Interview with Mark Shuttlesworth on Ubuntu and the Linux Desktop

[Mazza558]

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/12068_3757246_1

Very interesting new interview about the future of Ubuntu. I liked the last question and answer:


In conclusion, so how was your trip into outer space? Did it inspire your approach to Ubuntu in any way?

Perhaps, yeah – I hadn’t thought about it those terms. But it’s certainly true when you have the great, great privilege of seeing the world as it really is, from that perspective, you want everything you do to have an impact that transcends boundaries. There may well be a connection there.

It was obviously a tremendous privilege, and I hope to fly again – but I don’t want to hog up the seats.

I was convinced that his trip into space inspired him to create Ubuntu. Viewing the earth from space seems to have a strange power over people, who return to earth completely inspired into doing something meaningful, in this case, Ubuntu.

[artir]

He thinks the same as I:

We see Apple as the gold standard of the user experience. We believe that, while it can be a challenge, the innovation inherent in the Free software process can deliver an experience that is comparable and in many ways superior.

So Canonical will in fact launch an effort to try and spearhead that. And over a period of 2 years, really move the dial forward on the desktop experience.

[phrostbyte]

Hopefully one day everyone will have a chance to visit space. We as a society need to get much better at science, I think. It's terrible the state of affairs in the world. I think advanced physics should be a required class for everyone in secondary school.

[TheAL76]

Very sensible responses, IMO.

[fatality_uk]

Actually poses another question in my head after reading that.

Where would Linux be without Canonical?

Would we all still be clammering for better desktop support, or still huddled around monitors in the back room of pubs at local lug meets? Mr. Shuttleworth has given Linux the major kick start it needed and with MSI, Asus, Dell, and many others looking to Linux as a "true" Windows alternative, you gotta take your hat off to him.

[madjr]

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/12068_3757246_1

Very interesting new interview about the future of Ubuntu. I liked the last question and answer:



I was convinced that his trip into space inspired him to create Ubuntu. Viewing the earth from space seems to have a strange power over people, who return to earth completely inspired into doing something meaningful, in this case, Ubuntu.

i vote to sending Bill Gates, Baldmer and Jobs into space !

maybe they will change their ways and those big fat ambitions :mad:

[fatality_uk]

i vote to sending Bill Gates, Baldmer and Jobs into space !

maybe they will change their ways and those big fat ambitions :mad:

Nah, they will most likely say:


"I own that island, that piece of land, all of that down there and move over I want to see Greenland"

[sdowney717]

I think linux could someday be greater than all the other OS.
You got to admit having MS, linux and Apple as antagonists does I think push them all forward.

[madjr]

Originally Posted by madjr
i vote to sending Bill Gates, Baldmer and Jobs into space !

maybe they will change their ways and those big fat ambitions

Nah, they will most likely say:


"I own that island, that piece of land, all of that down there and move over I want to see Greenland"



not if their spaceship "mysteriously" starts heading towards the sun :)

[samjh]

i vote to sending Bill Gates, Baldmer and Jobs into space !

maybe they will change their ways and those big fat ambitions :mad:

Ballmer and Jobs, yes. But Gates already does a great deal of charity.


I was convinced that his trip into space inspired him to create Ubuntu. Viewing the earth from space seems to have a strange power over people, who return to earth completely inspired into doing something meaningfulIt sure does.

When I saw the Pale Blue Dot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot) for the first time, it had quite a profound effect on the way I see myself and the world we all live in.

[madjr]

Ballmer and Jobs, yes. But Gates already does a great deal of charity.


did he give up half his fortune ?

Donations from Billionaires are kind of silly. Is like stealing from a family a 12 slice pizza and only donating them back 1 slice or the left over crumbs...

as you can see from the following video, he is one of the infamous "6 percent"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvTFKpIaQhM&feature=related

[cardinals_fan]

He thinks the same as I:
Macs have the best user experience? What?! Since when is removing options and choices a good thing?

[samjh]

did he give up half his fortune ?

Donations from Billionaires are kind of silly. Is like stealing from a family a 12 slice pizza and only donating them back 1 slice or the left over crumbs...Should he give up half his fortune? Not in my book.

How much portion of one's income do non-billionaires donate then?

A billionaire who donates a small portion of his/her fortune is doing no less than any poorer person who donates the same portion of their smaller fortune.

