The company would be nothing without its community

Oct 8, 2015 13:38 GMT  ·  By

The rumor that Microsoft is interested in buying Canonical doesn't seem to go away, despite the fact that there is no real basis to it. We’ve already explained why that is unlikely to happen, but people still don't listen, so here are some more reasons why the rumor is perfect for April 1.

Reports that Microsoft supposedly wants to buy Canonical are not new. Every once in a while this information shows up from various sources, but it doesn't have any kind of support to back it. The recent chatter about a Canonical buyout started with some suppositions in one article, but it didn't go away as it usually does, and it now has a life of its own. We tried to deflate the situation early on, but now more publications have picked up this so-called story, and it's almost getting out of control.

It wouldn't be surprising if Canonical were soon forced to issue some public statement in this regard, which would be kind of weird, to say the least. And like any good rumor, it's getting new layers of false information atop the original one. Now, there are "secret" negotiations between Canonical and Microsoft, and the thing is labeled on social media as a conspiracy.

A buyout would make Canonical worthless

No one is saying that Microsoft can't buy Canonical; the problem is that it doesn't make any sense. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that Microsoft is after some of the proprietary stuff that's in Canonical's portfolio. The thing is that Ubuntu is so successful exactly because it is backed by Canonical, so who will want to use that stuff after Microsoft buys Canonical?

What people don't realize is that Canonical is Ubuntu and vice-versa. It's not enough for Microsoft to buy the company because a big part of the value of Canonical is the community and the huge number of Ubuntu users. Those will be gone in the next second after the purchase. It would simply be a bad investment, not to mention that it would make Microsoft look like the bad guy, all over again, and this is a label that Microsoft is trying to shake off.

So, when you see yet another article citing conspiracies and "secret" meetings, just give it a pass.