http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10075890-92.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

Interesting story. Mark Shuttleworth and his employees at Canonical
are lucky since Mark got rich early and clearly has a vision on Linux.

************ Quote ******************************************
The company bases its business chiefly on selling support, either to
customers for its Linux software or to companies that need expertise
in building Linux-based systems. Selling Linux for desktop computers
on its own, though, is no way to financial glory, Shuttleworth said.

"I don't think it will possible to make a lot of money, or maybe any money,
selling the desktop," Shuttleworth said. "We're not going to try to make
money selling the desktop. We force ourselves to look to services-oriented
business models. I remain confident this is the right business model for
the industry. Linux is the forcing function that (means) the broader
software industry will shift in business models away from licensing the
bits and to services."
************ End of Quote ******************************************

I think the Linux Desktop market is clearly small and over-clouded.
But it is  hard to offer service for smaller players since big players
like IBM, Oracle and HP/EDS are there. In the end, small fishes
like Redhat, Novell and Canonical may just do the prepration work
for IBM/Oracla/HP.

Xiaofan
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