I'm not aware that Bill Gates has stolen anything from any family. He made his money by guile, luck, and skill, so good on him. Many others have had the same opportunity, but failed.

[EDIT]

Just out of curiousity, I decided to have a little look at Gates' wealth and philanthropic contributions.

According to Forbes, Gates was worth $46.5 billion in 2005. According to The Economist, he had given $31 billion to his own charity as of 2006. Forbes states his philanthropic contributions as $27 billion as of 2005. Wikipedia cites $29 billion between 2000 to 2004.

It's an unusually large amount, even by billionaire standards.

[madjr]

Should he give up half his fortune? Not in my book.

How much portion of one's income do non-billionaires donate then?

A billionaire who donates a small portion of his/her fortune is doing no less than any poorer person who donates the same portion of their smaller fortune.

I'm not aware that Bill Gates has stolen anything from any family. He made his money by guile, luck, and skill, so good on him. Many others have had the same opportunity, but failed.


The rich are rich because the poor are poor. That's how the world has always worked.

for 1 person to be rich there needs to be a lot of poor people.

and sadly the rich are just getting richer and the poor are just getting.... umm Dead

Same goes with countries. 7 or 8 countries are rich because over 100 other are poor (third world). All their resources stolen during the colonization and sent in back to the rich countries.

oh wait, 1 person has more money than entire continents now...

If i were Gates i would had donated 99% of my fortune. Unless you consider that a person can't live a good live with as little as 100 million $

hmm, did you see the video?

[cardinals_fan]

The rich are rich because the poor are poor. That's how the world has always worked.

for 1 person to be rich there needs to be a lot of poor people.

and sadly the rich are just getting richer and the poor are just getting.... umm Dead

Same goes with countries. 7 or 8 countries are rich because over 100 other are poor (third world). All their resources stolen during the colonization and sent in back to the rich countries.

oh wait, 1 person has more money than entire continents now...

If i were Gates i would had donated 99% of my fortune. Unless you consider that a person can't live a good live with as little as 100 million $

hmm, did you see the video?
Have you donated 99% of your much smaller fortune? Don't be so quick to judge others.

[aysiu]

I don't know how we suddenly got on to Bill Gates.

From Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gatesx07jan07,0,6827615.story?page=1):
Like most philanthropies, the Gates Foundation gives away at least 5% of its worth every year, to avoid paying most taxes. In 2005, it granted nearly $1.4 billion. It awards grants mainly in support of global health initiatives, for efforts to improve public education in the United States, and for social welfare programs in the Pacific Northwest.

It invests the other 95% of its worth. This endowment is managed by Bill Gates Investments, which handles Gates' personal fortune.

[madjr]

Have you donated 99% of your much smaller fortune? Don't be so quick to judge others.

Am living off peanuts! and yes, i do share them :)

and i do live in a third world country, am sure your pocket change is more than what i earn in a month ! or 2..

[zmjjmz]

We see Apple as the gold standard of the user experience.
So, will Canonical start making hardware?

[samjh]

Am living off peanuts! and yes, i do share them :)

and i do live in a third world country, am sure your pocket change is more than what i earn in a month !

You live off peanuts but can still afford to surf the internet? That's an interesting definition of "living off peanuts".

As a cartoon once quoted: "On the internet, no one knows you're a dog."

The fact remains, Mark Shuttleworth - a multi-millionaire - is doing what he thinks is good to do by setting up Canonical and the Ubuntu project. Bill Gates did what he thought was good to do, and still does do it by retiring from full-time business and managing a multi-billion dollar charity organisation.

Is he filthy rich? Of course. Should he give more of it away for charity? Maybe. But face it, the money is his, he earned it, and he has all the right in the world to keep it for himself. The fact that he's donated, and still donates, billions for charitable works deserves praise, not scorn.

[aysiu]

If one has US$40,000 and gives away 99%, she's left with only US$400.

Bill Gates has US$56,000,000,000 at his disposal. So if he gave away 99%, he'd still be left with US$560,000,000, which is still 14,000 times US$40,000.

For $400, you might be able to pay one month's rent for a studio apartment (not where I live, but in many places), and then you can't pay for anything else (food, luxuries, books, public transportation, clothing, etc.).

For $560,000,000, you can set up an endowment at a school, buy a very nice house, eat out every day at not-so-cheap restaurants, buy a few cars, and pretty much never have to worry about any material possessions. And that's only after Bill would have given away 99%.

So, no, 99% does not mean the same for everybody, and so yes one who is poor can judge one who is rich for not giving away more. If you make a normal salary, giving away 99% leaves you with not even a poverty-level subsistence. If you make what Bill Gates makes, you can give away even more than 99% and still be a very, very rich man. In fact, after giving away 99% of his wealth, Bill Gates would still have more money (just barely) than Mark Shuttleworth has.

[madjr]

Is he filthy rich? Of course. Should he give more of it away for charity? Maybe. But face it, the money is his, he earned it, and he has all the right in the world to keep it for himself. The fact that he's donated, and still donates, billions for charitable works deserves praise, not scorn.

i would not praise him.

i can only praise people who really sacrifice themselves for the sake of other human beings.

he donates because clearly that's the easiest thing for him right now.

If i have 1 million oranges and i give you 100 is that a sacrifice?

or maybe a hungry kid that gives half his orange to another starving kid is not? he just gave you half an orange while i gave you 100! I Win :)

stats don't lie.

over 50% of the population (about 3 billion or more) lives every day with $2 dollars or less ($60 a month... if lucky).

just like linux can't break the chicken and egg paradigm, poor people can't brake the vicious cycle of poverty. Specially when those at the Top do everything in their power to keep things the way they are.

The Rich and powerful wont allow change, things are Grrrreat the way they are. Why not? they do run the governments also.

Oh i just heard in the news that one of the candidates plans on cutting Taxes for the "wealthy"?? what the... :o


Am not anti Bill Gates, but he's not really the best example of a Heroe or a Good-doer....

[artir]

Macs have the best user experience? What?! Since when is removing options and choices a good thing?

Well, yes, we have more options and we aren't inside the iWorld where if you only use apple apps you are fine.
But they get the job done. Easily.
We don't even have a decent Windows Movie Maker/iMovie competitor. I tried kino, cinelerra, pitivi and kdenlive both stable and dev versions to make a video and they hanged every time. Cinelerra interface sucks and pitivi is also very simple and buggy.
And the Mac's overall appearence is cleaner than ubuntu.(My thoughts)
The good thing and the why I use ubuntu: We can make a system as good as that, with more options, open and free.

[samjh]

he donates because clearly that's the easiest thing for him right now.

If i have 1 million oranges and i give you 100 is that a sacrifice?

or maybe a hungry kid that gives half his orange to another starving kid is not? he just gave you half an orange while i gave you 100! I Win :)Whether someone gives 100 oranges or half an orange, is immaterial. But if you gave 100, in contrast to half, then of course you win!

Trotting out emotional sentiments doesn't change reality one iota. The person who gives one-half of their only orange to another hungry person does a great thing. But so does the person who gives 100 of his million oranges. The only thing that matters is what happens to the receiver(s): does it alleviate their suffering? If you're really poor then you'll know what I mean, because when you're poor, you're grateful for any help you get - big or small, from the rich or the fellow poor.

Think of it this way: half-an-orange might feed one person for a day, but 100 oranges will feed 100, or feed one person for a 100 days. So who makes the bigger difference in the end? The giver of half, or the giver of 100?

It is not Bill Gates' fault that there are so many people who live in poverty. But it is his initiative to give away his wealth to benefit the poor.

At least Bill Gates can give away billions to promote health services in impoverished places. I wish I could do that.


(PS. I watched the video. It's good for putting people's situations in perspective. I like it.)

[Erik Trybom]

We shouldn't let the best be the enemy of the good.

Giving money to charity is always a good thing. It doesn't matter if you only donate a tiny percentage of your wealth; those money will still be useful to the poor people who recieve them.

The oft-repeated statement that wealth requires someone else to suffer is just plain wrong. Are third-world countries poor because of Microsoft? Do they spend all their money on Windows and Office licenses? Of course not.

Third world countries are poor because of a complex mixture of history, current politics, trading obstacles, wars, corruption, lack of education, lack of human rights and so on. They are not poor due to lack of charity money, neither are they poor because the rich countries try to keep them poor. In fact, that would be economical madness. A thriving market like South Africa is much better for business than a wreck of a state like Zimbabwe (taking two recent examples).

I know self-sacrifice is a noble concept, but it's quite useless to solve the problems of the world.