Hi guys !
I just had a little reflection / thought I would like to have your input on.
Now, I haven’t been using Ubuntu or keeping an eye on Canonicals/Ubuntus front page during or after releases for at least a couple of years (since I started using Archbased distros). The only info I get nowadays about Ubuntubased distros is from reviewers and such. I don’t actively seek information about it all that much these days.
But up until 2018 I’ve been using *buntu of some flavor, mostly Xubuntu, since 2005. And to my recollection, Ubuntu has previously been all about desktop and desktopusers. Like media, multimedia, content creation, gaming, connecting with people, the web e.t.c e.t.c.
At least up until around 2015-2016, or so. (don’t have any actual data or sources for this other than just my on reflection and interpretation).
Somewhere around that time, it felt more like they shifted focus a bit with their server editions and catered more towards working environments.
If you take a look at the Ubuntu frontpage and their releasepage for Ubuntu 21.10 you find this:
14 October 2021: Today, Canonical released Ubuntu 21.10 – the most productive environment for cloud-native developers and AI/ML innovators across the desktop, devices and cloud.
“As open source becomes the new default, we aim to bring Ubuntu to all the corners of the enterprise and all the places developers want to innovate,” said Mark Shuttleworth. “From the biggest public clouds to the tiniest devices, from DGX servers to Windows WSL workstations, open source is the springboard for new ideas and Ubuntu makes that springboard safe, secure and consistent.”
The first part of the above is right there on the front page, smack in your face. And when you look at the release page itself it’s all about work environment and developers e.t.c.
So my immediate thought was, have they shifted their main focus on for whom Ubuntu (talking about the main version with Gnome DE) is developed and geared towards, or am I just looking at it the wrong way ?
Just want to make it clear, I’m not saying that this is wrong or bad in any way. It’s just that it somehow hit me or became more clear than before, that they may actually have shifted their focus a bit.