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An anonymous reader noted that "Ubuntu had to shutdown 5 of 8 production servers that are sponsored by Canonical, when they started attacking other systems. Canonical blames the community, saying they were community hosted, and were poorly maintained. However, kernel upgrades couldn't be done because of poor backwards compatibility with the very hardware that Canonical had sponsored! While people point fingers at each other it is pretty clear that both sides are equally to blame, the community administrators for practicing bad security practices, such as using unencrypted FTP transfers with accounts, not properly maintaining the system. However Canonical should have been well aware of what they are hosting. The question remains, if any of the files distributed to users have been compromised. A major blow for Canonical though who are attempting to enter the business market with Ubuntu Server."

Goyuix writes "According to the IT Observer, publicly owned companies who are using Linux, could be violating the federal securities laws as part of Sarbanes-Oxley. The article goes on to say that companies are required to "disclose ownership of intellectual property to their shareholders." How are these companies supposed to really list out all the IP owners if they were to install a full desktop or server environment - there could be literally thousands of parties listed! What are the current Fortune 500 companies doing, as many of those use Linux in one form or another?" update several people have pointed out that this is about companies who are violating the GPL, not everyone.

Peaceful_Patriot writes "PCWorld's list of the 'Best Products of 2005' is out and Firefox tops the list. Also notables are GMail at number 2, Apple OS X, Tiger at number 3, Skype ranks in at 8 and Ubuntu at 26!" From their Firefox article: "Are you sick and tired of Internet Explorer? Have you grown weary of the constant vulnerabilities and patches? Do you scratch your head at sudden program lockups and crashes? Are you dismayed that Microsoft hasn't lifted a finger to improve or enhance IE since it buried Netscape's Navigator browser at the dawn of the century? Yeah, me too."

Zebrahead writes "Tom's Hardware has a nice review of the Ubuntu H2. How about storing your operating system, including some applications, on a highly mobile device? This is exactly what the Ubuntu H2 was designed for. In theory, the Ubuntu H2 package can be run on virtually any computer that has at least one empty USB port. A tiny 1" hard drive with 3 GB capacity was teamed up with the Debian-based Linux distribution Ubuntu. Bundling a tiny storage device with a fully-featured open source operating system enables the user to take a system installation, all its settings and applications, and a limited amount of data with him. It would be great to take this pretty interesting product to an Internet café, a computer at a friend's location, or any other system you can think of."

Khakionion writes "Ubuntu has announced their recent certification for IBM's DB2 Universal Database for Linux. Quite a big step for Ubuntu towards becoming one of the heavyweights of the Linux world." From the announcement: "With an respected product like DB2 on Ubuntu, our partners will relish the chance to discuss database and solution choices with their clients."

corso64 writes "Ohio Linux Fest 2005, a free conference/event for Linux and OSS enthusiasts, looks to be every bit as good, if not better than Ohio Linux Fest 2004. Last year, IBM, Novell, Apache, Beowulf, Mozilla, along with Jon "Maddog" Hall made Ohio Linux Festival 2004 a huge success along with tons of swag, freebies, and door prizes (including a Linus-autographed cdrom of the original source release of Linux). This year IBM, Novell, Apache, Digium, KDE and others will be doing sessions on Asterisk, KDE, Digital Forensics,Unified Threat Management, Ubuntu, Server Farms and lots of other topics. Check it out this October 1st!"

AccUser writes "Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical Ltd, founders of the popular Ubuntu Linux-based operating system, have today announced the creation of The Ubuntu Foundation with an initial funding commitment of US$10m. From the article: 'The Ubuntu Foundation will employ core Ubuntu community members to ensure that Ubuntu will remain fully supported for an extended period of time, and continue to produce new releases of the distribution. As a first step, the Foundation announces that Ubuntu version 6.04, due for release in April 2006, will be supported for three years on the desktop and five years on the server.'"

AccUser writes "Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical Ltd, founders of the popular Ubuntu Linux-based operating system, have today announced the creation of The Ubuntu Foundation with an initial funding commitment of US$10m. From the article: 'The Ubuntu Foundation will employ core Ubuntu community members to ensure that Ubuntu will remain fully supported for an extended period of time, and continue to produce new releases of the distribution. As a first step, the Foundation announces that Ubuntu version 6.04, due for release in April 2006, will be supported for three years on the desktop and five years on the server.'"

linuxbeta writes "The first development release of Ubuntu Linux 5.10, code name "Breezy Badger", is now available for testing. Colony CD 1 is the first in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Breezy development cycle, as images that are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD-build or installer bugs, while representing very current snapshots of Breezy. Screenshots are available. If you're interested in following changes as we further develop Breezy, have a look at the breezy-changes list. Bug reports should go here." (This comes in, of course, as I'm installing Hoary on my iBook.)

linuxbeta writes "The first development release of Ubuntu Linux 5.10, code name "Breezy Badger", is now available for testing. Colony CD 1 is the first in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Breezy development cycle, as images that are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD-build or installer bugs, while representing very current snapshots of Breezy. Screenshots are available. If you're interested in following changes as we further develop Breezy, have a look at the breezy-changes list. Bug reports should go here." (This comes in, of course, as I'm installing Hoary on my iBook.)

RichiH writes "Notwithstanding the recent craze about Ubuntu and the negative effects this might have, the german city of Munich chose Debian as the base for its LiMux project. Gonicus and SoftCon are the companies who were chosen to achieve this feat. With 14,000 desktops, this is one of the largest Linux transistions ever, even prompting Microsoft's Steve Balmer to offer a rebate of 90%. Other /. coverage here here and here."

Simon (S2) writes "Ubuntu Linux 5.04, code name 'Hoary Hedgehog', is now available. It offers the following new features: Simple and fast Installation, live CD's for Intel x86, AMD64 and PPC, GNOME 2.10.1, Firefox 1.0.2, first class productivity software, and X.org 6.8.2. Read the announcement and the complete release notes. Quick download links for the i386 architecture: ubuntu-5.04-install-i386.iso.torrent (587MB) and ubuntu-5.04-live-i386.iso.torrent (625MB). Install CD and live CD images for AMD64 and PowerPC computers are also available." Kubuntu is out in a new release as well. Screenshots available of the Kubuntu release. Update: 04/08 14:21 GMT by Z : Made the direct ISO links torrents.

Simon (S2) writes "Ubuntu Linux 5.04, code name 'Hoary Hedgehog', is now available. It offers the following new features: Simple and fast Installation, live CD's for Intel x86, AMD64 and PPC, GNOME 2.10.1, Firefox 1.0.2, first class productivity software, and X.org 6.8.2. Read the announcement and the complete release notes. Quick download links for the i386 architecture: ubuntu-5.04-install-i386.iso.torrent (587MB) and ubuntu-5.04-live-i386.iso.torrent (625MB). Install CD and live CD images for AMD64 and PowerPC computers are also available." Kubuntu is out in a new release as well. Screenshots available of the Kubuntu release. Update: 04/08 14:21 GMT by Z : Made the direct ISO links torrents.

Simon (S2) writes "Ubuntu Linux 5.04, code name 'Hoary Hedgehog', is now available. It offers the following new features: Simple and fast Installation, live CD's for Intel x86, AMD64 and PPC, GNOME 2.10.1, Firefox 1.0.2, first class productivity software, and X.org 6.8.2. Read the announcement and the complete release notes. Quick download links for the i386 architecture: ubuntu-5.04-install-i386.iso.torrent (587MB) and ubuntu-5.04-live-i386.iso.torrent (625MB). Install CD and live CD images for AMD64 and PowerPC computers are also available." Kubuntu is out in a new release as well. Screenshots available of the Kubuntu release. Update: 04/08 14:21 GMT by Z : Made the direct ISO links torrents.

A long, long time ago, you asked questions of Mark Shuttleworth -- astronaut, entrepreneur, activist, and now chief of Debian-and-GNOME based distribution Ubuntu Linux. Mark's been understandably busy running the world of Ubuntu, especially considering the imminent release of the group's newest version, Hoary Hedgehog. He's answered below questions on everything from what makes it worth paying for a trip to space to how software offered with source, for free, and under a liberal license (aka Free software) can sustain itself and its creators. Read on for his answers.

Ubuntu target is... ?
by ewanrg (446949)

I'm curious who you see as the Ubuntu target user/audience. It seems that from the ease of use, and "price", that you are trying to target the audience that doesn't care for Microsoft, or that is trying to do things and can't afford Microsoft.

With that, I'm a little curious as to why Ubuntu has chosen Gnome as the desktop? On older machines (such as my HP Kayak), Ubuntu runs passingly well, but simply having an option that probes the machine and then picks a desktop like XFCE or IceWM using a similar theme to the Gnome one would help refurbished/recycled machines really shine.

Similarly, it would seem that there are some software choices that could be tuned as well. As much as I like to use Open Office on my newer machines, selecting a more modest office offering for lower specification machines seems like a reasonable option.

Interested in your thoughts on this...

Mark Shuttleworth: The Ubuntu project is all about creating a free, high quality OS for everybody -- home, office and data center. So we've tried to choose the best mix of desktop apps in terms of functionality and compatibility rather than optimising for low-end hardware. So, off the single install CD, you get a Gnome desktop with Firefox, OpenOffice, Gstreamer for multimedia and other well-known favourites. We include some other favourites on the ISO, like Thunderbird, as well as the most popular server apps (Apache, Samba etc) so that they are all available without having to go to the network during the install.

Pretty much everything else in the known universe is available off the network archives, so you can apt-get anything that would also be in Debian or an many of the other independent repositories that have .deb packages, we bring them all together in our network repository so it's easy to find and install almost anything that won't send you to jail.

It's hard to pick favourites, but as Thom May blogged this week, it's not something one can avoid. One of the nice consequences of working in the open source world is that people have taken matters into their own hands, have picked their own favourites and are working on Kubuntu (Ubuntu but with a KDE desktop default install). It should be released with KDE 3.4 on April 6, the same day we release Ubuntu with Gnome 2.10, and will rock.

I'm keen to see an XFCE-buntu too, so come along to #ubuntu-devel or #kubuntu on irc.freenode.net if you'd like to work on that. I'm also keen to see flavours of Ubuntu that are tuned for LTSP or embedded environments. And some folks were talking about Enlightenment E17 on Ubuntu too, so we may see a bunch of these flavours emerge for our next release, its up to the Ubuntu community. Ubuntu is, and always will be, entirely FREE in every sense, so it's a perfect playground for people to build on and innovate with.

What's so special about Ubuntu?
by Fished (574624)

This is a question that's sure to come up in many different ways, but I'd really like to know what is so special about Ubuntu that its purposes could not be as well served by contributing to the Debian tree? I'm assuming you have your reasons -- is it about having control of the packaging, more frequent releases, what? Do you see Ubunutu supplanting Debian someday, or will it just be a branded form of the more open Debian (akin to Fedora/Redhat)?

Also, becoming aware of your financial resources, I can't help but wonder whether Ubuntu is intended to be a money maker, or it seen as a gift to the community?

(My new Athlon 64 system is coming any day now, and I've decided to try Ubuntu first. So far, it looks very nice from afar.)

MS: Well, I hope your Ubuntu amd64 system has been working very well since you posed the question, and you're ready to update to Hoary Hedgehog after it releases [this] month :-)

Ubuntu won't replace Debian. If people love it's Ubuntu, it's because it's built on such great engineering. Debian/sid is an awesome asset to the world of free software, even if it is the boy that breaks your toys.

