Interview with Linux-Magazine Italia

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

Vincenzo Ciaglia from Linux-Magazine Italia sent me a few questions related to the release of 8.04 LTS. Since he was going to translate the conversation into Italian this week, he was happy for me to blog the English version here.

1) Hi Mark, thank you for your availability. Some simple questions to introduce you to our readers to start. What’s your role at Ubuntu/Canonical and what do you do in your spare time? What are your hobbies?
My favourite sport is snowboarding, and I enjoy travel to tropical spots. But ultimately I’m happiest when I’m being a geek, reading, playing games or relaxing with friends.

2) You’re the founder of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu. Why do you decided to invest a lot of dollars (10$ million) to start up the company? In which fields does it work to make its business? How do you make the company sustainable?
The vision of Ubuntu and Canonical is a symbiotic one. We believe that Linux has grown to the point where it is possible to build the platform at a low enough cost to make it sustainable purely though services around it, rather than through licensing the platform. In other words, we think that support, training, online services, and professional engineering for people who want to adapt Ubuntu commercially will earn enough money to pay for Ubuntu itself.

That means that we can fundamentally change the business model of the OS industry. Of course, it till take time to prove that we can achieve this, but we have a superb team and now that Ubuntu is well established we see increasing demand for services from Canonical, which is positive.

3) Ok, let’s talk about the latest Ubuntu 8.04. In an interview you said that “Hardy Heron is your most significant release ever”. Well, can you talk about the main improvements of this release?
First, this is an LTS (“Long Term Support”) release that was delivered on a very precise schedule. Six months ago we committed to shipping 8.04 LTS on April 24th, and we did exactly that. As far as I know, nobody has ever shipped an “enterprise class” OS release on a schedule that precise. And not only did we do that, but we have now committed to ship the next LTS in April 2010, it will be 10.04 LTS, and we’ll set the exact date six months in advance like we did with this one. It is thanks to Debian and the free software community that it is possible for us to do this. So 8.04 LTS has proven our ability to deliver not just 18-month-supported releases on time, but also LTS releases on time. We very much hope that other distributions will follow our lead on the LTS cycle with their enterprise releases, because that will make it easier for us all to collaborate, and make all the major Linux distributions better.

Second, there are very significant new developments for Ubuntu itself. On the server, we worked with HP on their Proliant range, and with Dell on their PowerEdge range, to ensure that 8.04 LTS will be compatible with their popular x86 servers. We’re not yet certified, but we are sure that it will “Just Work”. Sun Microsystems has gone further, and has actually certified 8.04 LTS on a range of their x86 servers. This is a major step forward for Ubuntu on the server. We see an amazing amount of usage now for Ubuntu on the server – it’s the most popular server platform for several ISV’s. So it’s important that we work with server vendors, and server solution vendors. We’ve also put a lot of work into the use of KVM and VMWare virtualisation, because we see people building hundreds of virtual appliances on Ubuntu.

On the desktop, we have focused on making it easier to install Ubuntu, especially on a machine which already has Windows, where you can now install Ubuntu into a file on the Windows partition instead of having to resize your Windows partition to make a new partition for Ubuntu. That makes it much easier for people to test out Ubuntu, and hence to get a taste of free software. We have also worked on many of the common things that people want to do with their PC, such as work with photos and music, and started to improve the user experience there.

4) There are still some hardware issues (especially with some wireless devices) in Ubuntu. How do you think to solve these kind of problems and improve hardware support in the next releases?
We are increasingly able to work directly with the hardware manufacturers, to try and convince them to develop free software drivers for their hardware. Our relationships with different PC companies mean that we can lobby strongly for people to embrace Linux, properly.

We also work very hard to tie together all the ugly pieces of string that are needed to make the user experience of Linux on your hardware a pleasant one. Unfortunately, for example, there are multiple different wireless stacks, for example, with different capabilities. And Ubuntu spends a lot of time integrating and debugging them to try and create a harmonious, standardised experience for end-users.

