An old idea about open source — that it’s all about cheap knockoffs of proprietary ideas — has been turned on its head. Today’s open source communities, where it’s easy to build on the work of others without constantly seeking permission, offer the most fertile soil for seeding new ideas and growing innovation.
Among open source projects, the Ubuntu operating system in particular has shown a propensity for experimentation in this tradition. Ubuntu’s parent company Canonical has a history of bold choices and innovations. As you may know, the company’s vision is now broader than end-user desktop Linux; for example, Canonical announced a partnership with Hewlett-Packard last week to put Ubuntu’s cloud server edition on HP’s ProLiant server range. And the company is working on a variety of phone and tablet operating system ideas.