The Ubuntu team takes Sid, every six months, and makes a secure, tested, and supported release of it. Hopefully many of the patches (published continuously at http://people.ubuntu.com/~scott/patches/ but don't let Scott tell you he personally made all of those patches :-) we make in the process are adopted by the Debian maintainers, so Sid gets better as a result of Ubuntu, it is designed to be a two-way street.

Then, hopefully, people take that regular, predictable release and do awesome things like Kubuntu and GuadaLinex with it.

Over time there may be some ongoing areas where we take a different route to Debian because of different priorities and scheduling, like X.org, Gnome 2.10 and possibly OpenOffice.org2 in Hoary, and that's why we are investing in Bazaar and baz-ng, the free/libre revision control system that I hope will make it easy for us to share code with upstream and other distros in a sane fashion.

Debian packages
by renelicious (450403)

I read that you guys are rebuilding your own version of all the debian packages you use instead of using vanilla debian. Apparently this means that Ubuntu will not work with general debian apt repositories. Is this true? If so, what is the reasoning behind this and will you in the future be considering changing this policy?

MS: Yes, we import every package from Debian as well as .deb packages from a lot of other sources that you can find on apt-get.org. So if you enable the "universe" and "multiverse" repositories in your /etc/apt/sources.list file on an Ubuntu system you immediately see everything that you would find in Sid, and most anything else in deb format too, in one shot.

This allows us to reduce the time people spend looking for backports and packages, and to ensure that they actually all build from source at release time. it also allows us, if we get time, to create some sanity in library version dependencies across all 16,000 packages.

Our core team focuses its attention on the server and core desktop apps (in "main"), and then a separate team called the Masters of the Universe (an inside joke) manages everything in universe and multiverse. That team's work on KDE packages resulted in KDE being moved into main, and the creation of Kubuntu for our next release in April. If you're interested in bringing even more packages into universe or multiverse, join #ubuntu-motu.

Modifications
by Daengbo (523424)

After I installed your distro recently, I was impressed by the attention to graphical detail. The gdm login screen, the default theme and the wallpapers chosen for the desktop were all very nice.

One thing that stood out was the choice to eliminate desktop icons and change the required trash icon into a panel applet. Why was this choice made?

MS: Because I'm the SABDFL -- and a Virgo? It just seemed like the Right Thing to do, in keeping with the Ubuntu philosophy of keeping it simple and making it Just Work. A user is free to clutter up her own desktop as much as she likes, we shouldn't be doing that for her :-)

That doesn't mean it wasn't quite a debate at our Oxford conference last year... and I guess we'll be having similar debates at our Sydney community conf in late April, where we'll be laying out the roadmap for Breezy Badger, our October release.

Making the desktop efficient and great to use is a lot of fun. If you have stong thoughts on the subject, come along to Sydney or another Ubuntu conf and join the debate.

Corporate Usage
by TheFlu (213162)

I've been a Red Hat/Fedora user for years now, but I decided to give Ubuntu a try, as it had some of the most recent packages included (Gnome 2.8 and Evolution 2.0) by default. Needless to say, I was very impressed by the polish of a pre-release version, and I have switched my workstations at work, and my Linux boxes at home over to Ubuntu.

I was, however, disappointed by the lack of "corporate" tools currently included with Ubuntu. All of our client machines here are currently running Fedora with a customized install script written using kickstart, so when a machine dies,I can pop in the custom install CD and have a blank machine back on the network in 5 or 10 minutes. Are there are plans to include kickstart-like features and NIS support inside of Ubuntu's installation routines? I would switch our entire company over to Ubuntu in a flash if that were the case. I'm sure other companies would enjoy seeing the addition of such features as well.

MS: Hoary Hedgehog, due April 6th, will have kickstart support thanks to the great work of Colin Watson. I can't speak to NIS, if it's something we could integrate cleanly and elegantly then put a specification together on the Ubuntu wiki at http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/ and link to it from the BOF planning page at http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/UbuntuDownUnderBOFs -- then we'll discuss implementing it for Breezy Badger.

Ubuntu should be great in a corporate environment. We will never include proprietary tools like CodeWeavers, but it's just a matter of time before someone creates an Ubuntu derivative that includes those too.

How do you get support for the less popular work?
by cheros (223479)

Hi Mark, as with any (F)OSS project you're almost entirely depending on volunteers. That's OK for popular projects, but to work on, say, an admin or accounting back-end someone still needs to do the heavy lifting without the promise of the kind of glamour and street cred that the likes of Firefox offer.

Have you found a way to get support for the less sexy projects and if so, how?

MS: I wish there was a good answer to this. There are so many wonderful things that open source could achieve in the world if we could draw talent to less sexy projects.

For example, I've been funding work on SchoolTool for two years now, and we're only JUST starting to see a community forming around it. I think the answer is that open source depends on having some core working product to work with in the first place -- it's very difficult to sustain a community unless the tool is already in widespread production use.

To get from the concept to that point requires either an individual with the skills and passion and energy and time to build it, singlehandedly, or funding from philanthropy or commercial interests.

Another thing I'd like to see are open source administration systems for government -- local councils all around the world have the same problems, they should be using the same tools and sharing them freely. Then Kinshasa and Paris could both benefit from open source. But YOU try motivate someone to hack on a sewerage management system in their spare time.

What do you think of this idea?
by xutopia (469129)

I switch from distro to distro whenever I find one that is better than the current one. I just moved from Slackware (with dropline gnome) to Ubuntu because of the latest gnome and kernel. My brother is so impressed with Ubuntu that he's switching from Windows. Well he's also partly unimpressed with Windows security. He's currently backing everything up and the transfer of files and all is rather tedious. We thought of an idea to make the process faster and would like your opinion on it.

Would it be possible to have an Ubuntu install CD which checks a Windows or Linux installation, migrates its users/files and "converts" their system to Ubuntu? I realize there are some hurdles to overcome this in the Windows world but it seems feasible from one distro to the next. What do you think of the idea?

Thanks in advance.

MS: I think that's a great idea! With Gnu Parted reaching the point where I might trust it to resize my Grandma's NTFS partition and create a new ext3 partition for Ubuntu, the next step will be to move as much of her data into the new Linux partition in a sane way, as possible.

There's low-hanging fruit that you could pick, like desktop backgrounds, fonts, home directories and other useful stuff which could be moved across to preserve her working environment and keep it as familiar as possible.

Good luck!

Everything free -- what's the business plan?
by HoserHead (599)

How does Canonical plan on making money? Ubuntu seems to be completely and utterly free, in both senses of the word. In my mind at least, the 'services will pay for development' business plan for Free Software went out of style when the dot-com bubble burst. How will your company be different?

MS: You're right that the "services pay for development" model is unlikely to work very well for single applications. An entire distribution, though, is slightly different, because the number of users is potentially much, much greater than the number of users for, say, a web server or database app.

Canonical provides support for Ubuntu, but more importantly we provide support for companies that provide support for Ubuntu. The idea is to create an ecosystem of people who collaborate on the free software. You can see the beginnings of that ecosystem on this page of Ubuntu service providers, and I hope it will continue grow as fast as it has since Warty hit the streets.

Part of being sustainable is keeping the costs down, so we focus resources on development and support, not marketing or office waste. The guys will tell you I'm a cheap bastard when it comes to the frills (Canonical One doesn't *actually* belong to Canonical :-).

I'd very much like to make the distro project sustainable, because I've never had the privilege to work with such talented guys who work as hard as this team, and they deserve to be rewarded and to know that people appreciate the value they add every day. If it doesn't work utthat way, though, I'm honoured to consider it a gift back to the open source world, which played such a critical role in helping me build Thawte. So I hope it's commerce, though it may turn out to be philanthropy. Either way, it's still cheaper than going back to space, or hooking up with fast planes/boats/women, which I supposed would be Plan B.

my question for Mark
by Recovery1 (217499)\

I'm curious to know how business and individuals have responded to the open source campaign you started. Has there been any interesting success or failures that have encouraged/discouraged your campaign?

I'd also be curious to hear from fellow slashdotters who may be from South Africa. How has his push for open source made inroads in the computer community?

I am interested because I recently find myself in a situation where I will be promoting open source in my own community.

MS: The Go Open Source campaign, which the Shuttleworth Foundation funds together with HP, the CSIR and Canonical, has had a great response in South Africa. I hope it's gone some way towards helping put South Africa at the front of the open source revolution, in terms of getting everyday computer users interested in open source.

Perhaps other countries will run their own Go Open Source campaigns -- they would be welcome to use the TV show we put together, or any of the other ideas like the Freedom League and the Freedom Toaster, or maybe they'll make a bigger deal of Software Freedom Day in September.

I get tons of people stopping me in the street in Cape Town again, but instead of asking "what's weightlessness like" they want to know about Open Source. The answer to both questions? "Liberating" :-)

Was it worth it?
by jmichaelg (148257)

Two questions:

1) Asking you "was it worth it?" is going to get an affirmative answer regardless of how you really feel so let me ask you, what happened on the flight that made the trip worth $20 million?

2) How much would you pay to go up a second time?

MS: I don't know how much space and spaceflight interest you, but for me they've always been areas of great fascination and imagination. Even if you're a believer in reincarnation you have to admit that it makes sense to make the most of this life, and for me that means tackling the biggest and scariest and most audacious projects I can.

Space was like that.

I remember flying into Russia for the first time, into a stunning sunset, and wondering why on earth anyone would want to spend months on a Russian military base fighting bureaucracy and physics to get into orbit. It seemed silly to take a life of certain luxury and put it at risk. But at the same time, I knew that if I didn't make a real effort to do it, I would spend the rest of my life wondering what it's like to feel the power of an orbital launch, see the exquisite beauty of the earth floating in space, and experience the violence of capsule re-entry.

Looking back I can't believe how lucky I've been. That hard year in Russia, with it's on-again off-again negotiations, taught me a lot about patience and strategy. The physical demands of training, together with having to learn conversational and operational Russian as well as the job of being a cosmonaut are unique things for a geek like me to have experienced. I can't imagine another project that would have been as daunting and ultimately as rewarding. I was lucky to be in Star City at the same time as a great crop of cosmonauts and NASA/ESA astronauts were preparing for their own missions, making friends with people who's lives I would otherwise have envied for eternity. I still envy them, but that's because they get to go back regularly :-) I was lucky to get there in time to catch the last Soyuz TM, because the next generation Soyuz, the TMA, has very little hands on requirements from the guy in the right-hand seat. Flying the TM meant I had more opportunity to work with the crew and could take on more responsibility in-flight.

The actual flight itself is such a gift I can well imagine that people will be queuing for sub-orbital flights when they really come onto the market. The sight of the earth from space is breathtaking, and life changing. 3 minutes in space will change your perspective, I guarantee, on the way we treat one another and the world. So imagine ten days in orbit, the first few on the tiny Soyuz, which rotates end-over-end to maintain solar attitude thus giving you the entertaining experience of being both weightless and inside a tumble dryer on slow-motion. Imagine learning to live and work in an environment that is at once dangerous and peaceful. Imagine using a VOIP connection to call your best friends from orbit in between science experiments and time conducting earth observations. It was ten days, but it passed in a blur.

