At first glance, Canonical is an operating system company — built around Ubuntu Linux. But take a closer look at Canonical’s moves during the first half of 2009, and you’ll find the company has increasingly bet its revenue stream on cloud, online and consulting/support services. Here’s some perspective.

Canonical has launched Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud Services, an effort to help customers build and support private clouds. The announcement, leveraging Ubuntu Server Edition, caught The VAR Guy’s attention for two key reasons.

CNet’s Matt Asay beat The VAR Guy to the punch — writing a blog about potential Oracle-Ubuntu Linux synergies. Still, the potential Oracle-Ubuntu partnership gets a little sexier when you throw OpenOffice into the mix. Not even Jack, Janet and Chrissy looked this good together in their prime. Here’s why.

I spent June 26 at Dell’s headquarters in Austin, Texas, meeting key members of Dell’s Linux team. We spent an hour discussing the broad Linux market; Dell’s current Ubuntu strategy; and the PC giant’s early reaction to Moblin (Mobile Linux).

If you have questions about Dell’s Ubuntu Linux strategy, please email me your thoughts (joe [at] ninelivesmediainc.com) or post a comment below. I am meeting Dell’s Ubuntu team members in a few days. Here are five questions I hope to address. Plus, I welcome your questions to help shape the interview.

Who’s running Ubuntu — and why? You can find the answers in our WorksWithU 1000 survey and associated research report — which will ultimately track 1000 businesses, schools, government agencies and non-profit organizations running Ubuntu servers, desktops and mobile devices. Here’s some background.

Ubuntu developers recently announced a new system that will make it easier to brand third-party applications with Ubuntu imagery in Ubuntu 9.10.  While decorating the desktop with benign images of a Koala may not hurt anything, Ubuntu should be careful not to take the branding too far.  Here’s why.

Canonical continues to build the Ubuntu channel partner program. Although the effort isn’t generating headlines yet, solutions providers can measure Canonical’s progress by keeping their eyes on four key Ubuntu partners. Here they are.

Ubuntu developers recently announced their intention to fix a number of minor but noticeable usability bugs, which they’ve termed “Paper Cuts,” in time for the release of Ubuntu 9.10 next October.  This is a huge step in the right direction for Ubuntu, and reflects the kind of usability-oriented thinking that is central to making it a success.

Like many multinational corporations, Microsoft has embraced social networking as a means of making customers feel like participants, not just end users, in a Microsoft community.  When it comes to community-building, however, Microsoft is fighting an uphill battle against the open-source world, which was built around social networking before it was called social networking.