Are you similar to a mainstream commercial open-source vendor such as Red Hat Inc.? In a sense, but not completely. We believe software should be free to anyone. If you want to buy a support contract, it is there for you. There is no premium version that costs money.

We're also happy for you to get support from someone besides us. We list companies on our site that provide that. We're up to 200 around the world. Some customers buy support just from that firm, others buy it -- but with escalation support from Canonical. That way, a local company will provide front-line support in the local language. But for really hard problems, they can escalate trouble tickets back up to us.

Enterprises want one throat to choke when problems arise. Doesn't the structure you just described contradict that?

How did you join Canonical? I joined Canonical in July 2004. My original background is in software development, and then, later, project management. The company where I was a vice president at was bought out by General Dynamics Corp. I was a vice president at General Dynamics for two years, where I ran a small unit that developed information management decision-making software. It was mostly used at U.S. Army command posts or on U.S. naval ships. I oversaw about 150 people and about US$45 million in revenue.

I was living in London and looking for a job when I happened to be at a party and met a friend of Mark Shuttleworth's [the founder of Canonical]. I was familiar with Linux, but not using it in any way. But setting up a software company and growing it was right up my alley. I had lunch with Mark the following week and then started the next Monday. It was definitely a matter of being at the right place at the right time.