I think readers on this forum might recognise the need Canonical has to turn a profit, and therefore to focus resources on the tasks/developments that will lead

I think readers on this forum might recognise the need Canonical has to turn a profit, and therefore to focus resources on the tasks/developments that will lead to an income stream. A figure of $30million turnover was mentioned as a break even point by Shuttleworth in an interview in 2009, and a three to five year plan to reach that in 2008 (wikipedia article about Canonical Ltd). I personally think I see a shift in strategy towards a tablet/mobile style desktop and a 'brittleness' about community involvement perhaps caused by the need to focus resources on the interface and user experience. Hope they get it right before they burn through Shuttleworth's money. If it is the case they have hardware partners lined up to launch Ubuntu loaded devices (like the Chinese deal some weeks ago) then the 'long time user' community may just have to bend a little to keep the income coming. If they don't it isn't clear to me where these millions of new users are coming from...