From a shake-your-bones point of view, the re-entry in a Soyuz can't really be beaten. You are coming in at mach 25 when the atmosphere first sucks you in. You see the blackness of space turning a dull red as the heat builds up around your vehicle. The Soyuz is designed to orient itself correctly for re-entry even if it's a dead craft with no attitude control, so you feel the craft swinging around to ensure that the heatshield will take the brunt of it. Then you watch your spacecraft disintegrate and burn up around you, and the G forces build up till you are in the middle of an inferno with the spare hard drives you brought back on your chest weighting a ton, and the Soyuz spinning like a top to try and spread the heat load out evenly on the shield. You watch bolts and other pieces of metal on the outside melt and run liquid across your window before it blisters and blackens. It's an unbelievable display of forces entirely outside of your control wil you, an ant, in the middle of the fireworks display. You know that your survival is totally dependent on the people who put this machine together, that there is nothing you personally can do if it comes apart. It's a hell of a ride.

How much would I pay to fly again? First, I wouldn't simply repeat what I've done before. I would want to take on new challenges, perhaps flying in a different vehicle or with different responsibilities in a Soyuz. And I'd likely want to take the vehicle through a different mission profile -- which would mean that it wouldn't be the sort of trip you can book on Expedia. Like everything, I'd negotiate the best price I could for the project, and deal with the best people for the job, whether that's Burt Rutan or RosAviaKosmos and Energia.

Is $20m affordable? It depends on what you can afford, and what your alternatives are.

Going to space or fixing Earth?
by gspr (602968)\

As an astronaut, you must been drawn to the mysteries of the universe outside our own planet. But as a South African, you must also feel drawn to the problems facing your home continent (I KNOW this sounds very ignorant and Western, and I'm not trying to say "Africa is a place full of problems", I'm just referring to the huge problems that exist for a large portion of the continent).

Do you think space exploration can be justified when so many people here on Earth suffer? And why? This is an important question to me, as I dream of space, and definitely think Mankind should explore all we can. However, I am having a moral problem (which I'm just ignoring at the moment, for the sake of continued dreaming) justifying spending huge amounts of resources when billions of people right here on Earth lack access to clean water, and millions are infected with HIV.

MS: I love Africa much as I think an American loves America -- despite her problems. And yes, there are plenty of problems, they are easier to see than those that face developed countries. But there's more to Africa than Darfur and Zimbabwe, much as there's more to America than McDonalds and Shock-and-Awe. And I can heartily recommend that you take the time to travel to Cape Town, or Zanzibar, or the Ruwenzori or Ethiopian Highlands, and find out for yourself.

What's interesting about Africa is that it presents tremendous opportunity. In 50 years time the 2 billion inhabitants of the continent will, I believe, be in a strong economic position, and geographical position. The continent has everything it needs to survive and thrive, given good leadership, fair treatment by the rest of the trading world, and time. So I'm pretty confident that we will see Africa shed it's image of tragedy and travesty in our lifetime, and replace it with an enviable mix of prosperity and soul.

You ask whether we can justify spaceflight when the world still faces basic problems feeding and educating and employing billions of its people, and when we're busily destroying the homes of thousands of other species with which we share the planet. That's a tough question. The standard answer speaks to the way space exploration has changed our world for the better, in every field from materials engineering to food science and geography. But I think the more important answer lies in the fact that much of what's holding the world back is willpower, not resources.

I've seen schools in South Africa that have nothing, yet manage to turn out first class graduates year after year while the school down the road, which is equally poorly funded, doesn't get a single pass. It's the willpower of those staff members that makes the difference. And a big part of willpower is having something to aspire to, something to live for. Space, and man's exploration of the solar system and universe, are extraordinarily powerful motivators. I learned this first hand before I flew, when an old man who had experienced the worst of apartheid through his life hugged me and begged me to take him to space with me, then told me his kids were working extra hard on maths and science so that they too might one day have this opportunity. I hope they do, too.

Common Efforts?
by meggito (516763)

How are the nations of Africa working together to promote technological growth? Are there any common intiatives in place or will there be or are the nations still working independantly instead of building a common infrastructure? Are the current methods succeeding or do you beleive there should be change to the way the continent is approaching their technological challenges whether they are seperate or cooperative.

MS: Unfortunately, there is not enough being done within Africa to make the most of the extraordinary technological changes we've seen over the past few years. Nepad showed some promise, but that appears lost to bureaucracy. I think it will be up to the smaller countries to innovate and lead the way in regulation to attract investment in telecomms and innovation, especially with regard to VOIP, Wi-Max and other breakthrough technologies. I wish I had a more upbeat answer.

The Digital Divide
by Rico_za (702279)

Ubuntu, SchoolTool,Translate.org.za, are some of the projects you support that seem to tackle the digital-divide head-on. Do you have any views or ideas on how to make Internet access cheaper so more people in developing countries can have access to it? More specific, any plans on convincing the South African government that not over-regulating the telecoms industry will be good for everyone?

MS: Whenever there is substantial change in an industry there are opportunities for new leaders to emerge. The global shift to open source is just such an opportunity. I'm really hopeful that South Africa will grab the chance to lead the in the open source revolution. There will be a big shift in IT skills requirements, and any country that takes the initiative now will benefit significantly, from investment, outsourcing and internal efficiencies.

I'll answer the telecoms part of your question along with the next one.

Internet Access in South Africa
by kobus (544780)

Hi Mark,

This is a question combo suggestion.

I'm a programmer from South Africa, working in the Bay Area.

I had dialup Internet in South Africa already in 1994. However since then not much has changed. In fact Internet access is appalling. Its very expensive compared to the average income of middle class, and ISDN or ADSL is just too expensive and at the same time pathetically slow.

Internet access is really holding our country back! I believe it is critical to schools and families to have access to better Internet.

As a South African entrepreneur and someone who is successful in the IT world, have you ever given this problem any thought, or considered starting an initiative to provide better access to the Internet?

MS: Clearly, with one of the world's most expensive and profitable telecom monopolies still firmly entrenched in South Africa, we need to act firmly. Last year the South African government took some big steps towards deregulation, then they de-fanged those initiatives at the last minute. I expect there is ongoing debate internally as to the right plan of action, and unfortunately it's taking a long time for those in favour of bold deregulatory moves to get their point across.

Critical issues in the coming year will be the pricing of international traffic on undersea cables, which continues to be a very secretive monopoly, as well as control and pricing of access to the last-mile copper currently entrusted to Telkom. I certainly hope that SATRA, the SA telecoms regulator, will allow new operators access to existing last-mile copper for a low price, as has been done very successfully in France, where I think the maximum line rental the incumbent operator can charge is around EUR 10.00 per month. In SA, it should be lower. In addition, I'd like to see SATRA selling off international bandwidth that is currently a monopoly in an annual open auction.

In addition, I'd like to see proactive work done on Wi-Max, WiFi and general spectrum liberation to stimulate investment in the possibilities of a wireless broadband world. The opportunity is there, whether or not the regulatory authorities have the skills and the willpower to lead is unknown.

Health care open source?
by mspohr (589790)

I do a lot of work in South Africa and other parts of Africa with health care information systems. There is a pressing need for open source information systems for AIDS treatment and also health system management. The existing proprietary solutions are expensive, not suitable, not customizable, and don't build local capacity.

Would you be willing to branch out from education into health care open source projects? I know people in South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Ethiopia, and other countries who would be willing to participate.

MS: I certainly encourage the use of open source in government wherever possible. And there is in fact a pilot project in the SA ministry of health which turned into an accidental open source success - I say accidental because I don't think the officials in charge realised the potential, but they agreed to let the developers work on that basis and now this small tool is being used in several countries on the continent.

I hope that's an indicator of what the future holds in store.

I don't fund health care work in SA, as a rule, because I want to build the Foundation team steadily over time, and think education is a big enough elephant to swallow first. Once we have a good track record in education (TuxLabs, SchoolTool and other projects are a good start) we can expand to other areas of social entrepreneurship and innovation.

Thanks everyone for these questions -- apologies for taking so long to answer them!

A long, long time ago, you asked questions of Mark Shuttleworth -- astronaut, entrepreneur, activist, and now chief of Debian-and-GNOME based distribution Ubuntu Linux. Mark's been understandably busy running the world of Ubuntu, especially considering the imminent release of the group's newest version, Hoary Hedgehog. He's answered below questions on everything from what makes it worth paying for a trip to space to how software offered with source, for free, and under a liberal license (aka Free software) can sustain itself and its creators. Read on for his answers.

Ubuntu target is... ?
by ewanrg (446949)

I'm curious who you see as the Ubuntu target user/audience. It seems that from the ease of use, and "price", that you are trying to target the audience that doesn't care for Microsoft, or that is trying to do things and can't afford Microsoft.

With that, I'm a little curious as to why Ubuntu has chosen Gnome as the desktop? On older machines (such as my HP Kayak), Ubuntu runs passingly well, but simply having an option that probes the machine and then picks a desktop like XFCE or IceWM using a similar theme to the Gnome one would help refurbished/recycled machines really shine.

Similarly, it would seem that there are some software choices that could be tuned as well. As much as I like to use Open Office on my newer machines, selecting a more modest office offering for lower specification machines seems like a reasonable option.

Interested in your thoughts on this...

Mark Shuttleworth: The Ubuntu project is all about creating a free, high quality OS for everybody -- home, office and data center. So we've tried to choose the best mix of desktop apps in terms of functionality and compatibility rather than optimising for low-end hardware. So, off the single install CD, you get a Gnome desktop with Firefox, OpenOffice, Gstreamer for multimedia and other well-known favourites. We include some other favourites on the ISO, like Thunderbird, as well as the most popular server apps (Apache, Samba etc) so that they are all available without having to go to the network during the install.

Pretty much everything else in the known universe is available off the network archives, so you can apt-get anything that would also be in Debian or an many of the other independent repositories that have .deb packages, we bring them all together in our network repository so it's easy to find and install almost anything that won't send you to jail.

It's hard to pick favourites, but as Thom May blogged this week, it's not something one can avoid. One of the nice consequences of working in the open source world is that people have taken matters into their own hands, have picked their own favourites and are working on Kubuntu (Ubuntu but with a KDE desktop default install). It should be released with KDE 3.4 on April 6, the same day we release Ubuntu with Gnome 2.10, and will rock.

I'm keen to see an XFCE-buntu too, so come along to #ubuntu-devel or #kubuntu on irc.freenode.net if you'd like to work on that. I'm also keen to see flavours of Ubuntu that are tuned for LTSP or embedded environments. And some folks were talking about Enlightenment E17 on Ubuntu too, so we may see a bunch of these flavours emerge for our next release, its up to the Ubuntu community. Ubuntu is, and always will be, entirely FREE in every sense, so it's a perfect playground for people to build on and innovate with.

What's so special about Ubuntu?
by Fished (574624)

This is a question that's sure to come up in many different ways, but I'd really like to know what is so special about Ubuntu that its purposes could not be as well served by contributing to the Debian tree? I'm assuming you have your reasons -- is it about having control of the packaging, more frequent releases, what? Do you see Ubunutu supplanting Debian someday, or will it just be a branded form of the more open Debian (akin to Fedora/Redhat)?

Also, becoming aware of your financial resources, I can't help but wonder whether Ubuntu is intended to be a money maker, or it seen as a gift to the community?

(My new Athlon 64 system is coming any day now, and I've decided to try Ubuntu first. So far, it looks very nice from afar.)

MS: Well, I hope your Ubuntu amd64 system has been working very well since you posed the question, and you're ready to update to Hoary Hedgehog after it releases [this] month :-)

Ubuntu won't replace Debian. If people love it's Ubuntu, it's because it's built on such great engineering. Debian/sid is an awesome asset to the world of free software, even if it is the boy that breaks your toys.

