Ubuntu founder joins Linux Foundation board

Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical and the Ubuntu version of Linux it commercializes, has joined the board of the Linux Foundation.

Shuttleworth announced the move on his blog on Monday. "I've been nominated for and elected to, and have accepted, a seat on the board of the Linux Foundation, not in my capacity as founder of Ubuntu or via Canonical, but as an independent representative of the free software and Linux community," Shuttleworth said.

The Linux Foundation was formed through the merger of the Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group in January.

Shuttleworth has mixed feelings about such organization in general, he said. "I'm not a great fan of consortia--they are always at risk of being divided by their own membership," he said. "I agreed to take on this role because I think the management have a mandate from the funders to deliver something that's really important for free software--an open process of standardization that delivers results in competitive timeframes."