Earlier today, Jane Silber, the CEO of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, announced in an official blog post that the Ubuntu One service will be closed, and those who have subscriptions will have their money refunded. This is some sad news for those of us who are using this service.
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Ubuntu One was for a long time a file backup and synchronization service with integration in each Ubuntu release. For active subscribers and those who are using the service this is definitely bad news, however it may leave room on improving other areas of interest in Canonical’s plans about Ubuntu. The news generated rather controversial discussions on Reddit.
According to Jane Silber, focus on desktop, tablet and phones is the number #1 priority, and since there are providers out there who offer 25-50 GB of free storage space, compared to 5 GB offered by Ubuntu One, it would mean this service wouldn’t be competitive enough on a large scale:
Our strategic priority for Ubuntu is making the best converged operating system for phones, tablets, desktops and more.
She added:
Additionally, the free storage wars aren’t a sustainable place for us to be, particularly with other services now regularly offering 25GB-50GB free storage. If we offer a service, we want it to compete on a global scale, and for Ubuntu One to continue to do that would require more investment than we are willing to make.
The Ubuntu One service integration will not be included in the upcoming release of Ubuntu, Trusty Tahr:
As of today, it will no longer be possible to purchase storage or music from the Ubuntu One store. The Ubuntu One file services will not be included in the upcoming Ubuntu 14.04 LTS release, and the Ubuntu One apps in older versions of Ubuntu and in the Ubuntu, Google, and Apple stores will be updated appropriately.
What will subscribers do?
Well, the service will close on June 1, 2014, and money will be refunded to the paying subscribers. In addition, user content will remain available for download until July 31, after which it will be deleted. If you have important files hosted at Ubuntu One, make sure to make the migration to another service or back-up your files.
As of today, it will no longer be possible to purchase storage or music from the Ubuntu One store. The Ubuntu One file services will not be included in the upcoming Ubuntu 14.04 LTS release, and the Ubuntu One apps in older versions of Ubuntu and in the Ubuntu, Google, and Apple stores will be updated appropriately. The current services will be unavailable from 1 June 2014; user content will remain available for download until 31 July, at which time it will be deleted.
Currently, no warning seems to be issued on the Ubuntu One dashboard: