What does South Africa think about Ubuntu?

[atrus123]

I'm curious what sort of press Shuttleworth and Ubuntu receive in South Africa and what South Africans think about him? He seems like he might be a favored son, maybe a celebrity of a sort, or am I wrong?

Just curious.

[aysiu]

Here are some South African headlines about Mark Shuttleworth. It seems most are about his travel to space.

[RAV TUX]

Here are some South African headlines about Mark Shuttleworth. It seems most are about his travel to space.

Shuttleworth was the first African in space.

[K.Mandla]

You should ask Biltong (Dee). S/He is a Capetonian and might have an opinion to share.

[beercz]

What does South Africa think about Ubuntu?

What a good question!! Wish I'd thought of it

[Biltong (Dee)]

So is Mips

Mark Shuttleworth is known in South Africa, firstly as the "First African in Space" and also by his is Hip2b2 line of thought (Education is the way to the future - www.hip2b2.com).

Ubuntu does not figure highly at all.

Personal opinion is this - Microsoft donate heavily to schools in South Africa and this in a weird sort of way fits in with Shuttleworth's Hip2b2 philosophy.

If he promotes Linux as well he could rock the boat, and despite MS being the enemy they ARE doing a lot of good here.

[atrus123]

So is Mips

Mark Shuttleworth is known in South Africa, firstly as the "First African in Space" and also by his is Hip2b2 line of thought (Education is the way to the future - www.hip2b2.com).

Ubuntu does not figure highly at all.

Personal opinion is this - Microsoft donate heavily to schools in South Africa and this in a weird sort of way fits in with Shuttleworth's Hip2b2 philosophy.

If he promotes Linux as well he could rock the boat, and despite MS being the enemy they ARE doing a lot of good here.

Huh, that sort of surprises me that Ubuntu doesn't figure a bit more into the equasion. Until Ubuntu, most major distros (with the exception of Turbo Linux) were of either American or European ancestory. Now one of the three major operating systems hails from South Africa, which is cool but also a bit surprising.

What a good question!! Wish I'd thought of it

The question makes a lot of sense to me, if you're interested in the points of view from countries other than your own. I was, however, thinking that there might be more people on this board from South Africa.

[dvarsam]

Wow!

Nice Thread!

I also thought that Ubuntu was kicking some M$ "butt" in South Africa...

Then:

If this is not true, then is there ANY country where Ubuntu is kicking M$'s butt?

Thanks.

P.S.> This could mean that Ubuntu may never reach mass adoption...

[mips]

Mark first became well known for selling his software company for a stupid sum of money.

He then became famous when he went to space/ISS as this interested basically the whole of SA.

Ubuntu though is not well known at all I must say. If you asked the average citizen what Ubuntu OS is they would not have a frigging clue. They know who MS is but no other OS other than that exists as far as they are concerned.

As Dee mentioned he is also kinda known for the hip2b2 program.

Our Government also made big noise about using & encouraging OSS and then the next day you here them sighning $$$$$$$ MS contracts.

[mips]

Now one of the three major operating systems hails from South Africa, which is cool but also a bit surprising.

I actually don't think you could call Ubuntu South African. The only thing SA about it is that Mark is from SA. Canonical is not a SA company, Mark is not based in SA, I don't think there are any devs from SA. The word Ubuntu is not regional to SA but most of Africa.