Canonical: Difference between revisions

{{InfoboxCompany

| Name = Canonical Ltd.

| Type = Private company limited by shares

| Founded = 2004

| Industry = Computer Software

| Official Website = https://www.canonical.com/

[[wikipedia:Canonical_(company)|'''Canonical''']] is a software company best known for creating Ubuntu, an Operating system based on Linux. It is largely funded by South African billionaire Mark Shuttleworth.

==Upstreaming==

Alongside Red Hat and Google, Canonical makes up a substantial portion of upstream security patches in the Linux ecosystem. They maintain AppArmor,<ref>{{Cite web |title=AppArmor |url=https://apparmor.net/ |url-status=live |access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[AppArmor]]}}</ref> a Linux security system that proactively manages threats, Snap,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The app store for Linux |url=https://snapcraft.io/ |url-status=live |access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[Snapcraft]]}}</ref> a Linux appstore with sandbox support, and Livepatch,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Livepatch |url=https://docs.kernel.org/livepatch/livepatch.html |url-status=live |access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[Livepatch]]}}</ref> a system to patch the Linux kernel without needing to reboot.

==Tracking==

Canonical is collecting user telemetry from Snap,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Snap Store metrics |url=https://snapcraft.io/docs/snap-store-metrics |url-status=live |access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[Snapcraft]]}}</ref> which is shipped by default in Ubuntu.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Installing snap on Ubuntu |url=https://snapcraft.io/docs/installing-snap-on-ubuntu |url-status=live |access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[Snapcraft]]}}</ref>

Previously, Canonical sent local file search queries to their own servers, which were used to recommend ads on Amazon.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stallman |first=Richard |date=12 Jul 2012 |title=Ubuntu Spyware: What to do? |url=https://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/ubuntu-spyware-what-to-do |url-status=live |access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[Free Software Foundation]]}}</ref> In 2014, this feature was removed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hoffman |first=Chris |date=29 Oct 2014 |title=Ubuntu’s Unity 8 desktop will remove the Amazon search ‘spyware’ |url=https://www.pcworld.com/article/436097/ubuntus-unity-8-desktop-removes-the-amazon-search-spyware.html |url-status=live |access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[PCWorld]]}}</ref>

In 2018, telemetry tracking for hardware components, software configuration, and crashes has been added in an opt-out model.<ref>https://superuser.com/questions/1311588/how-to-opt-out-usage-data-collection-in-ubuntu-18-04-bionic</ref>

==Ads==

[[File:Grafik.png|alt=Running apt update in the terminal shows an ad for Ubuntu Pro|thumb|Running apt update in the terminal shows an ad for Ubuntu Pro]]

Canonical started adding opt-out<ref>{{Cite web |title=updates - How to get rid of Ubuntu Pro advertisement when updating apt? |url=https://askubuntu.com/questions/1434512/how-to-get-rid-of-ubuntu-pro-advertisement-when-updating-apt}}</ref> ads for their Ubuntu Pro service to apt when updating Ubuntu in September of 2022.<ref>https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/10/ubuntu-pro-terminal-ad</ref>