5) What kind of improvements Ubuntu 8.04 bring to server and virtualization solutions?
Ubuntu Server Edition brings all the wonderful characteristics of Debian to the front – it’s modular, efficient, has a huge package selection, and is easy to install and manage. In addition, we’ve done a lot of work with server manufacturers to ensure compatibility with their popular hardware, and have started certifying with some of them.

Our virtualisation offering is based around KVM and VMWare. Out of the box, Ubuntu should give you the best possible experience with both of them. It is optimised and rigorously tested, and Ubuntu is certified on VMWare’s ESX Server platform. KVM, the free software virtualisation option we prefer, is built in to our standard server kernel, so you can get started with virtualisation immediately. There is also a Xen kernel for folks who prefer Xen.

We have done a lot of work around the integration of Ubuntu servers and Windows networks, particularly in the field of Active Directory and SMB file sharing servers. We worked with a company called Likewise to make sure that there is a smooth process to join an Active Directory network, and can even manage Linux machines through AD using Likewise’ professional tools. All the capabilities to do the basic stuff are free software and built in to Ubuntu.

6) A dirty question from our readers: Ubuntu is really a giant now, are you trying to kill the Debian project?
Absolutely not. I’m a Debian Developer myself, and very proud of what Debian has achieved, and also proud of everything that Ubuntu contributes to the broader Debian project. We consider Ubuntu to be a member of the Debian family, that’s just purely focused on the specific use cases and platforms that our customers want.

Much of what we do in Ubuntu contributes directly to Debian. We lead the packaging of many important pieces of the desktop, and server, and toolchain, and contribute that work directly to Debian. As a result, Debian is updated much faster these days than it used to be without Ubuntu. We have lead many key transitions and always try to collaborate with the relevant people upstream AND in Debian to ensure that the work flows smoothly into those projects. Most DD’s are very happy to collaborate, but some view Ubuntu as a threat, and refuse to collaborate, or make unreasonable demands on Ubuntu because they think “you have money” when in fact most of Ubuntu is volunteer driven.

My vision is that Debian and Ubuntu both grow stronger through good collaboration. I’m trying to have a keynote accepted at DebConf to help make that vision a reality, but so far have had no luck in getting approval. Hopefully, the leadership of Debian will start to come around tot he idea that Ubuntu’s success is very good for Debian.

7) You’re working with embedded devices and electronics company. In which way? What is you work in the tight partnership with Intel?
Linux is increasingly used by embedded solution providers, and many of them want to use Ubuntu. So we are working with Intel to make sure that Ubuntu fully supports their low-power hardware (cpu’s, chipsets, graphics and so on).

8) Ubuntu surely is the most used and appreciated GNU/Linux distribution in the world. But, do you think that Ubuntu Linux will reach – one day – the success of other operating systems like OS X and Windows? In which way do you think to accomplish a similar goal?
I do believe that free software will come to be widely recognised, trusted and used by everyday computer users, as opposed to being limited to specialists as it is today. Hopefully Ubuntu will play a part in that, but I don’t think one platform will dominate that free software era like Windows dominated the proprietary software era. Ubuntu is focused on specific needs, and there are other versions of Linux or BSD that meet others.

In order to break out from the pack, we need to deliver a desktop experience that is exciting, that is easy to use, and which people are confident will be compatible with their future needs and with those of their colleagues.

9) Everybody talk about GNU/Linux but seems that not so many peoples trust Linux for now (some statistics talk about 0.xx% of the Linux world usage). What is the problem? Nevertheless Ubuntu is really a great operating system. Do you think it’s just a matter of marketing or because the lack of game packages?
I think it takes time to change the habits of hundreds of millions of people! I also think we need to deliver an experience that is simply better than the alternatives. Projects like Firefox don’t define their goal as being “a good browser”, they say “we want to be the best browser on any platform, period”, and as a result they are very popular even on Windows. We need that winning attitude everywhere.

10) Canonical was the first GNU/Linux company to make a deal with a computer vendor, Dell. How is going your business now? The curious thing is that on IdeaStorm a lot of users asked for Linux Computers but after some months seems that the sales aren’t so good, or at least not as expected. Why? Maybe GNU/Linux is not ready for the consumer market yet?
I agree that the more people actually buy systems with Linux pre-installed, the faster things like hardware support will be addressed. Fortunately, we see millions of units being shipped with Linux already, just not at the high-end of the PC business. The low-end, especially in countries like Brazil and China, is very active. Slowly, Linux is becoming a volume player.

