The Myth

Ubuntu Hackers are just Canonical Employees. Ubuntu is ( therefore ) Canonical.

People assume that Canonical guys and gals are the only ones who work on Ubuntu. When people talk about the direction in which Ubuntu is going, people talk about the direction that Canonical takes Ubuntu in.

Wherever I go on the Internet ( where there are opinionated GNU/Linux users ), I always see comments, such as the fictitious one below:

Canonical’s decision to do X was clearly stupid.

Most of the time, it should be:

The maintainer of that package’s decision to do X was clearly stupid.

When I make changes to Fluxbox in Debian, I don’t do it because I’m under the mind-control of Canonical. I do it because it’s something I work on.

I’ve never been told to make a change from someone at Canonical. Ever.

The Verdict

This myth is False.

Since we only need one counter-example to invalidate the claim, I present myself. I’ve been an Ubuntu Contributing member since 2008, and I still don’t work for Canonical. I don’t plan to work for Canonical, either.

100% home-grown-organic contributor.

It is true that Canonical has a say in the community, and their contributions to the Ubuntu project are significant, but the amount of man hours that put into Ubuntu from Canonical is a lot less then that put in by the wider Ubuntu community.