There seems to be a whole school of HR / recruiting which tries to make it taboo or uncomfortable to ask those questions early on in the process.

From what I'm reading here, I suspect a place like Canonical would end discussions early if you even asked. It sounds like they're looking for cheap talent.

Part of what I remember about the process is that you don't actually get to speak to anyone until quite late in the process. I think I only finally got to jump into a call with the hiring manager after passing both the written essay and the personality test. I also have to admit Canonical was the first company to get back to me during my latest job search, and I the time I had no other offers so I just kept moving forward with them. Their process is relatively lengthy, however, so when I reached the offer stage I was interviewing with other companies and even had some verbal offers, so declining wasn't too hard.