The VAR Guy loves cat fights as much as the next guy. Jennifer Aniston vs. Angelina Jolie? Classic but a bit dated. Canonical vs. Microsoft? Not quite as sexy, but certainly timely and just as much fun. The latest spat involves Canonical dismissing Microsoft's claims in the netbook market.

I'm not suggesting that a blockbuster Canonical-Oracle relationship is set to emerge. But there are indications that Canonical continues to make some Ubuntu progress with MySQL - the open source database now owned by Oracle. Here's some of the anecdotal information I've heard.

On the 10th of February I updated my original “Is Canonical becoming the new Microsoft?” post to make it clearer that what I was actually asking was about whether the company is becoming the next organisation that we love to hate. Today Sam Varghese has written about a conversation had with Mark Shuttleworth regarding my original post.

AFTER persistently ignoring those who warned about Mono, Canonical finally follows Fedora's (Red Hat's) footsteps and takes a closer look at the Mono licensing question. Here is a new statement...

Canonical, the commercial presence behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution for servers and desktops, is in business to make money as well as to put out the best free operating system it can. Some businesses won't pay for support, some want basic support, and others (particularly companies making big investments in Linux for the first time) want all the hand-holding they can get.

As Canonical polishes Ubuntu to potentially support Google Android and Moblin v2, I'm both impressed and concerned. On the one hand, Canonical continues to change with the times - and in some cases, stay ahead of the times. On the other hand, Canonical runs the risk of repeating some major software mistakes IBM made in the 1990s. Here's why.

Canonical’s CEO crown officially transitioned from Mark Shuttleworth to Jane Silber on March 1. During a phone discussion with The VAR Guy yesterday, Silber shared her top priorities for Canonical and Ubuntu. She also disclosed plans to make another key executive hire at Canonical.

Ubuntu and Canonical have come a long way since their 7.04 Feisty Fawn release, which followed Microsoft’s Windows Vista. Back then, Canonical failed to capitalise on Vista’s universal rejection by its users. But it's now 2012, and things are different.

The big news in the Ubuntu world this week is Mark Shuttleworth's announcement that he'll be stepping down as CEO of Canonical and transitioning the CEO crown to Canonical insider Jane Silber.  Here's the news, with some thoughts on what this means for Ubuntu and Canonical.