The Ubuntu team takes Sid, every six months, and makes a secure, tested, and supported release of it. Hopefully many of the patches (published continuously at http://people.ubuntu.com/~scott/patches/ but don't let Scott tell you he personally made all of those patches :-) we make in the process are adopted by the Debian maintainers, so Sid gets better as a result of Ubuntu, it is designed to be a two-way street.

Then, hopefully, people take that regular, predictable release and do awesome things like Kubuntu and GuadaLinex with it.

Over time there may be some ongoing areas where we take a different route to Debian because of different priorities and scheduling, like X.org, Gnome 2.10 and possibly OpenOffice.org2 in Hoary, and that's why we are investing in Bazaar and baz-ng, the free/libre revision control system that I hope will make it easy for us to share code with upstream and other distros in a sane fashion.

Debian packages
by renelicious (450403)

I read that you guys are rebuilding your own version of all the debian packages you use instead of using vanilla debian. Apparently this means that Ubuntu will not work with general debian apt repositories. Is this true? If so, what is the reasoning behind this and will you in the future be considering changing this policy?

MS: Yes, we import every package from Debian as well as .deb packages from a lot of other sources that you can find on apt-get.org. So if you enable the "universe" and "multiverse" repositories in your /etc/apt/sources.list file on an Ubuntu system you immediately see everything that you would find in Sid, and most anything else in deb format too, in one shot.

This allows us to reduce the time people spend looking for backports and packages, and to ensure that they actually all build from source at release time. it also allows us, if we get time, to create some sanity in library version dependencies across all 16,000 packages.

Our core team focuses its attention on the server and core desktop apps (in "main"), and then a separate team called the Masters of the Universe (an inside joke) manages everything in universe and multiverse. That team's work on KDE packages resulted in KDE being moved into main, and the creation of Kubuntu for our next release in April. If you're interested in bringing even more packages into universe or multiverse, join #ubuntu-motu.

Modifications
by Daengbo (523424)

After I installed your distro recently, I was impressed by the attention to graphical detail. The gdm login screen, the default theme and the wallpapers chosen for the desktop were all very nice.

One thing that stood out was the choice to eliminate desktop icons and change the required trash icon into a panel applet. Why was this choice made?

MS: Because I'm the SABDFL -- and a Virgo? It just seemed like the Right Thing to do, in keeping with the Ubuntu philosophy of keeping it simple and making it Just Work. A user is free to clutter up her own desktop as much as she likes, we shouldn't be doing that for her :-)

That doesn't mean it wasn't quite a debate at our Oxford conference last year... and I guess we'll be having similar debates at our Sydney community conf in late April, where we'll be laying out the roadmap for Breezy Badger, our October release.

Making the desktop efficient and great to use is a lot of fun. If you have stong thoughts on the subject, come along to Sydney or another Ubuntu conf and join the debate.

Corporate Usage
by TheFlu (213162)

I've been a Red Hat/Fedora user for years now, but I decided to give Ubuntu a try, as it had some of the most recent packages included (Gnome 2.8 and Evolution 2.0) by default. Needless to say, I was very impressed by the polish of a pre-release version, and I have switched my workstations at work, and my Linux boxes at home over to Ubuntu.

I was, however, disappointed by the lack of "corporate" tools currently included with Ubuntu. All of our client machines here are currently running Fedora with a customized install script written using kickstart, so when a machine dies,I can pop in the custom install CD and have a blank machine back on the network in 5 or 10 minutes. Are there are plans to include kickstart-like features and NIS support inside of Ubuntu's installation routines? I would switch our entire company over to Ubuntu in a flash if that were the case. I'm sure other companies would enjoy seeing the addition of such features as well.

MS: Hoary Hedgehog, due April 6th, will have kickstart support thanks to the great work of Colin Watson. I can't speak to NIS, if it's something we could integrate cleanly and elegantly then put a specification together on the Ubuntu wiki at http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/ and link to it from the BOF planning page at http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/UbuntuDownUnderBOFs -- then we'll discuss implementing it for Breezy Badger.

Ubuntu should be great in a corporate environment. We will never include proprietary tools like CodeWeavers, but it's just a matter of time before someone creates an Ubuntu derivative that includes those too.

How do you get support for the less popular work?
by cheros (223479)

Hi Mark, as with any (F)OSS project you're almost entirely depending on volunteers. That's OK for popular projects, but to work on, say, an admin or accounting back-end someone still needs to do the heavy lifting without the promise of the kind of glamour and street cred that the likes of Firefox offer.

Have you found a way to get support for the less sexy projects and if so, how?

MS: I wish there was a good answer to this. There are so many wonderful things that open source could achieve in the world if we could draw talent to less sexy projects.

For example, I've been funding work on SchoolTool for two years now, and we're only JUST starting to see a community forming around it. I think the answer is that open source depends on having some core working product to work with in the first place -- it's very difficult to sustain a community unless the tool is already in widespread production use.

To get from the concept to that point requires either an individual with the skills and passion and energy and time to build it, singlehandedly, or funding from philanthropy or commercial interests.

Another thing I'd like to see are open source administration systems for government -- local councils all around the world have the same problems, they should be using the same tools and sharing them freely. Then Kinshasa and Paris could both benefit from open source. But YOU try motivate someone to hack on a sewerage management system in their spare time.

What do you think of this idea?
by xutopia (469129)

I switch from distro to distro whenever I find one that is better than the current one. I just moved from Slackware (with dropline gnome) to Ubuntu because of the latest gnome and kernel. My brother is so impressed with Ubuntu that he's switching from Windows. Well he's also partly unimpressed with Windows security. He's currently backing everything up and the transfer of files and all is rather tedious. We thought of an idea to make the process faster and would like your opinion on it.

Would it be possible to have an Ubuntu install CD which checks a Windows or Linux installation, migrates its users/files and "converts" their system to Ubuntu? I realize there are some hurdles to overcome this in the Windows world but it seems feasible from one distro to the next. What do you think of the idea?

Thanks in advance.

MS: I think that's a great idea! With Gnu Parted reaching the point where I might trust it to resize my Grandma's NTFS partition and create a new ext3 partition for Ubuntu, the next step will be to move as much of her data into the new Linux partition in a sane way, as possible.

There's low-hanging fruit that you could pick, like desktop backgrounds, fonts, home directories and other useful stuff which could be moved across to preserve her working environment and keep it as familiar as possible.

Good luck!

Everything free -- what's the business plan?
by HoserHead (599)

How does Canonical plan on making money? Ubuntu seems to be completely and utterly free, in both senses of the word. In my mind at least, the 'services will pay for development' business plan for Free Software went out of style when the dot-com bubble burst. How will your company be different?

MS: You're right that the "services pay for development" model is unlikely to work very well for single applications. An entire distribution, though, is slightly different, because the number of users is potentially much, much greater than the number of users for, say, a web server or database app.

Canonical provides support for Ubuntu, but more importantly we provide support for companies that provide support for Ubuntu. The idea is to create an ecosystem of people who collaborate on the free software. You can see the beginnings of that ecosystem on this page of Ubuntu service providers, and I hope it will continue grow as fast as it has since Warty hit the streets.

Part of being sustainable is keeping the costs down, so we focus resources on development and support, not marketing or office waste. The guys will tell you I'm a cheap bastard when it comes to the frills (Canonical One doesn't *actually* belong to Canonical :-).

I'd very much like to make the distro project sustainable, because I've never had the privilege to work with such talented guys who work as hard as this team, and they deserve to be rewarded and to know that people appreciate the value they add every day. If it doesn't work utthat way, though, I'm honoured to consider it a gift back to the open source world, which played such a critical role in helping me build Thawte. So I hope it's commerce, though it may turn out to be philanthropy. Either way, it's still cheaper than going back to space, or hooking up with fast planes/boats/women, which I supposed would be Plan B.

my question for Mark
by Recovery1 (217499)\

I'm curious to know how business and individuals have responded to the open source campaign you started. Has there been any interesting success or failures that have encouraged/discouraged your campaign?

I'd also be curious to hear from fellow slashdotters who may be from South Africa. How has his push for open source made inroads in the computer community?

I am interested because I recently find myself in a situation where I will be promoting open source in my own community.

MS: The Go Open Source campaign, which the Shuttleworth Foundation funds together with HP, the CSIR and Canonical, has had a great response in South Africa. I hope it's gone some way towards helping put South Africa at the front of the open source revolution, in terms of getting everyday computer users interested in open source.

Perhaps other countries will run their own Go Open Source campaigns -- they would be welcome to use the TV show we put together, or any of the other ideas like the Freedom League and the Freedom Toaster, or maybe they'll make a bigger deal of Software Freedom Day in September.

I get tons of people stopping me in the street in Cape Town again, but instead of asking "what's weightlessness like" they want to know about Open Source. The answer to both questions? "Liberating" :-)

Was it worth it?
by jmichaelg (148257)

Two questions:

1) Asking you "was it worth it?" is going to get an affirmative answer regardless of how you really feel so let me ask you, what happened on the flight that made the trip worth $20 million?

2) How much would you pay to go up a second time?

MS: I don't know how much space and spaceflight interest you, but for me they've always been areas of great fascination and imagination. Even if you're a believer in reincarnation you have to admit that it makes sense to make the most of this life, and for me that means tackling the biggest and scariest and most audacious projects I can.

Space was like that.

I remember flying into Russia for the first time, into a stunning sunset, and wondering why on earth anyone would want to spend months on a Russian military base fighting bureaucracy and physics to get into orbit. It seemed silly to take a life of certain luxury and put it at risk. But at the same time, I knew that if I didn't make a real effort to do it, I would spend the rest of my life wondering what it's like to feel the power of an orbital launch, see the exquisite beauty of the earth floating in space, and experience the violence of capsule re-entry.

Looking back I can't believe how lucky I've been. That hard year in Russia, with it's on-again off-again negotiations, taught me a lot about patience and strategy. The physical demands of training, together with having to learn conversational and operational Russian as well as the job of being a cosmonaut are unique things for a geek like me to have experienced. I can't imagine another project that would have been as daunting and ultimately as rewarding. I was lucky to be in Star City at the same time as a great crop of cosmonauts and NASA/ESA astronauts were preparing for their own missions, making friends with people who's lives I would otherwise have envied for eternity. I still envy them, but that's because they get to go back regularly :-) I was lucky to get there in time to catch the last Soyuz TM, because the next generation Soyuz, the TMA, has very little hands on requirements from the guy in the right-hand seat. Flying the TM meant I had more opportunity to work with the crew and could take on more responsibility in-flight.

The actual flight itself is such a gift I can well imagine that people will be queuing for sub-orbital flights when they really come onto the market. The sight of the earth from space is breathtaking, and life changing. 3 minutes in space will change your perspective, I guarantee, on the way we treat one another and the world. So imagine ten days in orbit, the first few on the tiny Soyuz, which rotates end-over-end to maintain solar attitude thus giving you the entertaining experience of being both weightless and inside a tumble dryer on slow-motion. Imagine learning to live and work in an environment that is at once dangerous and peaceful. Imagine using a VOIP connection to call your best friends from orbit in between science experiments and time conducting earth observations. It was ten days, but it passed in a blur.

From a shake-your-bones point of view, the re-entry in a Soyuz can't really be beaten. You are coming in at mach 25 when the atmosphere first sucks you in. You see the blackness of space turning a dull red as the heat builds up around your vehicle. The Soyuz is designed to orient itself correctly for re-entry even if it's a dead craft with no attitude control, so you feel the craft swinging around to ensure that the heatshield will take the brunt of it. Then you watch your spacecraft disintegrate and burn up around you, and the G forces build up till you are in the middle of an inferno with the spare hard drives you brought back on your chest weighting a ton, and the Soyuz spinning like a top to try and spread the heat load out evenly on the shield. You watch bolts and other pieces of metal on the outside melt and run liquid across your window before it blisters and blackens. It's an unbelievable display of forces entirely outside of your control wil you, an ant, in the middle of the fireworks display. You know that your survival is totally dependent on the people who put this machine together, that there is nothing you personally can do if it comes apart. It's a hell of a ride.

