign of stable and sane leadership transition planning. Big enterprises don't change course overnight.
- 4ad 10y ago
  Mark was always at the helm. I have no idea why Jane was CEO on paper, probably some tax evasion scheme.
  - pavlov 10y ago
    I don't think it's that nefarious. She came from an enterprise background and was made CEO to emphasize the importance of enterprise sales to Ubuntu. Shuttleworth says as much in this blog post from 2009: "As a former VP at General Dynamics, Jane has more experience of large customers and large organisational leadership, which I see as essential for Canonical over the next five years. We are being welcomed as a partner and supplier to ever-larger businesses, and I want to make sure we are a robust answer to their needs." http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/295 http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/295 When meeting with Fortune 500 customers, it makes sense to have the CEO participate in negotiations rather than the same person with a more nebulous VP title.
  - dustinkirkland 10y ago
    Or, just maybe because she's a smart, sophisticated, charismatic leader, with engineering degrees in both computer science and mathematics, and business management degrees from Oxford and Vanderbilt? Jane has been one of the most powerful, honest, decisive, and passionate person in the open source technology world for the last 14 years. In an industry fraught with executive impropriety, her integrity has set the golden standard by which I'll forever measure any other CEO that I ever work for, or hope to become. Mark and Jane together have long provided the yin and yang balance that's so fundamental to the indelible passion that is Canonical and Ubuntu. She will be missed, and she will go on to do even more incredible things. @dustinkirkland
    - 4ad 10y ago
      > Or, just maybe because [...] Yes, that's possible. It's also possible Canonical's PR department will say anything on social media forums to save face. > [...] She will be missed, and she will go on to do even more incredible things. Do you genuinely believe the HN audience doesn't see through bullshit corporate speak like this?
- mangecoeur 10y ago
  It's short, so I did read: ceo Jane silber never planned to stay this long in the first place, so there's nothing very surprising here.
  - 4ad 10y ago
    > Jane silber never planned to stay this long in the first place You're reading into corporate speak too literally. The only information in this article is that Jane is stepping down. Anything else is PR fluff.
bflesch 10y ago
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 10y ago
  > I had to look hard to find out the CEO's name It's immediately under the title.
erikb 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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.
  - JdeBP 10y ago
    It says in this headlined article "We're now entering a new phase of accelerated growth".
  - moomin 10y ago
    I think you've nailed it. Every move and announcement screams that Shuttleworth has given up on his ambitions. Which is a pity, because the ambitions themselves were laudable.
  - ybaumes 10y ago
    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 10y ago
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.
kevinr 10y ago
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.
slazaro 10y ago
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 10y ago
  Yes, there would be virtue in clarifying the title in brackets, just as HN often suffixes titles with "(2011)" or similar.
- sctb 10y ago
  Thanks, we've updated the submission title.
aruggirello 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    To be fair what was already happening to Nokia in the phone market just kept on happening.
- nxc18 10y ago
  The Windows NT kernel is generally excellent and has a lot of nice things that make it more appropriate for things like the desktop (the existence of a stable driver model/API comes to mind). People clamor for Linux to be everywhere, but the effects of never really being designed are clear; it is an amazing collection of kludge accumulated over decades in an attempt to catch up to NT. The only real advantage of Linux over NT for the x86 desktop is that it is free. Making NT open source in some way (kind of like the macOS model of open kernel + closed userland) would be a better move for the community; NT is part of a fundamentally different family of operating system designs. I'm personally not a fan of giving up on diversity and wholly adopting an OS monoculture. Without NT, your options would be Unix variants (*BSD), kludged Unix variants (macOS), and Unix clones (Linux).
orkoden 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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.
- Daviey 10y ago
  Considering about 180 people are being made redundant, they'd be in a pickle if they hired new people for positions that could have been filled by those leaving.
franciscop 10y ago
Titles in HN are supposed to be meaningful when the original is not. Suggestions: > Canonical CEO retiring plan > Canonical CEO seeking new challenges

97 points by Nightshaxx 10y ago

petrikapu 10y ago

I think Canonical is preparing to get acquired by Microsoft

skrebbel 10y ago
Nice idea. How would a CEO swap help with that, though?
pkd 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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 :)

shimon_e 10y ago

tldr; Mark to become CEO again I'd assume their are some behind the scenes politics that will leak in the coming weeks.