11) Are you working with other computer vendor to sell other Ubuntu-based desktops and laptops? We’re Italians and the Ubuntu-Dell computers never arrived in our country. Why Dell, and other vendor, is so shy to sell GNU/Linux computers world wide?
That’s a simple matter of demand and the cost to meet it. Any PC manufacturer will take a firm view of the economics of an opportunity, and it’s healthy that they do. Until folks in Italy are really willing to buy computers with Linux pre-installed, there will not be a real market for them. I’m sure there are local providers who build good computers who will pre-install Ubuntu for you. You need to help them become big enough that the Dell’s and HP’s and Lenovo’s of the world are confident there is an opportunity that is worthwhile for them.

12) What is your point of view about the the Novell-Microsoft controversial deal?
There are some good intentions, and there are some bad intentions, and unfortunately they are all mixed up in that deal. On the positive side, it’s good to see Microsoft acknowledge the need for both Linux and Windows, and the need for interoperability. On the negative side, the deal only works financially because Novell and Microsoft have the same business model – licensing software for a certain price per seat.

Microsoft is in an awkward position. They very much want to stop the free use of Linux, and they would like to use patents to do so, which is why they structured the deal as a notional “IP license”. But they also know that free software engineers could probably avoid any patents they raise, so they have been unwilling to state which patents they think justify such a deal.

13) In a interview (http://mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=6672) you declared that “you’d love to work with Microsoft”. Do you want to make another deal following the Novell one or what?
I am very happy to work with Microsoft, or any other company, to improve the state of free software and the software industry as a whole. There are many things that we can collaborate on where we have shared interests – encouraging good telecommunications policy, for example.

But I will not agree to a deal like the Novell one, because I don’t think there is any IP issue in fact, and until Microsoft actually states what patents it is concerned about there is no need for us to take any action. Unfortunately for Novell, I think they have done a deal which gives them a short-term boost, at a very high long term cost. Time will tell.

14) And what do you think about the OOXML standard and the Microsoft Open Promise?
I don’t believe that ISO’s declaration of OOXML as a standard will actually deliver any benefit to users of Microsoft Office. They will still be using a big, bloated piece of software with no competition, that is not-quite-standards-compliant. That’s a pity. Microsoft’s customers had an opportunity to ignite real innovation in the office document space, by encouraging Microsoft to support and existing, open, well-defined document standard in ODF. But they didn’t – Microsoft managed to push enough partners and resellers into the standards process that the ISO decision did not really reflect anything other than Microsoft’s commercial interests.

15) We’re getting a GNU/Linux ultramobile-lowcost-laptop everyday. What do you think about Eee PC Linux revolution?
I think they are great!

16) Acer, HP, MSI, Asus and much more want to join the Linux-powered UMPC market. Are you making some deals to port Ubuntu on some of these laptop?
Lots of people are installing Ubuntu onto their UMPC’s, so I think it’s reasonable that some manufacturers may choose to pre-install it. It’s their decision! If you think that would be popular, then it would probably be worth encouraging them to do so.

17) A lot of analysts talks about a GNU/Linux conquer on mobile market in the next few years. From smartphone to UMPC: the future is Linux. Can you talk about Ubuntu Mobile, its concept, the present and the future?
Yes! Intel is driving a project called Moblin, which aims to produce a mobile software platform for handheld devices, and we’re basing Ubuntu Mobile on that. The first versions are out already, and the roadmap looks very exciting.

Traditionally, it was very expensive to produce software for consumer electronic devices, because they were all specialised hardware with specialised operating systems and application development environments. We are aiming to change that – to make it so that you can build a simple .deb on x86 which can be installed on any piece of consumer electronics that uses this platform. That should greatly increase the amount of innovation we see in the mobile space.

