Canonical: Profiting From Google Chrome OS?

Sometimes I need to look before I leap. A few minutes ago I posted a blog pointing out the pros/cons of Google Chrome OS to Canonical and Ubuntu. But I overlooked the biggest fact of all. Google has contracted with Canonical to help develop Chrome OS.

Reader Jef Spaleta politely pointed out the following to me… According to Canonical’s blog:

Clearly, I’m wiping some egg off my face for not mentioning the Canonical-Google financial relationship in my earlier blog post. The fact that Canonical has a seat at Google’s financial table is significant.

But how significant? Remember, IBM and Microsoft partnered on OS/2 … and we all know how that story ended for IBM. And we’ve all seen multi-company software efforts unravel. Anybody else remember Apple and IBM working on Taligent and OpenDoc? Ouch.

Still, my earlier coverage missed the mark by not identifying the fact that Canonical is assisting the Chrome OS effort. Plus, Chrome OS is clearly a Google-led effort, with Canonical (and others) chipping in along the way.

I still think Chrome OS represents a threat in some ways to Canonical. But next time I will be sure to look a bit longer before I leap to conclusions. Thanks again to Jef for raising an important fact regarding the Canonical-Chrome OS connection.