How much would I pay to fly again? First, I wouldn't simply repeat what I've done before. I would want to take on new challenges, perhaps flying in a different vehicle or with different responsibilities in a Soyuz. And I'd likely want to take the vehicle through a different mission profile -- which would mean that it wouldn't be the sort of trip you can book on Expedia. Like everything, I'd negotiate the best price I could for the project, and deal with the best people for the job, whether that's Burt Rutan or RosAviaKosmos and Energia.

Is $20m affordable? It depends on what you can afford, and what your alternatives are.

Going to space or fixing Earth?
by gspr (602968)\

As an astronaut, you must been drawn to the mysteries of the universe outside our own planet. But as a South African, you must also feel drawn to the problems facing your home continent (I KNOW this sounds very ignorant and Western, and I'm not trying to say "Africa is a place full of problems", I'm just referring to the huge problems that exist for a large portion of the continent).

Do you think space exploration can be justified when so many people here on Earth suffer? And why? This is an important question to me, as I dream of space, and definitely think Mankind should explore all we can. However, I am having a moral problem (which I'm just ignoring at the moment, for the sake of continued dreaming) justifying spending huge amounts of resources when billions of people right here on Earth lack access to clean water, and millions are infected with HIV.

MS: I love Africa much as I think an American loves America -- despite her problems. And yes, there are plenty of problems, they are easier to see than those that face developed countries. But there's more to Africa than Darfur and Zimbabwe, much as there's more to America than McDonalds and Shock-and-Awe. And I can heartily recommend that you take the time to travel to Cape Town, or Zanzibar, or the Ruwenzori or Ethiopian Highlands, and find out for yourself.

What's interesting about Africa is that it presents tremendous opportunity. In 50 years time the 2 billion inhabitants of the continent will, I believe, be in a strong economic position, and geographical position. The continent has everything it needs to survive and thrive, given good leadership, fair treatment by the rest of the trading world, and time. So I'm pretty confident that we will see Africa shed it's image of tragedy and travesty in our lifetime, and replace it with an enviable mix of prosperity and soul.

You ask whether we can justify spaceflight when the world still faces basic problems feeding and educating and employing billions of its people, and when we're busily destroying the homes of thousands of other species with which we share the planet. That's a tough question. The standard answer speaks to the way space exploration has changed our world for the better, in every field from materials engineering to food science and geography. But I think the more important answer lies in the fact that much of what's holding the world back is willpower, not resources.

I've seen schools in South Africa that have nothing, yet manage to turn out first class graduates year after year while the school down the road, which is equally poorly funded, doesn't get a single pass. It's the willpower of those staff members that makes the difference. And a big part of willpower is having something to aspire to, something to live for. Space, and man's exploration of the solar system and universe, are extraordinarily powerful motivators. I learned this first hand before I flew, when an old man who had experienced the worst of apartheid through his life hugged me and begged me to take him to space with me, then told me his kids were working extra hard on maths and science so that they too might one day have this opportunity. I hope they do, too.

Common Efforts?
by meggito (516763)

How are the nations of Africa working together to promote technological growth? Are there any common intiatives in place or will there be or are the nations still working independantly instead of building a common infrastructure? Are the current methods succeeding or do you beleive there should be change to the way the continent is approaching their technological challenges whether they are seperate or cooperative.

MS: Unfortunately, there is not enough being done within Africa to make the most of the extraordinary technological changes we've seen over the past few years. Nepad showed some promise, but that appears lost to bureaucracy. I think it will be up to the smaller countries to innovate and lead the way in regulation to attract investment in telecomms and innovation, especially with regard to VOIP, Wi-Max and other breakthrough technologies. I wish I had a more upbeat answer.

The Digital Divide
by Rico_za (702279)

Ubuntu, SchoolTool,Translate.org.za, are some of the projects you support that seem to tackle the digital-divide head-on. Do you have any views or ideas on how to make Internet access cheaper so more people in developing countries can have access to it? More specific, any plans on convincing the South African government that not over-regulating the telecoms industry will be good for everyone?

MS: Whenever there is substantial change in an industry there are opportunities for new leaders to emerge. The global shift to open source is just such an opportunity. I'm really hopeful that South Africa will grab the chance to lead the in the open source revolution. There will be a big shift in IT skills requirements, and any country that takes the initiative now will benefit significantly, from investment, outsourcing and internal efficiencies.

I'll answer the telecoms part of your question along with the next one.

Internet Access in South Africa
by kobus (544780)

Hi Mark,

This is a question combo suggestion.

I'm a programmer from South Africa, working in the Bay Area.

I had dialup Internet in South Africa already in 1994. However since then not much has changed. In fact Internet access is appalling. Its very expensive compared to the average income of middle class, and ISDN or ADSL is just too expensive and at the same time pathetically slow.

Internet access is really holding our country back! I believe it is critical to schools and families to have access to better Internet.

As a South African entrepreneur and someone who is successful in the IT world, have you ever given this problem any thought, or considered starting an initiative to provide better access to the Internet?

MS: Clearly, with one of the world's most expensive and profitable telecom monopolies still firmly entrenched in South Africa, we need to act firmly. Last year the South African government took some big steps towards deregulation, then they de-fanged those initiatives at the last minute. I expect there is ongoing debate internally as to the right plan of action, and unfortunately it's taking a long time for those in favour of bold deregulatory moves to get their point across.

Critical issues in the coming year will be the pricing of international traffic on undersea cables, which continues to be a very secretive monopoly, as well as control and pricing of access to the last-mile copper currently entrusted to Telkom. I certainly hope that SATRA, the SA telecoms regulator, will allow new operators access to existing last-mile copper for a low price, as has been done very successfully in France, where I think the maximum line rental the incumbent operator can charge is around EUR 10.00 per month. In SA, it should be lower. In addition, I'd like to see SATRA selling off international bandwidth that is currently a monopoly in an annual open auction.

In addition, I'd like to see proactive work done on Wi-Max, WiFi and general spectrum liberation to stimulate investment in the possibilities of a wireless broadband world. The opportunity is there, whether or not the regulatory authorities have the skills and the willpower to lead is unknown.

Health care open source?
by mspohr (589790)

I do a lot of work in South Africa and other parts of Africa with health care information systems. There is a pressing need for open source information systems for AIDS treatment and also health system management. The existing proprietary solutions are expensive, not suitable, not customizable, and don't build local capacity.

Would you be willing to branch out from education into health care open source projects? I know people in South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Ethiopia, and other countries who would be willing to participate.

MS: I certainly encourage the use of open source in government wherever possible. And there is in fact a pilot project in the SA ministry of health which turned into an accidental open source success - I say accidental because I don't think the officials in charge realised the potential, but they agreed to let the developers work on that basis and now this small tool is being used in several countries on the continent.

I hope that's an indicator of what the future holds in store.

I don't fund health care work in SA, as a rule, because I want to build the Foundation team steadily over time, and think education is a big enough elephant to swallow first. Once we have a good track record in education (TuxLabs, SchoolTool and other projects are a good start) we can expand to other areas of social entrepreneurship and innovation.

Thanks everyone for these questions -- apologies for taking so long to answer them!

andy753421 links to today's announcement of the official release of KDE 3.4, and writes "Several KDE 3.4 based distributions such as ArkLinux and Kubuntu are soon to follow. Features in the release include built in Text to Speech, a revamped trash system, enhanced PDF support and PC to PC synchronization, as well as a new theme. KDE 3.4 weights in at 6,500+ bug fixes, 1,700+ enhancements, and a grand total of 80,000+ contributions." Reader gotr00t adds a link to the KDE download mirror page . Update: 03/16 20:58 GMT by T : mrevell points out an interview with KDE hacker Aaron Seigo in the latest LugRadio, in which Seigo "dispels various myths about KDE and talks about the desktop environment's future."

Mark Stone writes with a thoughtful look back at the year 2004 in open source, pointing out both major gains and inevitable uncertainties. He writes "2004 stands out as a year in which open source consolidated its position as a valuable and accepted approach to business and technology policy. A less obvious but significant trend underlies all of this: even as open source business models join the mainstream, the open source development model remains a mysterious process on which large technology companies struggle to capitalize. Key issues and developments have played out in four areas: legal, policy, business, and technology." Read on for the rest. Legal

The biggest non-story of the year was SCO's legal efforts. So far SCO has not been able to make substantial headway with a single one of its legal claims, and indeed has suffered a number of significant setbacks in court.

This is certainly good news for Linux and open source. Going back five or six years, clearly one of the major obstacles to widespread adoption of open source software was the uncertain legal status of both the software and the licenses. While this aspect of open source is still an unfinished saga -- more on that shortly -- the inability of SCO, through either legal or PR channels, to undermine Linux gives reason for confidence about the future.

The real story about SCO in 2004 has in fact been the telling of that story. While mainstream media coverage of SCO has varied widely -- sometimes accurate, sometimes resembling coverage of the OJ Simpson trial -- Groklaw has emerged as a steady voice of reason and objectivity adeptly defusing all attempts at "FUD" PR around the case.

2004 has been, especially as an election year, a controversial year for the phenomenon of blogging. Whether blogging will provide a sustainable alternate voice in journalism is very much an open question. A few blog sites, however, have shown what a handful of dedicated individuals can do in the face of much larger, and better funded PR machines. Groklaw is an outstanding example of the positive journalism effect that blogging can have.

The legal front brought other good news for the open source community. Norway's Supreme Court acquitted Jon Johansen, and the Norwegian Economic Crime Unit opted not to appeal the decision. In the United States the Digital Millenium Copyright Act still remains the law of the land, but the Recording Industry Association of America has made little progress in forcing ISPs to disclose the identities of alleged file swappers.

A more troubling legal trend is the shift in debate about the intellectual property status of open source software. The principles behind the "copyleft" approach have gained continued acceptance, and have even been leveraged as an integral part of some business models. The debate now, however, centers more around patents that copyright.

IBM has been out in front of the patent issue. Their open source license was the first to explicitly address patent licensing as an issue above and beyond copyright, and they've taken steps, even recent steps, to see that open source development is unencumbered by patent concerns. IBM is not the only company putting patents in the open source domain. Sun Microsystems recently announced they will make patents available under their recently approved Common Development and Distribution open source license (CDDL).

All of this would seem to be good news for the open source community, especially given that Poland's objections have put a temporary halt to the Europan Union software patent initiative. Appearances can be deceiving, however. IBM is a supporter of software patents. Sun's gesture is in fact intended to create a competitive advantage for OpenSolaris over Linux, since the patent protection Sun offers applies only to work licensed under the CDDL -- in other words, not Linux. In a recent News.com commentary, Bruce Parens said, "So while claiming to make the patents available to open-source developers, Sun can sue folks who work on Linux rather than Solaris."

The biggest patent concern comes from Microsoft. In a speech in Australia, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer claimed that Linux violated more than 200 patents. While this may be more hype -- or hope -- than fact, it does tip Microsoft's hand in terms of what tactics they are willing to use to meet the Linux competitive threat.

