Canonical, the company that distributes Ubuntu GNU/Linux, has announced that it plans to sue a European cloud provider for violation of its agreement terms. Canonical claims that the cloud provider distributed insecure and broken images of Ubuntu, despite repeated warnings to refrain from doing so. Though Canonical has not named the provider, it has already started taking legal steps to remove these images from all places on the Internet.
According to company sources, this lawsuit is expected to act as a deterrent for other companies, so only approved images are published. The company’s management believes this is essential as it can undermine the success of Ubuntu’s certified images.
This incident also brings to light some of the problems that come with third-party Ubuntu images. According to the founder and executive Chairman, Mark Shuttleworth, clouds tend to have baked private keys into their public images, so this can lead to a potential security pitfall, as any user can SSH into any machine they want. When such a situation occurs, it becomes the responsibility of the parent company, Canonical in this case, to protect its customers, and that’s exactly what it claims to have done with the European service provider.
In addition, when broken images of a software are released, users tend to assume that something is wrong with Ubuntu, and may even refrain from buying it. The company believes such “homegrown” images may cause it to behave unpredictably, and this can lead the user to believe that Ubuntu is unstable, when in reality it’s not.
Though this incident has not translated to a significant loss of revenue yet, there is always a possibility for this to happen. To get the facts straight, and to let its users know that everything is fine with Ubuntu, such a lawsuit becomes imperative. In this sense, Canonical has taken the right decision to protect itself as well as its customers from security hazards and misinformation.
Ubuntu is a Linux distribution that comes with Unity desktop. Currently, it runs in all cloud platforms such as AWS, Google, Rackspace, and OpenStack. The best part is Ubuntu offers same the look and feel, regardless of the underlying cloud provider, and this is what makes it easy for users, as they can use it on any cloud provider for their needs. Besides the cloud, Ubuntu also runs on different smartphone devices, PCs, and servers.
Canonical is the company behind Ubuntu. It is in-charge of helping organizations around the world make the most of Ubuntu with the right deployment on clouds, servers, and even desktops. In addition, it also offers 24/7 support for any question pertaining to this open-source software.
It’s a UK-based company founded by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth in 2004. It employs more than 500 employees, and is headquartered in London. With a presence in more than 30 countries, its offices are also located in Boston, Montreal, Tokyo, Taipei, and Isle of Man. This company provides commercial support for many open-source projects including Ubuntu. Some of the other projects that it supports include Snapcraft, GNU Bazaar, Storm, Juju, Upstart, and Quickly.
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