shuttleworth

Getting political the right way: The Mark Shuttleworth example

Tim O'Reilly recently defended his decision to put a political endorsement on his blog (spoiler for those who don't know how Sonoma County votes: He's for Obama), and did a reasonably good job of supporting the decision. Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu, however, does a much better job in a post of his own.

Mark's secret? Stick to principles, not parties.

Mark doesn't talk about politics at all, per se, though they're hiding just behind his words. Instead, he talks about the value of regulated capitalism, and gives testimony of his time living in … Read more

Ubuntu 8.10 due Thursday. Profits? Not so fast

Canonical will release the newest version of its Ubuntu version of Linux on Thursday, Chief Executive Mark Shuttleworth said Monday, but the company's profitability isn't on such a fast track.

Ubuntu 8.10, aka Intrepid Ibex in the company's alphabetically ascending naming convention, is the latest installment of Linux for desktop computers and servers in the company's six-month release cycle. Among the new features are support for 3G wireless modems, the ability to set up an encrypted and password-protected private directory, a guest account that can help out someone needing temporary use of a computer, and … Read more

Canonical funds Linux in a bid to overtake the Mac

It's one thing to talk about open-source software like Linux becoming easy to use and a joy to look at, but it's quite another to actually fund the development of such improvements. Mark Shuttleworth has talked a lot recently about desktop Linux becoming as easy and beautiful as Mac OS X. Now he's ready to fund the talk.

In his introduction to the next Ubuntu release, Jaunty Jackalope, Shuttleworth hints at a vision of Ubuntu's "once-in-a-lifetime chance to shine," and he says, "we want to make sure that the very best thinking across … Read more

Mark Shuttleworth's evolving Ubuntu desktop war

I've been very fortunate to get to spend some time with Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu, during my trip to Argentina. Mark and I spent the day skiing in Las Lenas, with some soft snow by the middle of the day and a lot of great conversation throughout the day.

One question we discussed at length: what is Mark's ambition for Ubuntu?

In trying to get at the answer to this question, InternetNews today asks: why doesn't Canonical work with SAP and Oracle to get them to support Ubuntu? But this sort of question doesn't get anywhere near Mark's ambition for Ubuntu. It doesn't anticipate the intersection of the web and the desktop.

The more I talk with Mark, the more I think he's a very, very smart person. He recognizes that Ubuntu needs to be more appealing on the desktop than the Mac to generate user adoption, but that's not really where his attention is focused, so far as I can tell. He's thinking bigger than desktop bits.

He's thinking of cloud-plus-desktop bits. And this, my friends, is why Mark may end up winning the "desktop" war.… Read more

One year ago...Mark Shuttleworth on idealism

I was just reading through old Open Road posts, and was excited to find how appropriate two posts were, in particular, given my activities this week. I'm in Argentina for work, family (my parents live here), and play (skiing with Mark Shuttleworth), and this last one prods me to link to an old post and recapture some of it here:

Mark does an excellent job of balancing idealism and pragmatism in how he approaches open source, which comes across perfectly in the article:

"It's very easy to declare victory," says Mr. Shuttleworth, describing the smug attitude … Read more

Ubuntu's Shuttleworth wants Linux to "out-pretty" Apple desktop

I've been writing about the year of the Linux desktop for at least five years at this point. So far, the majority of the progress seems to be coming from Ubuntu.

What's amazing to me is that more hardware companies don't spend time on the Linux desktop. No matter how good a PC or laptop may be, you are pretty much stuck on Windows. Unless you get a Mac. Then you have limited hardware choices. Seems like a huge opportunity considering the rise of browser-based applications.

Besides the lack of a few important applications, namely MS office … Read more

Ubuntu opens up a new market for Linux: Mobile

For as long as some have been talking about "The Year of the Linux Desktop," I've been hearing the same thing about "The Year of Embedded Linux." My first open-source company was Lineo, an embedded-Linux vendor. I used to preach the gospel of embedded/mobile Linux.

But its "year" never came. As with Godot, we're always waiting for Linux to own mobile and to own the desktop. And despite Linux Foundation's Jim Zemlin preaching that embedded Linux's time has come, I've become a bit too jaded to lend much … Read more

Ubuntu to announce its mobile Linux in June

Canonical will announce Netbook Remix, its version of Ubuntu Linux tailored for mobile devices, in two weeks, Chief Executive Mark Shuttleworth said.

"We're announcing it in the first week of June. It's called the Netbook Remix," Shuttleworth said in an interview with the Guardian. "We're working with Intel, which produces chips custom-made for this sector."

Ubuntu has been working on a mobile version of its operating system for months. In an April interview about the release of the new Hardy Heron version of Ubuntu, Shuttleworth said the mobile version is sufficiently important that … Read more

Random Sampler: Microsoft vs. Google, SugarCRM, Flock gets funded (?!?), Ubuntu, and more

There are a number of interesting tidbits floating around the web this morning. Among the best:

The VAR Guy compares Google's impressive growth against Microsoft's and comes to this conclusion: "[S]orry, Microsoft bashers: The software giant isn't collapsing." Potty. Flock raised another $15 million in a Series D round. Why is anyone still funding this paltry Firefox feature? Flock claims that it gets paid for search placement, but given its niche following, who cares? The Guardian spoke with Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth about a wide range of things, from how he hires to the changing desktop market. On this latter point, Mark said, "[P]eople are increasingly defining the desktop as the thing that they get access to the internet from. In that case, there's a real possibility that we're able to shift people onto different platforms." Like Ubuntu, of course.… Read more