Ubuntu is not a professional product that Canonical is pushing. Ubuntu is the
flagship project, but the other *buntus are also staffed in the same way. there
is a mixture of paid staff and volunteers in all projects. They are separate in
that they can set their own terms within the framework and philosophy of the
parent company, Canonical.

Commercial or enterprise solutions are being pushed, not at the expense of the
projects, but to increase usability and Linux penetration. Canonical is a small
player compared to Novell and Red Hat and is just getting into the market.
Recently it was certified by Sun Microsystems as being suitable for installation
on their servers. This was a big step, but Canonical has a long way to go.
Previously, they reached an agreement with Dell for Ubuntu to being
pre-installed on some computers. The strategy is not to raid the user base of
other distros, but to improve Linux and its wider application on the desktop and
on servers.

They have steadfastly resisted overtures from Microsoft to enter into an
agreement because the believe that M$'s claims are bogus and any agreement is
unnecessary. They are charting their own course and most Linux users like their
approach. some users though are either purists or jealous of success. They
criticize the *buntus for trying to walk the line between usability and using
only FOSS. Canonicals' solution is to not include restricted drivers by default,
but to allow users to decide. They also offer Gobuntu which uses only FOSS.
Users from the PCLOS camp are particularly harsh and like to trumpet their OS's
use of codecs and restricted drivers out of the box as if it is stupid to do
anything else and they routinely rag on about how good their OS is for doing
something that Canonical could do but won't due to philosophy. They target
Ubuntu because it took away the lead that PCLOS once had on Distrowatch. Petty
and annoying users, but a good distro
(PCLOS) if you like RPM (I don't).

To date Canonical is not making a profit. Any revenue generated goes back into
the projects and shortfalls are topped up by Mark Shuttlworth, to the tune of 8
million dollars per year. There are lots of near slanderous stories from other
distros backers who are spreading FUD in order to prop up their own distros.
Some target Ubuntu because it is the front runner. Others see it as a threat by
siphoning off users and a few are just mean spirited.

Be careful what you read and check the facts before you spread gossip and
innuendo.