Well this is interesting! Canonical will launch an Ubuntu version for tablet computers which should be available in the winter of 2011. The info comes from Chris Kenyon, Canonical's vice president of OEM.

When Microsoft employee, Brandon LeBlanc announced that Microsoft ruled the netbook world, he was exaggerating, shall we say, just a wee bit. I was going to stomp on him but Chris Kenyon of Canonical, the business that stands behind Ubuntu, beat me to it.

Earlier this month Canonical introduced its own multi-touch framework for Ubuntu that is set to premiere with Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" and it's called UTouch and is joined by their own gesture/touch language. The X.Org Gesture Extension is already being re-evaluated and may in fact not be needed.

What most people fail to realize is this: Ubuntu is a suite of operating systems (Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Touch) sponsored by a company called Canonical Ltd. And Canonical is a commercial entity with employees, paid employees. As such, any decision taken by its management is taken with the commercial interest of the company front and center.

Or should I say, "How Canonical wants to be more like Red Hat," because the profit-seeking company behind Ubuntu, which wants to compete not just on the desktop but in the server room as well, has a new product called Landscape, which for $150 per node (unsupported), will allow for the full administration of any number of remote Ubuntu-equipped boxes:

Ubuntu Touch is the umbrella name for Ubuntu for Phone and Ubuntu for Tablets. Both platforms were released this year, with the latter coming just a few days ago.

Any debate over open vs. closed systems has to touch on open-source software and the ways in which companies are attempting to build code as a community effort, while still profiting from it in some way.

Ubuntu on tablets is the latest Ubuntu platform from Canonical, the company behind the popular Linux distribution. Barely two months ago, the company announced Ubuntu for smartphones. Before that, was Ubuntu for TV and before that, too, was Ubuntu for Android.

I spoke with Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical, this morning, and he tells me that Canonical will be bringing true multi-touch to Ubuntu Linux in Ubuntu 10.10 (code name Maverick Meerkat).