Policy

All other things being equal, customers prefer an open system to a closed one, and vendor choice over vendor lock-in. In the IT world in general, and between Windows and Linux in particular, all other things are not equal, which makes platform choice complicated. More and more, however, organizations are seeing Linux as a viable platform choice that

• Lowers up-front licensing fees
• Has the support and backing of significant technology vendors, whether small, medium (Red Hat), or large (IBM, Novell)
• Avoids vendor lock-in at both the platform and application level

These claims are independent of the more controversial claims about improving security and lowering total cost of ownership. 2004 has added an interesting additional element to the mix: the desire of government organizations outside the United States to not be dependent on a large, American technology company whose revenues exceed the gross national product of most nations.

This software declaration of independence has taken several forms. Sometimes it seems simply to be a negotiating tactic to force Microsoft to lower prices. India may be an example.

Sometimes, however, price is not the issue. Munich, for example, committed to making the switch to Linux despite direct lobbying efforts by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. In the case of a high tech country like Germany, this decision is probably influenced by the reluctance to be dependent on an American company guilty of monopoly practices.

The situation in the developing world is somewhat different. Unshackled by significant requirements of backward compatibility, emerging economies like Venezuela's have a chance to make a clean start and avoid what they perceive as the pitfalls and inefficiencies in older IT infrastructures.

The policy approach in China is even more alarming to traditional technology vendors. China clearly does not want to build an economy dependent on outside production or services, whether it's factories or satellite launches. In the software world China has made it clear that it can and will build its own platform and application stack leveraging open source components, if that is what it has to do to maintain control of its software destiny.

Business

The North American market for computer technology has, in many ways, reached the saturation point. A Pentium 4, to say nothing of a 64-bit processor, is already overkill for most office desktop applications. Older versions of the Microsoft Office suite, and older versions of Microsoft Windows, are often quite adequate for business productivity needs. The problem for traditional technology vendors is aggravated by the fact that Linux, Open Office, and other open source software may now be good enough.

On the one hand this accounts for why policy issues and the international technology market have become so important: this is where technology vendors see the biggest opportunity to grow new business. On the other hand, open source is forcing some significant changes in the software market domestically.

The most visible effect of open source has been the commoditization effect. Microsoft, as we've seen, has been forced to acknowledge the competitive impact Linux is having, and to cut prices overseas in response to this competition. Yet even companies like BEA acknowledge that open source will have an increasing commoditizing effect, meaning that they will cede lower levels of the application stack to freely available open source software and seek to add value further up the stack.

The most dramatic concession to commoditization in 2004 has been the announcement that Sun is open sourcing Solaris. Said one Sun executive who asked to remain anonymous, "Do you think we'd be open sourcing Solaris if we had any other way to compete with Linux on price? Of course not."

If anything, the opening of Solaris reinforces that Sun has been unable to find a business model built around Linux. Given that competitors like IBM and HP have, with varying degrees of success, been able to integrate Linux into their business models, one suspects that there are deeper problems at Sun than the opening of Solaris can solve.

The bottom line is that Sun is still trying to compete with, rather than embrace Linux. The CDDL doesn't extend patent protection to anyone working under a different open source License, and the CDDL is incompatible with the GPL, meaning none of the Solaris code can be used to benefit Linux.

This move, of using a license as a competitive tool, is one of the more subtle but more important business trends to emerge from open source in 2004.

The most common approach is a dual-licensing scheme, utilized by Trolltech (for Qt), Sleepycat (for Berkeley DB), MySQL, and newcomer db4objects, among others.

In each case the company makes its core product available under the GPL, or else under a similar viral-type license. Since each of these software products is intended to be embedded within or combined with other software to create a derivative product, companies are forced to make their own product available as open source, or to approach the originating company about separate licensing under proprietary terms.

The result is a very low-cost distribution mechanism for the open source companies, as well as a cheap in-bound sales channel of pre-qualified leads.

Of course, to be able to dual-license, you must have created all the code in question, or have full rights granted to you for all the code in question. Thus this very successful open source business model is incompatible with the open source development model; each of the companies using the dual-license approach does all, or nearly all of their software development in-house.

Technology

What then of the open source development model? Has it enjoyed the growth and widespread acceptance that open source business models have?

Certainly 2004 saw a number of significant releases for open source projects. GIMP 2.0 was finally released, as was Gnome 2.6. Large companies as well as individual projects made strides. IBM announced the release of its Java database, Cloudscape, as open source. Novell released SUSE Enterprise Server 9.

The year's most significant releases were the 2.6 series of Linux kernels, and the 1.0 release of Mono. With 2.6, Linux now has many of the features needed to compete as an enterprise-class server: better multiprocessor support, failover and hot-swap support, better journaling file system support.

Mono is absolutely critical if the open source community is to compete in the application development market. C# and .Net will be important application building blocks for the forseeable future, and Linux and open source need to be viable approaches.

The Debian Project has undergone an interesting evolution in the last year. Long-time Debian users have often complained about the slow pace at which Debian moves, favoring security and stability over feature growth. The result is a very solid server system, but one that, for the end user, often lacks support for advanced hardware.

The solution, which seems so obvious now, is independent distributions that leverage Debian as a base but target the end user with ease-of-use features and hardware-support features that have yet to make it into Debian. Two successful projects heading down this path are Ubuntu, which follows the Gnome approach to usability, and Mepis, which follows the KDE approach to usability. Either distribution will give you an easy install, access to Debian packages and apt-based network updates, but with more advanced hardware support and an improved UI over stock Debian.

By far the biggest development story of the year, however, has been Firefox, the browser component of the Mozilla project.

Timing is everything. Security, privacy, and spyware have become major concerns in 2004. Microsoft has refused to significantly update Internet Explorer (IE) until Longhorn is released, which could be in 2006 (as in "Santa Claus could be real"). The Mozilla Foundation capitalized on this opportunity with a major fundraising blitz for the foundation and PR blitz around Firefox; this included a full-page New York Times ad.

In November, Firefox 1.0 was released, and to date downloads exceed 10 million. Mozilla has raised over $250,000 in its fundraising campaign. While IE's market share still hovers around 90%, Firefox has rapidly grown to 5% market share, and put a dent in IE's market share for the first time in years. Industry analyst Gartner Group has looked at the results of 2004 and declared the browser war open again.

Looking ahead to 2005, it's interesting to ponder the tech sector's differing response to open source business and open source development models. The business models are reasonably well understood and generally accepted now. Not everyone is leveraging open source as a business play, but everyone understands it is one viable strategy to pursue.

On the development side, however, the results of open source continue to confound the establishment. Why did no one see the Firefox phenomenon coming? Equally important, why isn't anyone (AOL) attempting to leverage Firefox's market success and technology advantages?

With Solaris, it's interesting to note that even supporters of OpenSolaris admit it sees no real development savings to opening Solaris; the benefits are all on the marketing side. Ben Rockwood blogs "It's going to take Sun more work to maintain it open source than it will to just leave it closed."

Yes, open source has become mainstream. But that mainstream presence needs to be more than a commodity benefit to companies willing to leverage the results of open source. Will mainstream technology companies figure out how to anticipate and collaborate with open source development as a deep part of their technology strategy? That's a big question that 2005 may answer.

Mark Stone is an open source consultant and freelance writer living in the Sierra Nevada region of Northern California. He can be reached at mark.stone@gmail.com.

linuxbeta writes "Ubuntu Linux is getting ready for their next release of their ultra-popular desktop distribution. Their third milestone was recently released, but you don't have to download it to try it out. Head over to these fresh Ubuntu Linux 5.04 Array 3 (Hoary) screenshots to see what Ubuntu has up its sleeve." And if you haven't looked at OSDir for a while, you might be pleasantly surprised; the thumbnail views make it much easier to navigate.

Jeff writes "Ubuntu is just sweet. For Mac users it is even sweeter, as you can read in this review: it supports hardware like a charm ad now with a live CD out everyone can taste ... sorry, test it." And Chris writes "Gnoppix 0.8.1 now appears to be Ubuntu Linux based. At OSDir, we've got over 50 screenshots of the Gnoppix 0.8.1 release, including the controversial Ubuntu desktop background images." (See this earlier story; the default background images have been changed in Ubuntu proper, so the "controversy" need not keep you up nights.) The Gnoppix version is a very nice Gnome-based live CD, with fewer apps but more polish than most live CDs I've tried. (Note that this is not the same as the official Ubuntu CD, and that the PPC version is not a live CD.)

Mark Shuttleworth isn't one to rest on his laurels. Founder of Thawte Consulting, Shuttleworth has used the wealth generated by Thawte's 1995 sale to Verisign to start a venture capital firm, to further South African science education (and education in general) with his eponymous foundation, to push for the acceptance of open source software in South Africa, and to become the first citizen of an African country to visit space with his 2002 flight to the International Space Station aboard the Russian Soyuz shuttle -- basically, to live life as a Neal Stephenson hero might. His latest project is Ubuntu Linux, a Debian-based distribution designed for ease of use, extensive language support, and thorough cooperation with the larger Debian organization. Mark's agreed to answer questions from Slashdot readers about these projects -- Ubuntu seems to be chief on his mind -- so please add your questions below, one per post (but as many questions as you'd like). We'll forward 10-12 of the best to Mark for his answers, and post them verbatim as soon as they're ready.

Mark Shuttleworth writes "Ubuntu 4.10, 'The Warty Warthog Release,' hit the wire today, with Gnome 2.8, Kernel 2.6 and the very best of Debian in a slick, quick, single-CD install." Read on below for the full announcement, including a link to order shrinkwrapped versions (for X86, AMD64 or PowerPC) free of charge. I'm still waiting on mine to try this out. (Note that Ubuntu is also one of the distros with a screen-by-screen walkthrough available through OSdir's screenshot-tour site.)

"=== Announcing Ubuntu 4.10 'The Warty Warthog Release' ===

The warm-hearted Warthogs of the Warty Team are proud to present the very first release of Ubuntu!

Ubuntu is a new Linux distribution that brings together the extraordinary breadth of Debian with a fast and easy install, regular releases (every six months), a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of security and technical support for every release.

You get a distribution that is:

• absolutely committed to free software, every end-user application on the CD is free software
• 100% free of charge, and the Ubuntu team is committed to keeping Ubuntu free of charge
• security updates for the distribution at no charge for 18 months for any release
• updated to the latest desktop and kernel and infrastructure every six months with a new release
• supports x86, amd64 and ppc processors, with additional ports under way

If you've heard all about Ubuntu and just want to get the install CD or test the Release Candidate Live CD, you can download it here immediately: www.ubuntulinux.org/download/

If you want a shrinkwrapped CD we will gladly ship it to you at no cost. To receive a complimentary copy of the Warty Warthog CD -- or a handful to give to your friends, your school or LUG, register online at: shipit.ubuntulinux.org.

For more information, you can turn to any of the following resources:

Ubuntu Website: www.ubuntulinux.org -- The website contains some basic background on Ubuntu, an overview of the project, information on how to get it, and some documentation for the software.

Ubuntu Wiki: http://wiki.ubuntulinux.org -- The wiki is a shared web space used by the Ubuntu community to develop new ideas for Ubuntu. Anybody is welcome to edit and add to the wiki.

Ubuntu IRC Channel: #ubuntu and on irc.freenode.net. The Ubuntu IRC channel is your best place to start for help and discussion about Ubuntu and the Warty Warthog release. We aim to keep the signal-to-noise ratio as high as possible on that channel, and on all community forums.

