Ubuntu now has 4 million users

[Carlos Araujo]

Uwow!

Forbes on Ubuntu
Filed under: Linux

I have written many times about my preference for Ubuntu. Glad to see Forbes (aka "the business press") picking it up. I also love that Shuttleworth is basically willing to spend every dollar he made from the Thawte acquisition.

Hey Mark--it's time to do an Ubuntu-quality MS office replacement.


Ubuntu now has 4 million users, half of which are governments, universities and a smattering of businesses. It adds new ones at a rate of 8% per month. After its public release in October 2004, Ubuntu quickly deposed Red Hat's Fedora as the most popular version of Linux on DistroWatch, a Web site that caters to Linux users. Ubuntu works in 22 languages, and Canonical, the company Shuttleworth set up to distribute his software, will send a free Ubuntu CD anywhere in the world. New users rave about the simple user interface, which has gained recent converts in a couple of well-known bloggers who switched from Apple Computer's OS X.

SOURCE:

[GuitarHero]

That's sweet but wrong forum.

[terminatingzero]

That is awsome, 4 million users. These are the kinds of stories that make me extremely happy. Thanks for the link.

[H.E. Pennypacker]

Carlos, I don't think Mark has said that he would spend every dollar he made from Thawte on Ubuntu. Still, every dollar does he does spend on it is appreciated a lot, because it helps the advancement of open source software.

Also, I don't think Mark has ever expressed interest in wanting to fork (create something seperate based on) Microsoft Office. I really believe that MS Office and OpenOffice.org are on the same level. The only difference is the GUI polish of MS Office. If I could have OpenOffice.org have the GUI of MS Office Vista (or whatever the Vista edition is called), it would be great. The biggest blame probably goes to the makers of GTK+. and not OpenOffice.org.

Mac OS X was the first to create a revolutionary GUI for its operating system. Microsoft Vista has headed in the same direction (completely different GUI while trying to avoid use of gray). Unfortunately, the color gray is still very important to GTK+. Hopefully that will change.

Nevertheless, this story makes me want to go out there on an all out Ubuntu campaign.