ktta 10y ago
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 10y ago
  Steve Ballmer transitioned for a full year.
- kevinr 10y ago
  No, that's a sign of stable and sane leadership transition planning. Big enterprises don't change course overnight.
4ad 10y ago
Mark was always at the helm. I have no idea why Jane was CEO on paper, probably some tax evasion scheme.
- pavlov 10y ago
  I don't think it's that nefarious. She came from an enterprise background and was made CEO to emphasize the importance of enterprise sales to Ubuntu. Shuttleworth says as much in this blog post from 2009: "As a former VP at General Dynamics, Jane has more experience of large customers and large organisational leadership, which I see as essential for Canonical over the next five years. We are being welcomed as a partner and supplier to ever-larger businesses, and I want to make sure we are a robust answer to their needs." http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/295 http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/295 When meeting with Fortune 500 customers, it makes sense to have the CEO participate in negotiations rather than the same person with a more nebulous VP title.
- dustinkirkland 10y ago
  Or, just maybe because she's a smart, sophisticated, charismatic leader, with engineering degrees in both computer science and mathematics, and business management degrees from Oxford and Vanderbilt? Jane has been one of the most powerful, honest, decisive, and passionate person in the open source technology world for the last 14 years. In an industry fraught with executive impropriety, her integrity has set the golden standard by which I'll forever measure any other CEO that I ever work for, or hope to become. Mark and Jane together have long provided the yin and yang balance that's so fundamental to the indelible passion that is Canonical and Ubuntu. She will be missed, and she will go on to do even more incredible things. @dustinkirkland
  - 4ad 10y ago
    > Or, just maybe because [...] Yes, that's possible. It's also possible Canonical's PR department will say anything on social media forums to save face. > [...] She will be missed, and she will go on to do even more incredible things. Do you genuinely believe the HN audience doesn't see through bullshit corporate speak like this?
mangecoeur 10y ago
It's short, so I did read: ceo Jane silber never planned to stay this long in the first place, so there's nothing very surprising here.
- 4ad 10y ago
  > Jane silber never planned to stay this long in the first place You're reading into corporate speak too literally. The only information in this article is that Jane is stepping down. Anything else is PR fluff.

bflesch 10y ago

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 10y ago
> I had to look hard to find out the CEO's name It's immediately under the title.

erikb 10y ago

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 10y ago
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.
- JdeBP 10y ago
  It says in this headlined article "We're now entering a new phase of accelerated growth".
- moomin 10y ago
  I think you've nailed it. Every move and announcement screams that Shuttleworth has given up on his ambitions. Which is a pity, because the ambitions themselves were laudable.
- ybaumes 10y ago
  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 10y ago

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.

kevinr 10y ago

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.

slazaro 10y ago

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 10y ago
Yes, there would be virtue in clarifying the title in brackets, just as HN often suffixes titles with "(2011)" or similar.
sctb 10y ago
Thanks, we've updated the submission title.

aruggirello 10y ago

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 10y ago
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 10y ago
  To be fair what was already happening to Nokia in the phone market just kept on happening.
nxc18 10y ago
The Windows NT kernel is generally excellent and has a lot of nice things that make it more appropriate for things like the desktop (the existence of a stable driver model/API comes to mind). People clamor for Linux to be everywhere, but the effects of never really being designed are clear; it is an amazing collection of kludge accumulated over decades in an attempt to catch up to NT. The only real advantage of Linux over NT for the x86 desktop is that it is free. Making NT open source in some way (kind of like the macOS model of open kernel + closed userland) would be a better move for the community; NT is part of a fundamentally different family of operating system designs. I'm personally not a fan of giving up on diversity and wholly adopting an OS monoculture. Without NT, your options would be Unix variants (*BSD), kludged Unix variants (macOS), and Unix clones (Linux).

orkoden 10y ago

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 10y ago
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.
Daviey 10y ago
Considering about 180 people are being made redundant, they'd be in a pickle if they hired new people for positions that could have been filled by those leaving.

franciscop 10y ago

Titles in HN are supposed to be meaningful when the original is not. Suggestions: > Canonical CEO retiring plan > Canonical CEO seeking new challenges