Ubuntu Mailing Lists: Ubuntu mailing lists are the heart of our community. In addition to the announcement list, and lists for users and developers of Ubuntu, there are now Ubuntu mailing lists in German, French, Spanish as well as lists devoted to Ubuntu security, news, translators, and the inevitable lighthearted chitchat list ('the Sounder'). To get more information or subscribe, visit lists.ubuntu.com.

Warty Warthog Features:

• Simple and fast Installation. Ubuntu comes on one single CD, with thousands of extra packages available online. The install is optimised for speed and simplicity. Ubuntu has excellent support for laptops (both x86 based and Powerbook / iBook PPC based), and can also be setup in a minimalist server configuration.
• GNOME 2.8: Ubuntu was the first distribution to ship Gnome 2.8, on the day of the 2.8 release. Ubuntu is a great way to try out Gnome 2.8 if you have not already experienced its speed and simplicity.
• Firefox 0.9 (with security patches)
• First-class productivity software Evolution 2.0 and OpenOffice.org 1.1.2
• XFree86 4.3 with improved hardware support

We also worked hard to detect as much hardware as possible, simplifying the X install considerably.

Warty can be installed in a minimalist mode for servers, or in full desktop mode. It works well on laptops and desktops. Warty is secure by design - a key goal was to ensure that Warty was as safe from attack over the internet as possible after a default install.

Thanks to the team of professional and volunteer maintainers who have worked so hard to bring the Warthog to life, and also to our rapidly growing community, who have provided excellent testing and ideas for the future of Ubuntu!

'Ubuntu' is an ancient African word for 'humanity towards others,' and we think it's a perfect name for an open source community project. In that spirit we invite you to join, to contribute and to share Ubuntu with your own community. Our next release, the Hoary Hedgehog, is due in six months' time. You can help to shape it by joining the team and contributing your own expertise. See you at #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net."

Mark Shuttleworth writes "Ubuntu 4.10, 'The Warty Warthog Release,' hit the wire today, with Gnome 2.8, Kernel 2.6 and the very best of Debian in a slick, quick, single-CD install." Read on below for the full announcement, including a link to order shrinkwrapped versions (for X86, AMD64 or PowerPC) free of charge. I'm still waiting on mine to try this out. (Note that Ubuntu is also one of the distros with a screen-by-screen walkthrough available through OSdir's screenshot-tour site.)

"=== Announcing Ubuntu 4.10 'The Warty Warthog Release' ===

The warm-hearted Warthogs of the Warty Team are proud to present the very first release of Ubuntu!

Ubuntu is a new Linux distribution that brings together the extraordinary breadth of Debian with a fast and easy install, regular releases (every six months), a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of security and technical support for every release.

You get a distribution that is:

• absolutely committed to free software, every end-user application on the CD is free software
• 100% free of charge, and the Ubuntu team is committed to keeping Ubuntu free of charge
• security updates for the distribution at no charge for 18 months for any release
• updated to the latest desktop and kernel and infrastructure every six months with a new release
• supports x86, amd64 and ppc processors, with additional ports under way

If you've heard all about Ubuntu and just want to get the install CD or test the Release Candidate Live CD, you can download it here immediately: www.ubuntulinux.org/download/

If you want a shrinkwrapped CD we will gladly ship it to you at no cost. To receive a complimentary copy of the Warty Warthog CD -- or a handful to give to your friends, your school or LUG, register online at: shipit.ubuntulinux.org.

For more information, you can turn to any of the following resources:

Ubuntu Website: www.ubuntulinux.org -- The website contains some basic background on Ubuntu, an overview of the project, information on how to get it, and some documentation for the software.

Ubuntu Wiki: http://wiki.ubuntulinux.org -- The wiki is a shared web space used by the Ubuntu community to develop new ideas for Ubuntu. Anybody is welcome to edit and add to the wiki.

Ubuntu IRC Channel: #ubuntu and on irc.freenode.net. The Ubuntu IRC channel is your best place to start for help and discussion about Ubuntu and the Warty Warthog release. We aim to keep the signal-to-noise ratio as high as possible on that channel, and on all community forums.

Ubuntu Mailing Lists: Ubuntu mailing lists are the heart of our community. In addition to the announcement list, and lists for users and developers of Ubuntu, there are now Ubuntu mailing lists in German, French, Spanish as well as lists devoted to Ubuntu security, news, translators, and the inevitable lighthearted chitchat list ('the Sounder'). To get more information or subscribe, visit lists.ubuntu.com.

Warty Warthog Features:

• Simple and fast Installation. Ubuntu comes on one single CD, with thousands of extra packages available online. The install is optimised for speed and simplicity. Ubuntu has excellent support for laptops (both x86 based and Powerbook / iBook PPC based), and can also be setup in a minimalist server configuration.
• GNOME 2.8: Ubuntu was the first distribution to ship Gnome 2.8, on the day of the 2.8 release. Ubuntu is a great way to try out Gnome 2.8 if you have not already experienced its speed and simplicity.
• Firefox 0.9 (with security patches)
• First-class productivity software Evolution 2.0 and OpenOffice.org 1.1.2
• XFree86 4.3 with improved hardware support

We also worked hard to detect as much hardware as possible, simplifying the X install considerably.

Warty can be installed in a minimalist mode for servers, or in full desktop mode. It works well on laptops and desktops. Warty is secure by design - a key goal was to ensure that Warty was as safe from attack over the internet as possible after a default install.

Thanks to the team of professional and volunteer maintainers who have worked so hard to bring the Warthog to life, and also to our rapidly growing community, who have provided excellent testing and ideas for the future of Ubuntu!

'Ubuntu' is an ancient African word for 'humanity towards others,' and we think it's a perfect name for an open source community project. In that spirit we invite you to join, to contribute and to share Ubuntu with your own community. Our next release, the Hoary Hedgehog, is due in six months' time. You can help to shape it by joining the team and contributing your own expertise. See you at #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net."

Mark Shuttleworth writes "Ubuntu 4.10, 'The Warty Warthog Release,' hit the wire today, with Gnome 2.8, Kernel 2.6 and the very best of Debian in a slick, quick, single-CD install." Read on below for the full announcement, including a link to order shrinkwrapped versions (for X86, AMD64 or PowerPC) free of charge. I'm still waiting on mine to try this out. (Note that Ubuntu is also one of the distros with a screen-by-screen walkthrough available through OSdir's screenshot-tour site.)

"=== Announcing Ubuntu 4.10 'The Warty Warthog Release' ===

The warm-hearted Warthogs of the Warty Team are proud to present the very first release of Ubuntu!

Ubuntu is a new Linux distribution that brings together the extraordinary breadth of Debian with a fast and easy install, regular releases (every six months), a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of security and technical support for every release.

You get a distribution that is:

• absolutely committed to free software, every end-user application on the CD is free software
• 100% free of charge, and the Ubuntu team is committed to keeping Ubuntu free of charge
• security updates for the distribution at no charge for 18 months for any release
• updated to the latest desktop and kernel and infrastructure every six months with a new release
• supports x86, amd64 and ppc processors, with additional ports under way

If you've heard all about Ubuntu and just want to get the install CD or test the Release Candidate Live CD, you can download it here immediately: www.ubuntulinux.org/download/

If you want a shrinkwrapped CD we will gladly ship it to you at no cost. To receive a complimentary copy of the Warty Warthog CD -- or a handful to give to your friends, your school or LUG, register online at: shipit.ubuntulinux.org.

For more information, you can turn to any of the following resources:

Ubuntu Website: www.ubuntulinux.org -- The website contains some basic background on Ubuntu, an overview of the project, information on how to get it, and some documentation for the software.

Ubuntu Wiki: http://wiki.ubuntulinux.org -- The wiki is a shared web space used by the Ubuntu community to develop new ideas for Ubuntu. Anybody is welcome to edit and add to the wiki.

Ubuntu IRC Channel: #ubuntu and on irc.freenode.net. The Ubuntu IRC channel is your best place to start for help and discussion about Ubuntu and the Warty Warthog release. We aim to keep the signal-to-noise ratio as high as possible on that channel, and on all community forums.

Ubuntu Mailing Lists: Ubuntu mailing lists are the heart of our community. In addition to the announcement list, and lists for users and developers of Ubuntu, there are now Ubuntu mailing lists in German, French, Spanish as well as lists devoted to Ubuntu security, news, translators, and the inevitable lighthearted chitchat list ('the Sounder'). To get more information or subscribe, visit lists.ubuntu.com.

Warty Warthog Features:

• Simple and fast Installation. Ubuntu comes on one single CD, with thousands of extra packages available online. The install is optimised for speed and simplicity. Ubuntu has excellent support for laptops (both x86 based and Powerbook / iBook PPC based), and can also be setup in a minimalist server configuration.
• GNOME 2.8: Ubuntu was the first distribution to ship Gnome 2.8, on the day of the 2.8 release. Ubuntu is a great way to try out Gnome 2.8 if you have not already experienced its speed and simplicity.
• Firefox 0.9 (with security patches)
• First-class productivity software Evolution 2.0 and OpenOffice.org 1.1.2
• XFree86 4.3 with improved hardware support

We also worked hard to detect as much hardware as possible, simplifying the X install considerably.

Warty can be installed in a minimalist mode for servers, or in full desktop mode. It works well on laptops and desktops. Warty is secure by design - a key goal was to ensure that Warty was as safe from attack over the internet as possible after a default install.

Thanks to the team of professional and volunteer maintainers who have worked so hard to bring the Warthog to life, and also to our rapidly growing community, who have provided excellent testing and ideas for the future of Ubuntu!

'Ubuntu' is an ancient African word for 'humanity towards others,' and we think it's a perfect name for an open source community project. In that spirit we invite you to join, to contribute and to share Ubuntu with your own community. Our next release, the Hoary Hedgehog, is due in six months' time. You can help to shape it by joining the team and contributing your own expertise. See you at #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net."

Mark Shuttleworth writes "Ubuntu 4.10, 'The Warty Warthog Release,' hit the wire today, with Gnome 2.8, Kernel 2.6 and the very best of Debian in a slick, quick, single-CD install." Read on below for the full announcement, including a link to order shrinkwrapped versions (for X86, AMD64 or PowerPC) free of charge. I'm still waiting on mine to try this out. (Note that Ubuntu is also one of the distros with a screen-by-screen walkthrough available through OSdir's screenshot-tour site.)

"=== Announcing Ubuntu 4.10 'The Warty Warthog Release' ===

The warm-hearted Warthogs of the Warty Team are proud to present the very first release of Ubuntu!

Ubuntu is a new Linux distribution that brings together the extraordinary breadth of Debian with a fast and easy install, regular releases (every six months), a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of security and technical support for every release.

You get a distribution that is:

• absolutely committed to free software, every end-user application on the CD is free software
• 100% free of charge, and the Ubuntu team is committed to keeping Ubuntu free of charge
• security updates for the distribution at no charge for 18 months for any release
• updated to the latest desktop and kernel and infrastructure every six months with a new release
• supports x86, amd64 and ppc processors, with additional ports under way

If you've heard all about Ubuntu and just want to get the install CD or test the Release Candidate Live CD, you can download it here immediately: www.ubuntulinux.org/download/

If you want a shrinkwrapped CD we will gladly ship it to you at no cost. To receive a complimentary copy of the Warty Warthog CD -- or a handful to give to your friends, your school or LUG, register online at: shipit.ubuntulinux.org.

For more information, you can turn to any of the following resources:

Ubuntu Website: www.ubuntulinux.org -- The website contains some basic background on Ubuntu, an overview of the project, information on how to get it, and some documentation for the software.