18) What do you think about your competitors? Fedora/Red Hat, openSUSE and Mandriva are doing good work as well as Ubuntu. What GNU/Linux distribution do you prefer if you couldn’t use Ubuntu?
Yes, all of the distributions make contributions to the art and industry of free software. I’m very glad that lots of companies continue to invest in Linux, it makes it a much healthier and more vibrant ecosystem than it would be if just one company dominated it. So I’m very happy with the competition. If Ubuntu didn’t exist, I would use Debian.

19) And what is your feeling about the latest Sun acquisition (MySQL)? Are you working with Sun to port the OpenJDK on Ubuntu?
MySQL is a great company and a very good fit for Sun. I hope they are happy together and that the company will continue to produce a superb free software database.

Yes, OpenJDK is part of Ubuntu 8.04 (though it is not yet at the core, and not yet the default Java environment). We hope to have 8.04 LTS fully TCK-certified in due course. And most of all we are grateful to the Sun folks for letting us package OpenJDK as a proper Ubuntu package, neatly integrated with the rest of the OS. We are aiming for a result which feels “all Java, all Ubuntu”, and I would encourage your users to try it out! Make sure “universe” is enabled on your Ubuntu machine, then type “sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jdk”.

20) What are the next Canonical plans? Are there any interesting initiatives in progress?
Of course, but this is not the right place for a press release 🙂

21) Finally, do you think that GNU/Linux is “really” ready for the desktop users? In which way could be improved?
Yes, I believe it is ready for SOME desktop users. If you really want a desktop that is web-oriented, then Linux is an excellent choice, with either Gnome or KDE (I’m really impressed with the work going on as part of KDE4, by the way). We know that there are millions of people using Linux today. And we are focused on solving the problems that prevent more and more people from adopting it.

Free software is intrinsically a better way to build software, I believe. But we should not plan to be judged on our morals, we should expect to be judged on our software. We have to deliver something that LOOKS and FEELS better, then we can expect people to embrace it fully. And once people realise they can have something that is better AND sustainable AND comes with many freedoms, the world will be a fundamentally different place. That is our goal.

22) Our interview seems to be completed. Do you have something to add for our readers? Thank you for your time and keep up the excellent work!
Please participate! There are lots of ways to get involved with upstream projects or with Ubuntu. Help spread the word, or fix a bug, or translate something from the desktop into Italian!

41 Responses to “Interview with Linux-Magazine Italia”

  1. Personal notes » Blog Archive » Linux-magazine Italia and Mark Shuttleworth Says:

    […] Shuttleworth has just posted on his blog the interview he released to the italian magazine Linux-Magazine. The interview should appear, translated in […]

  2. zimbatm Says:

    Regarding low Linux sales at Dell, I believe the issue is that people principally choose their hardware before their OS. Putting a little bit more money for the Windows-tax is a non-issue when you get what you want. Unless Dell adds the Ubuntu option to all their lines, it won’t be a big hit.

  3. Stallmike Says:

    Hi Mark

    Change the 8) please 🙂

    ¿Are devices like Asus EeePC the future? In my opinion, I think Atom processors or similar will need that Ubuntu developers to improve performance in old systems also.

    Why don’ t create a lite version of Ubuntu-live CD (and allows to install, of course)?. I know that that’s possible installing only with few packets and optimize our installation, but I think a lot of people has an old computer that default programmas installed in Ubuntu are innecesary.

    Another purposal is to improve support for WiFi USB cards. I have an old laptop and this is only my problem to use Ubuntu here.

    Sorry for my poor English 😉

  4. verb3k Says:

    You have a grammer mistake!
    You said:”using Likewise’ professional tool”
    It should be “likewise’s” because this word doesn’t end with an “s”.

  5. anon Says:

    Excellent interview

  6. verb3k Says:

    no need to publish this…. mark you’re sick.
    heh

  7. Igron Says:

    Hello. Thanks for your work.

    Can you comment these two actual ‘articles’?

    1) Why userspace sucks
    https://ols2006.108.redhat.com/reprints/jones-reprint.pdf

    2) Why Computers Are Getting Slower
    http://www.redhatmagazine.com/2008/06/10/red-hat-summit-sessions-preview-rik-van-riel-fedora-9-and-rpm-with-spot

    Any detailed answer would be great.

