Due to the nature of free software, most companies that produce free software do not  make money off of the code itself but rather complementary services, such as support. Canonical has just launched one such service that, in addition to opening some interesting possibilities for the future, could provide a good revenue stream for Canonical.

The new service, called Ubuntu One, is essentially just a cloud synchronization service that is similar to Dropbox. Ubuntu One is supposed to be ready for Ubuntu 9.10 and will come free with 2GB of storage. In order to upgrade your storage capacity, you can pay an extra fee.

There are two things that make this service interesting. First, the fact that it will be so tightly integrated with Ubuntu. This means that is has the potential to create a better user experience than any other synchronization service. Second, Canonical is apparently thinking about working with application developers to let you sync your application preferences.

We don’t know much yet, but Ubuntu One certainly looks like an interesting service, and it might give Canonical some money.

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