Linux has always been a financial disaster on the desktop, and as Mark Shuttleworth -- the multimillionaire space tourist who bankrolls Ubuntu -- says in a conference call: "I don't think it will possible to make a lot of money, or maybe any money, selling the desktop."
However, he is going to keep financing the operation for a while. He says, in CNet's report:
"I have no objection to funding the business for another three to five years. I certainly have the patience to see us through any downturn. I think this downturn is going to be very good for Canonical... Canonical is not cash-flow positive, but our offering is very effective for those who want to pinch their pennies."
Unfortunately, Ubuntu's main chance on the desktop has already come and gone. It would have been great if it had become the standard on netbooks. However, almost all the netbook manufacturers want to be able to tweak their adopted Linux and/or add their own software. Linux is now in decline on netbooks, and it looks as though it will never offer the same kind of comfortable, compatible cross-hardware platform as Windows. That kind of balkanisation, of course, ultimately destroyed Unix.
