The company cites the increased costs for companies

Aug 27, 2015 15:09 GMT  ·  By

Canonical is taking a bold stand and is asking a very direct question: Is the launch of Windows 10 a good enough motive to move to Ubuntu?

It's been a long time since we've seen Canonical taking a direct stand. Some of you might remember the release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, which roughly coincided with the launch of Windows 8. They marketed Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (difficult word given the fact that it's free) as a perfect alternative to Windows 8.

Since then, Canonical hasn't made any kind of declarations that would determine people and organizations to consider the adoption of a free operating system. Make no mistake about it, Canonical is actually talking with the corporate entities and their respective CTOs (chief technology officer), but it's not doing so publicly.

No mention of privacy issues with Windows 10

If you were to ask anyone right now what the main problem with Windows 10 is, you would find that a lot of people would say the privacy issue. The operating system is collecting huge amounts of data about the users, by default, and that's not going unobserved.

Canonical doesn't mention any of this in their address, but they are asking, rhetorically, if upgrading to Windows 10 is a good idea or just a force of habit. They think Ubuntu is a much better choice, and they say that it's mostly about making the better financial choice for your company.

“Public and private enterprises across the world have been using Microsoft Windows for years, but it calls into question whether this is, in fact, the best choice or simply force of habit? With recent security issues coming to the fore, an increasing number of companies are exploring the benefits of using alternative Operating Systems and harvesting the benefits of ultra secure, robust, high performance options. Plus, the cherry on the top is that royalty, maintenance and training costs for users can be reduced by as much as 70 percent!” reads the blog entry from Canonical.

Canonical is not releasing any major distributions anytime soon. They have Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf) coming this October, and a new Ubuntu 16.04 LTS next year, in April. They do, however, have an excellent Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, which is supported until 2019.