Canonical plucks Matt Asay from Alfresco - is it 'go time' for Ubuntu?

The hiring of Linux-savvy and revenue-minded exec-slash-blogger Matt Asay as the new chief operating officer of Canonical looks like a very good — and telling — move for the Isle of Man- (really London-but-don't-tell-anyone) based company that oversees the growing-by-leaps-bounds-and-all-other-ways Ubuntu Linux distribution and surrounding universe.

Asay is pretty much singular among bloggers for a) being an actual, paid technology and open-source executive for a company that must take care of both community and customers. He helped Novell gain traction in the Linux business, and he continued that success with the Alfresco conten management system (and company of the same name; that there is a company that is out to make money is telling; Canonical desperately wants to become self-sustaining if not world-dominating).

I've thought well of Asay for some time: How many other blogs do you know that have an actual category that bears his name? Not many, I figure. (In case disclosure on my part is not just piling on at this point, yes I'm an avid reader of The Open Road, and Matt and I have exchanged maybe a couple of messages over the past year ... I won't mention the 5,000+ Twitter followers he has while I limp along with fewer than 150.)

It is certainly Matt's business experience and acumen that got him from Novell to Alfresco and now to Canonical, the latter of which to many is the uncontested front-runner in furthering Linux's ambitions on the desktop but also is serious about grabbing its share of the server and cloud markets as well.

But in some small way, or maybe a larger way than that, his work as the Open Road blogger cut the trail for him to go to Canonical. It's a company of big, public personalities: Mark Shuttleworth, Jono Bacon, even Dustin Kirkland (I seem to read his blog posts on encryption and hear him on podcasts a lot ...). And if you're a popular blogger for a huge tech-news site, you're in that big-personality category.

In Matt's own post, he outlines his mission at Canonical:

As COO, I am tasked with aligning the company's strategic goals and operational activities, the optimization of day-to-day operations, and leadership of Canonical marketing and back-office functions. Some of these things are very familiar to me; others aren't. That's precisely the challenge I feel I need.

Before that he calls the position "an opportunity to expand my experience and to work on some really hard and varied problems, including cloud computing, consumer Linux adoption, and community development."

Those are all uphill climbs, even for Ubuntu/Canonical. In the parlance of Steve Jobs (no fan of open source, to be sure), it's the opportunity to do something great.

I've written numerous times that I expect more from Canonical and Ubuntu than I do from any other open-source company and project (and yes, that includes Red Hat, Novell and the Linux distributions they shepherd/produce).

It's not just the Shuttleworth fortune behind the company, but that is part of it. A lot of it is the "Linux for Human Beings" motto of a company that, like Google also doesn't want to "be evil" but is being watched by legions of fanboys for just such evil-doing, which to some is any stab at making actual money.

If anybody can thread that needle — making money while keeping the non-Canonical-employee community, the greater user community and any customers happy — Matt Asay seemingly can.

Or at least I hope he can.

From where I sit, as a technology writer, user of open-source operating systems in my daily work (recently Ubuntu but currently Debian), success for me will be Linux in general and Ubuntu in particular taking a significant share of the operating-system market from Microsoft and Apple both on the desktop and the server (though the former is vastly more important if much less lucrative than the latter).

What is a "significant share"? I'm not sure. Even 3 percent would be a huge number. But it's more about momentum than any given numerical goal.

For me, "significance" means lots of preloads and the marketing to go with them, from major computer manufacturers like Dell, HP, Acer, Asus, etc., and through many, varied retail channels (everything from TigerDirect and Newegg to Staples, Office Depot, Target and Wal-Mart).

Free, open-source software in general and desktop Linux in particular might not be the best solution for everybody, but it sure is a better way to go for many people in many situations, both at home, in the office and across the enterprise world.

If Matt can straighten out the mess with older Intel video hardware that affects the entire Xorg-using world, he'll have earned his first year's salary — and then some — in my opinion.

First thing we'll have to deal with is Matt's Apple-fanboy situation (not that I don't use Macs, too, on a semi-regular basis ... but that's another topic for another day).

More seriously, I wish Matt good luck in his future endeavours. Keep in touch ... have a bitchin' summer ... see you in sixth-grade ... all that yearbooky stuff. I'm expecting a Jono Bacon-Matt Asay hip-hop duo performance at the next convention.

Official announcements are available from Canonical, Alfresco, and how the former COO becoming CEO seemingly places Asay in line for the top non-Mark-Shuttleworth spot at the company.

For analysis that isn't mine, go to brother/sister blogs (both of which I read regularly) WorksWithU and The Var Guy. Also see my other favorite FOSS blogger, SJVN on Matt Asay's move to Canonical.