Mark Shuttleworth, father of the Ubuntu operating system, announced Thursday evening on his blog that, starting with March 2010, he would step down as CEO of Canonical, being replaced by Jane Silber, the current COO (Chief Operating Officer) and Director of Online Services. In the shocking announcement, Shuttleworth expressed his love for customers, partnerships and product design, areas that he thinks are perfect for him and in which he can shape the impact Canonical and Ubuntu have on the technology and open source markets.

"I’ve become very passionate about design and quality, and want to spend more time figuring out how we harness the collaborative process to build better, more insightful products. I can’t think of a more interesting challenge, and luckily I couldn’t think of a better person to take over my formal management and leadership responsibilities at Canonical than Jane." - Mark Shuttleworth writes on his blog.

While Mark Shuttleworth will continue to play an important role in Canonical, the company behind the famous and popular Ubuntu operating system, Jane Silber appears to be very excited about her new role as CEO of Canonical. Some Ubuntu community members know Jane Silber from the Ubuntu Developer Summits, but those of you who have no idea about her history can check out a short interview (with both Mark Shuttleworth and Jane Silber) posted on the same day as Mark's announcement, on the Canonical blog.

When Mark Shuttleworth was asked what exactly he's role would be from March 2010, he answered, "I will focus on my passions of product design and development. I want Ubuntu to succeed as the open platform of choice for almost all use types whether on netbook, notebook, desktop, server, embedded device or wherever people compute. That is a large undertaking and being able to focus on that, thanks to Jane, is a great privilege. I will also spend more time talking to and visiting partners and customers about what they demand from an open platform and feeding that back into the product through the community and Canonical."

Until March 2010, when Jane Silber will take over the CEO role, Canonical plans to hire a new COO and a new lead for Ubuntu One.