This article chooses to view Ubuntu's evolution as rudderless sailing, which is the least generous view of Canonical's efforts possible.

I find it ironic that in the Linux community, which embraces innovation, there is such antagonistic conservatism when it comes to taking the platform beyond the 1%.  It's almost as if some people would prefer for Linux never to become mainstream.

Another way of looking at Shuttleworth's endeavours is that Canonical, being unencumbered by the short-term profit motive, has the freedom to grapple with the complex riddle of how to provide a unified user experience across a variety of platforms, form factors, and architectures.

Microsoft's characteristically clumsy attempt, the non-backwards compatible Windows 8, highlights the difficulty of this task.

Apple's attempt to unify MacOSX and iOS also faces significant challenges, even though it controls the hardware stack.

And Android, for all its success, has yet to prove itself a worthy desktop OS, which will still be necessary for people who need to work and produce content, not just consume content.

Obviously, Canonical can't compete on content deals, but it can provide a technically superior alternative -- a free, open source, unified platform across all devices that runs on the same kernel, on which you can both do serious work and watch YouTube comfortably.

The writer being an ardent Linux user, it is sad to see such willful pessimism when no other FOSS provider is even coming close to providing a credible, forward-looking alternative.