  8. tuxi Says:

    I bought a Dell 1505N when Dell started selling Linux machines. If they would stick to a standard list of components known to work with Linux they could sell more models.

    Unfortunately, they installed 32-bit Ubuntu on a 64-bit machine :-(. I knew what I needed to do to fix it, but the average user wouldn’t even realize.

  9. Barbie Says:

    Brilliant intervew! You are so going places!
    Keep up the good work!

  10. Andrea Says:

    Bravo!
    Great interview.
    What do you think of the Android Platform?

  11. Ivan Jenkins Says:

    Regarding question 21:

    We use Kubuntu on ALL our desktops (25 full time staff) and Debian on our servers and have never looked back!

    Keep up the good work!

  12. Omari Says:

    Interviewer is a little ignorant:

    “Canonical was the first GNU/Linux company to make a deal with a computer vendor, Dell.”

    Huh? Dell was shipping Red Hat; IBM was shipping SUSE. IBM was even shipping SUSE on laptops.

  13. MyVoice Says:

    Thanx! I’ve started to translate it into russian.

  14. rex Says:

    Now Dell only have ubuntu pre-installed in laptop with celeron and T23xx CPU.

    Recently I want to buy a new laptop with T8300 CPU but find Dell don’t provide Ubuntu choice. What I can do now? Mark please give me a suggestion.

  15. Silvio Says:

    Nice interview!
    I’ve been using Ubuntu myself full time for a while now.
    I was also able to light up some real interest in Ubuntu on people close to me.
    Thanks for the free CD and the stickers!
    Cheers!

  16. Mark Shuttleworth intervistato da Linux-Magazine Italia « k-hole Says:

    […] Qui trovate il resto dell’intervista. […]

  17. begemot Says:

    Dear Mark!
    I really think, that You was send to help saying to people Richard Stallmans words about How Great FreeSoftware is and how important our Freedom is. And Ubuntu providing this help in excellent way!

    It can’t be saying by words, but THANK YOU, Mark Shuttleworth!

  18. Intervista a Mark Shuttleworth « Il Blog di Antonio Tirri Says:

    […] Fonte […]

  19. Mark Says:

    Excellent interview, although Ubuntu 8.04 and VMWare are not very compatible. I’m now forced to use VirtualBox until these issues are under control.
    Look here for more info, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/195982

  20. elek Says:

    Another thing on Dell-Sales. We bought Dell XPS Notebooks with Vista preinstalled, deleted Vista and installed Ubuntu. Ubuntu preinstalled Notebooks not available in our country. I’m sure there are more people acting linke this – so Dell OS-Statistics are wrong.

  21. Rickert Mulder Says:

    I really hope Dell will be shipping some Ubuntu love to South Africa in the near future. In the meanwhile I’ll just get something with Vista Basic and keep that unfortunate tax to a minimum.

  22. Xoxe Says:

    Excellent interview, never change Mark

  23. Grant Paton-Simpson Says:

    As a New Zealander, I was lucky enough to be able to buy one of the Dick Smith Electronic Acer Aspire 4315’s with Gutsy Gibbon pre-installed (now running Hardy of course :-)). Details on http://p-s.co.nz/wordpress/?p=23. A friend has now gotten it running with the Intrepid kernel. I have also discovered there is a webpage devoted entirely to this model notebook with Ubuntu. http://www.hbclinux.net.nz/acer4315.html. It would be good to have a few other options as well though.

  24. Srinath Madhavan Says:

    I’m very surprised that Debconf will not allow you to present a keynote talk. At the very least I would expect the Debian folks to hear you out.

    Mark Shuttleworth says:
    As far as I know, DebConf has agreed to let me speak as a keynote after the DPL(s)’ talks, and I’m working to make it a worthwhile event.

  25. tracyanne Says:

    There’s nothing new about Mark Shuttleworth’s business model, it’s what Red Hat has been doing for years, it’s what Mandriva does. It’s what many other Free Open Source Companies do. So stop fawing all over the bloke, he’s done nothing new, the only difference between him, and canonical, and Linux companies, that have neen there, are doing that, that you ignore, is his money.

