An intense gaze and a shrewd expression at first, then clear ideas and perfect eloquence. This is how Thibaut Rouffineau introduced himself. He is the marketing manager of Canonical, a company founded in 2004 by Mark Shuttleworth that is dedicated to the development and distribution of free software. Rouffineau is co-founder of two companies, Apptual and Behaviour Labs, has been part of the company for almost ten years and is an expert in the IT world and its dynamics, with particular reference to open-source systems.
We asked him to summarise the most significant milestones of Canonical’s first twenty years, celebrated last year, discovering choices and solutions that were decisive for the company’s success. From the launch of Ubuntu in 2004, which offered everyone a valid alternative to Windows, to the point that companies of enormous size and importance, such as Amazon Web Services, have started to use Ubuntu solutions.
Another topical moment, which perhaps not everyone remembers, was the launch of Ubuntu Edge, a smartphone for which Canonical raised almost 13 million dollars through the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform, thanks to donations from over 27,000 people. Although it never saw the light of day, Thibaut explained how that was the first step for Canonical and Ubuntu into the world of IoT. Returning to current affairs, the attempt launched this year by Canonical is interesting, as it tries to demonstrate that the company is no longer synonymous with Ubuntu because there are several open-source solutions based on AI.
This is a useful topic because many people are far from clear about the sources of income of a company dedicated to open-source. I’ll leave you to read Rouffineau’s answer to find out where the revenue comes from. I also invite you to listen to what he has to say about the impact of generative artificial intelligence, not only on the possibility of developing numerous useful functionalities in the professional sphere but more generally on the changes it can bring to the entire technology sector.
