Canonical’s Deliberate Language Strategy

What does it take to rewrite the foundational components of one of the world's most popular Linux distributions? Ubuntu serves over 12 million daily desktop users alone, and the systems that power it, from sudo to core utilities, have been running for decades with what Jon Seager, VP of Engineering for Ubuntu at Canonical, calls "shaky underpinnings."

In this episode, we talk to Jon about the bold decision to "oxidize" Ubuntu's foundation. We explore why they're rewriting critical components like sudo in Rust, how they're managing the immense risk of changing software that millions depend on daily, and what it means to modernize a 20-year-old operating system without breaking the internet.

Canonical is the company behind Ubuntu, one of the most widely-used Linux distributions in the world. From personal desktops to cloud infrastructure, Ubuntu powers millions of systems globally. Canonical's mission is to make open source software available to people everywhere, and they're now pioneering the adoption of Rust in foundational system components to improve security and reliability for the next generation of computing.

Jon Seager is VP Engineering for Ubuntu at Canonical, where he oversees the Ubuntu Desktop, Server, and Foundations teams. Appointed to this role in January 2025, Jon is driving Ubuntu's modernization strategy with a focus on Communication, Automation, Process, and Modernisation. His vision includes adopting memory-safe languages like Rust for critical infrastructure components. Before this role, Jon spent three years as VP Engineering building Juju and Canonical's catalog of charms. He's passionate about making Ubuntu ready for the next 20 years of computing.