  26. Sam Pattuzzi Says:

    Very enlightening. I wish I could write posts this long on my blog. What they are saying about the Italian postal service is very true, We ordered a Harry Potter book to be delivered to Italy, it would have been faster to just buy it in the shops (because they already had the English version); we waited at least an extra week.

  27. tracyanne Says:

    Lets get real here, Mark Shuttleworth has done nothing particularly noteworthy, He’s done nothing other Linux distributors aren’t doing. Red hat does what he’s doing, as does Mandriva. In fact Ubuntu is not even the best Linux distribution out there, it’s mostly hype., which is why I never recommend it to new Linux users. It simply fails to install properly on too many occasions.

    Mark Shuttleworth says: Thank you for this edifying contribution to the discussion.

  28. MrCorey Says:

    Wow. What a great contribution. Obviously, those of us who have been trying nearly every new distro that distrowatch reports on, and several of their revisions, must be terribly wrong about their choice of desktop OS. I choose Ubuntu to work with daily simply because it IS the most trouble free experience that I’ve had on my PC. Of the 40 or 50 distro installs that I’ve experienced over the last 7 years, Ubuntu simply INSISTS on installing properly on TOO MANY occasions. Thank you, Mr. Shuttleworth, for continuing to drive an excellent distro to further reaches.

    Good interview, as well, with good questions and good answers. I came away knowing more.

  29. Alessandro Says:

    Thank you Mark to exist. Go Ubuntu go, since final victory!!!

  30. Lettre Hebdomadaire Ubuntu numéro 95 du 8 au 14 juin 2008. « Lettre Hebdomadaire Ubuntu Says:

    […] Vincenzo Ciaglia de l’édition italienne de Linux Magazine a envoyé à Mark Shuttleworth quelques questions à propos de la sortie de 8.04 LTS. Comme Vincenzo allait traduire la conversation en italien, il a été d’accord pour que Mark poste la version anglaise sur son blog. L’interview portait sur Canonical, Ubuntu 8.04, les problèmes matériels et de wifi, les améliorations de l’édition serveur,les solutions de virtualisation, Debian, l’informatique embarqué, et beaucoup d’autre chose. http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/148 […]

  31. Name Says:

    “On the positive side, it’s good to see Microsoft acknowledge the need for both Linux and Windows, and the need for interoperability.”

    acknowledging a need is one thing,
    delivering on promises is another.

    Google has a repository for Linux software,
    Microsoft does not.

    Google has worked with the Wine project with Picasa,
    Microsoft has not.

    Corel Linux went South soon after Microsoft moved into a ‘partnership’ with Corel, and all of the ports of popular Windows software from Corel to Linux went South, so much for interoperability then. Corel Linux is Xandros now and Xandros signed some patent agreement with Microsoft, so they went full circle. Corel’s support of Wine was abandoned soon after Microsoft’s ‘partnership’ with Corel began.

    If Microsoft desired interoperability, we would have DirectX for Linux, without having to use Wine, Cedega, or other workarounds. If they cared about interoperability, we would have additional ports to Linux, with commercial offerings. Instead what do we get from Microsoft, Moonlight? No thank you.

    Thanks to you, Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu is making Microsoft sit up and take notice. Please continue and never settle or collaborate with Microsoft under any circumstances. We believe in YOU.

  32. word Says:

    tracyanne, are you ballmer in disguise?

  33. Adam Hunt Says:

    For over a year we have run two PCs, one with Ubuntu (7.04, 7.10 and now with 8.04) and the other with XP on it.

    We have just recently reformatted the XP box and installed Ubuntu 8.04 instead. This was motivated by a large number of factors but the two primary ones were:

    1. Microsoft’s release of the white paper “The Business Value of Windows Vista” where they tell all those XP holdouts not to wait for Windows 7, but switch to Vista now. Their main argument being that Windows 7 will be just like Vista. This is clearly a company that doesn’t get it.

    2. The sparkling performance of Ubuntu 8.04 on our one PC. It does everything we want an OS to do and it runs all our hardware!

