Canonical Ltd.
Canonical Ltd.
Type
Private company limited by
shares[1]
Genre
Software Development
Founded
5 March 2004
Founder(s)
Mark Shuttleworth
Headquarters Europe (Registered: Douglas,
Isle of Man. Operational HQ:
Millbank Tower, London,
United Kingdom)
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Mark Shuttleworth
Products
Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu,
Edubuntu, Launchpad,
Bazaar, TheOpenCD, Gobuntu
Revenue
$30 Million[2]
Owner(s)
Mark Shuttleworth
Employees
200+[3]
Subsidiaries
Canonical UK Ltd.
Website
www.canonical.com
Formerly "M R S Virtual Development Ltd"[4]
Ubuntu is one of the best-known products of
the company.
Canonical Ltd.[5] is a private company
founded (and funded) by South African entre-
preneur Mark Shuttleworth for the promo-
tion of free software projects. Canonical is
registered in the Isle of Man and employs
staff around the world, along with its main of-
fices in London, support office in Montreal
and OEM team in Lexington, Massachusetts,
USA.[6]
Projects sponsored by
Canonical
Canonical Ltd continues to back and has cre-
ated several projects. Principally these are
free/open source software (FOSS) or tools de-
signed to improve collaboration between free
software developers and contributors.
Open source software
• The Ubuntu family of GNU/Linux
distributions:
• Ubuntu[7], a Debian-based GNU/Linux
distribution with a GNOME desktop.
• Kubuntu[8], the Ubuntu core system
with the KDE desktop in place of
Gnome.
• Xubuntu, the Ubuntu core system with
the lightweight Xfce desktop in place of
Gnome.
• Edubuntu[9], the Ubuntu core improved
specifically for educational or thin-
client environments.
• Gobuntu, a stripped variant of Ubuntu
consisting entirely of free software.
• Ubuntu JeOS, an efficient variant of
Ubuntu configured specifically for
virtual appliances.
• Bazaar[10], a decentralized revision
control system.
• OpenCD (now defunct), a collection of
high quality free and open-source
software compiled for users of Microsoft
Windows. The programs come with an
easy-to-use graphical installer and run
u