    Ubuntu 8.04 is a great OS, better than XP and far better than Vista. People are starting to take notice in significant numbers. Please just keep producing newer versions that work as well as 8.04 and the success will grow! We are writing about Ubuntu, handing out CDs and getting the word out.

    Thank you for Ubuntu, it has enabled us to go Windows-free!

  34. Dow Hurst Says:

    Ubuntu on a Dell is a beautiful thing to see. I’ve tweaked a Dell 1420n laptop for a user and it is a sweet machine. I do wish the lack of Sun 64bit Java Runtime Environment would be solved. Then Dell could install 64bit without worries over the desktop browser experience. Also Kubuntu is what we use since each user gets to customize, so much more easily, every part of the desktop experience to exactly how they want it. That is very important from a power user perspective. I’m sysadmin for a lab full of computational chemists so we live and work in an accelerated graphics environment. I needed a distro that supported compilation of older software, had the latest desktop software, and allowed individuals to control every part of their computing experience via native sudo. Kubuntu fills that need better than OpenSuSE did so we switched. So Mark is very correct about Ubuntu variants filling particular niches. We still run VMPlayer and WinXP for some people to have apps they are familiar with. At this point, I think it is only the safe and familiar that keeps people running Windows in VMware our lab. I guess the reference management tool called Endnote for managing references in research papers keeps us running WinXP and MSOffice 2003 as well. That is a niche app that fills a need that has not been answered in the Linux world for OpenOffice or Abiword.

  35. arturieto Says:

    I am from the Philippines and in a local government office. I am new to Ubuntu but I get the habit of learning more about it. I am the only user of this OS and its applications in my little town. Am sure I can do something for Ubuntu. I want other learn how to use it. I have little knowledge at the very beginning (late last year) but I am going strong learning through the web.

    We do not have Ubuntu training available in the Philippines. (is there any?).

    I like your commitment for opensource. it’s great to massive poor people. Your project is bridging the gap on IT divide between the rich and the poor.

    Computers are sold cheaper by the government lately because of your free OS! !

  36. freelabs @ sbarrax.it » un pensiero (quasi) nuovo Says:

    […] #2 (…) 13) In a interview (link) you declared that “you’d love to work with Microsoft”. Do you want to make another deal following the Novell one or what? I am very happy to work with Microsoft, or any other company, to improve the state of free software and the software industry as a whole. There are many things that we can collaborate on where we have shared interests – encouraging good telecommunications policy, for example. […]

  37. Homolibere » Blog Archive » Перевод интервью Марка Шаттлеворта относительно Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Says:

    […] Перевод интервью Марка Шаттлеворта (Mark Shuttleworth), основателя проекта Ubuntu Linux и спонсирующей его компании Canonical Ltd, журналу Linux-Magazine Italia Оригинал статьи Interview with Linux-Magazine Italia […]

  38. Интервью с Марком Шаттвортом — Заметки — Ubuntu на Онего.ру Says:

    […] Оригинал интервью на английском языке. Теги: 8.04, canonical, интервью, марк шаттлворт  […]

  39. BogdanBiv Says:

    Hello Mak,

    I heard in an interview you took with an online radio that Canonical plans to certify third party proprietary applications that they work with Ubuntu. Also in this interview you say:
    “I am very happy to work with Microsoft, or any other company, to improve the state of free software and the software industry as a whole. There are many things that we can collaborate on where we have shared interests – encouraging good telecommunications policy, for example.”

    I was wandering if you also plan to cross-certificate Linux enterprise applications with other Linux vendors.
    For example Landscape is an enterprise application made by Canonical. Would you consider to certify it as “works with Red Hat”?
    And would you certify Red Hat applications as “work with Ubuntu”?

    Is this sort of thing in your plans?

    Mark Shuttleworth says: sure – though a better example might be JBoss. If Red Hat wanted to certify it on Ubuntu there would be no objection whatsoever.

  40. Blog de Bernard Opic » Archives du Blog » Entretien avec Linux-Magazine Italie Says:

    […] française de l’article “Interview with Linux-Magazine Italia“. Auteur : Mark Shuttleworth – Traducteur : Bernard […]

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