Ubuntu Wiki: http://wiki.ubuntulinux.org -- The wiki is a shared web space used by the Ubuntu community to develop new ideas for Ubuntu. Anybody is welcome to edit and add to the wiki.

Ubuntu IRC Channel: #ubuntu and on irc.freenode.net. The Ubuntu IRC channel is your best place to start for help and discussion about Ubuntu and the Warty Warthog release. We aim to keep the signal-to-noise ratio as high as possible on that channel, and on all community forums.

Ubuntu Mailing Lists: Ubuntu mailing lists are the heart of our community. In addition to the announcement list, and lists for users and developers of Ubuntu, there are now Ubuntu mailing lists in German, French, Spanish as well as lists devoted to Ubuntu security, news, translators, and the inevitable lighthearted chitchat list ('the Sounder'). To get more information or subscribe, visit lists.ubuntu.com.

Warty Warthog Features:

• Simple and fast Installation. Ubuntu comes on one single CD, with thousands of extra packages available online. The install is optimised for speed and simplicity. Ubuntu has excellent support for laptops (both x86 based and Powerbook / iBook PPC based), and can also be setup in a minimalist server configuration.
• GNOME 2.8: Ubuntu was the first distribution to ship Gnome 2.8, on the day of the 2.8 release. Ubuntu is a great way to try out Gnome 2.8 if you have not already experienced its speed and simplicity.
• Firefox 0.9 (with security patches)
• First-class productivity software Evolution 2.0 and OpenOffice.org 1.1.2
• XFree86 4.3 with improved hardware support

We also worked hard to detect as much hardware as possible, simplifying the X install considerably.

Warty can be installed in a minimalist mode for servers, or in full desktop mode. It works well on laptops and desktops. Warty is secure by design - a key goal was to ensure that Warty was as safe from attack over the internet as possible after a default install.

Thanks to the team of professional and volunteer maintainers who have worked so hard to bring the Warthog to life, and also to our rapidly growing community, who have provided excellent testing and ideas for the future of Ubuntu!

'Ubuntu' is an ancient African word for 'humanity towards others,' and we think it's a perfect name for an open source community project. In that spirit we invite you to join, to contribute and to share Ubuntu with your own community. Our next release, the Hoary Hedgehog, is due in six months' time. You can help to shape it by joining the team and contributing your own expertise. See you at #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net."

Mark Shuttleworth writes "Ubuntu 4.10, 'The Warty Warthog Release,' hit the wire today, with Gnome 2.8, Kernel 2.6 and the very best of Debian in a slick, quick, single-CD install." Read on below for the full announcement, including a link to order shrinkwrapped versions (for X86, AMD64 or PowerPC) free of charge. I'm still waiting on mine to try this out. (Note that Ubuntu is also one of the distros with a screen-by-screen walkthrough available through OSdir's screenshot-tour site.)

"=== Announcing Ubuntu 4.10 'The Warty Warthog Release' ===

The warm-hearted Warthogs of the Warty Team are proud to present the very first release of Ubuntu!

Ubuntu is a new Linux distribution that brings together the extraordinary breadth of Debian with a fast and easy install, regular releases (every six months), a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of security and technical support for every release.

You get a distribution that is:

• absolutely committed to free software, every end-user application on the CD is free software
• 100% free of charge, and the Ubuntu team is committed to keeping Ubuntu free of charge
• security updates for the distribution at no charge for 18 months for any release
• updated to the latest desktop and kernel and infrastructure every six months with a new release
• supports x86, amd64 and ppc processors, with additional ports under way

If you've heard all about Ubuntu and just want to get the install CD or test the Release Candidate Live CD, you can download it here immediately: www.ubuntulinux.org/download/

If you want a shrinkwrapped CD we will gladly ship it to you at no cost. To receive a complimentary copy of the Warty Warthog CD -- or a handful to give to your friends, your school or LUG, register online at: shipit.ubuntulinux.org.

For more information, you can turn to any of the following resources:

Ubuntu Website: www.ubuntulinux.org -- The website contains some basic background on Ubuntu, an overview of the project, information on how to get it, and some documentation for the software.

Ubuntu Wiki: http://wiki.ubuntulinux.org -- The wiki is a shared web space used by the Ubuntu community to develop new ideas for Ubuntu. Anybody is welcome to edit and add to the wiki.

Ubuntu IRC Channel: #ubuntu and on irc.freenode.net. The Ubuntu IRC channel is your best place to start for help and discussion about Ubuntu and the Warty Warthog release. We aim to keep the signal-to-noise ratio as high as possible on that channel, and on all community forums.

Ubuntu Mailing Lists: Ubuntu mailing lists are the heart of our community. In addition to the announcement list, and lists for users and developers of Ubuntu, there are now Ubuntu mailing lists in German, French, Spanish as well as lists devoted to Ubuntu security, news, translators, and the inevitable lighthearted chitchat list ('the Sounder'). To get more information or subscribe, visit lists.ubuntu.com.

Warty Warthog Features:

• Simple and fast Installation. Ubuntu comes on one single CD, with thousands of extra packages available online. The install is optimised for speed and simplicity. Ubuntu has excellent support for laptops (both x86 based and Powerbook / iBook PPC based), and can also be setup in a minimalist server configuration.
• GNOME 2.8: Ubuntu was the first distribution to ship Gnome 2.8, on the day of the 2.8 release. Ubuntu is a great way to try out Gnome 2.8 if you have not already experienced its speed and simplicity.
• Firefox 0.9 (with security patches)
• First-class productivity software Evolution 2.0 and OpenOffice.org 1.1.2
• XFree86 4.3 with improved hardware support

We also worked hard to detect as much hardware as possible, simplifying the X install considerably.

Warty can be installed in a minimalist mode for servers, or in full desktop mode. It works well on laptops and desktops. Warty is secure by design - a key goal was to ensure that Warty was as safe from attack over the internet as possible after a default install.

Thanks to the team of professional and volunteer maintainers who have worked so hard to bring the Warthog to life, and also to our rapidly growing community, who have provided excellent testing and ideas for the future of Ubuntu!

'Ubuntu' is an ancient African word for 'humanity towards others,' and we think it's a perfect name for an open source community project. In that spirit we invite you to join, to contribute and to share Ubuntu with your own community. Our next release, the Hoary Hedgehog, is due in six months' time. You can help to shape it by joining the team and contributing your own expertise. See you at #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net."

Mark Shuttleworth writes "Ubuntu 4.10, 'The Warty Warthog Release,' hit the wire today, with Gnome 2.8, Kernel 2.6 and the very best of Debian in a slick, quick, single-CD install." Read on below for the full announcement, including a link to order shrinkwrapped versions (for X86, AMD64 or PowerPC) free of charge. I'm still waiting on mine to try this out. (Note that Ubuntu is also one of the distros with a screen-by-screen walkthrough available through OSdir's screenshot-tour site.)

"=== Announcing Ubuntu 4.10 'The Warty Warthog Release' ===

The warm-hearted Warthogs of the Warty Team are proud to present the very first release of Ubuntu!

Ubuntu is a new Linux distribution that brings together the extraordinary breadth of Debian with a fast and easy install, regular releases (every six months), a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of security and technical support for every release.

You get a distribution that is:

• absolutely committed to free software, every end-user application on the CD is free software
• 100% free of charge, and the Ubuntu team is committed to keeping Ubuntu free of charge
• security updates for the distribution at no charge for 18 months for any release
• updated to the latest desktop and kernel and infrastructure every six months with a new release
• supports x86, amd64 and ppc processors, with additional ports under way

If you've heard all about Ubuntu and just want to get the install CD or test the Release Candidate Live CD, you can download it here immediately: www.ubuntulinux.org/download/

If you want a shrinkwrapped CD we will gladly ship it to you at no cost. To receive a complimentary copy of the Warty Warthog CD -- or a handful to give to your friends, your school or LUG, register online at: shipit.ubuntulinux.org.

For more information, you can turn to any of the following resources:

Ubuntu Website: www.ubuntulinux.org -- The website contains some basic background on Ubuntu, an overview of the project, information on how to get it, and some documentation for the software.

Ubuntu Wiki: http://wiki.ubuntulinux.org -- The wiki is a shared web space used by the Ubuntu community to develop new ideas for Ubuntu. Anybody is welcome to edit and add to the wiki.

Ubuntu IRC Channel: #ubuntu and on irc.freenode.net. The Ubuntu IRC channel is your best place to start for help and discussion about Ubuntu and the Warty Warthog release. We aim to keep the signal-to-noise ratio as high as possible on that channel, and on all community forums.

Ubuntu Mailing Lists: Ubuntu mailing lists are the heart of our community. In addition to the announcement list, and lists for users and developers of Ubuntu, there are now Ubuntu mailing lists in German, French, Spanish as well as lists devoted to Ubuntu security, news, translators, and the inevitable lighthearted chitchat list ('the Sounder'). To get more information or subscribe, visit lists.ubuntu.com.

Warty Warthog Features:

• Simple and fast Installation. Ubuntu comes on one single CD, with thousands of extra packages available online. The install is optimised for speed and simplicity. Ubuntu has excellent support for laptops (both x86 based and Powerbook / iBook PPC based), and can also be setup in a minimalist server configuration.
• GNOME 2.8: Ubuntu was the first distribution to ship Gnome 2.8, on the day of the 2.8 release. Ubuntu is a great way to try out Gnome 2.8 if you have not already experienced its speed and simplicity.
• Firefox 0.9 (with security patches)
• First-class productivity software Evolution 2.0 and OpenOffice.org 1.1.2
• XFree86 4.3 with improved hardware support

We also worked hard to detect as much hardware as possible, simplifying the X install considerably.

Warty can be installed in a minimalist mode for servers, or in full desktop mode. It works well on laptops and desktops. Warty is secure by design - a key goal was to ensure that Warty was as safe from attack over the internet as possible after a default install.

Thanks to the team of professional and volunteer maintainers who have worked so hard to bring the Warthog to life, and also to our rapidly growing community, who have provided excellent testing and ideas for the future of Ubuntu!

'Ubuntu' is an ancient African word for 'humanity towards others,' and we think it's a perfect name for an open source community project. In that spirit we invite you to join, to contribute and to share Ubuntu with your own community. Our next release, the Hoary Hedgehog, is due in six months' time. You can help to shape it by joining the team and contributing your own expertise. See you at #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net."

JimLynch writes "Pardon me while I pimp one of my own stories. We've got a review of Ubuntu Linux up on ExtremeTech. Check it out. Overall we had quite a positive experience with it, we think it's going to be a good distro as it matures. If you're looking for an easy-to-install debian distro, give it a download." Update: 09/27 23:25 GMT by T : Eugenia writes with another review from USALug, and a 6-page comprehensive Ubuntu preview at OSNews, writing "Gnome's & Ubuntu's release manager Jeff Waugh also had an interesting interview detailing lots of interesting tidbits. The final version of Ubuntu is expected mid-October."

psykelus writes "Ubuntu Linux, a Debian-based distro (formerly flying the flag of 'no-name-yet.com') annouced a preview of their first release (Warty Warthog) earlier today. Ubuntu is the most shiny Debian-based distrobution ever, sporting Gnome 2.8 and an extremely streamlined, mostly automatic installation & configuration process." For a limited time, they're also sending out free disks on request.

psykelus writes "Ubuntu Linux, a Debian-based distro (formerly flying the flag of 'no-name-yet.com') annouced a preview of their first release (Warty Warthog) earlier today. Ubuntu is the most shiny Debian-based distrobution ever, sporting Gnome 2.8 and an extremely streamlined, mostly automatic installation & configuration process." For a limited time, they're also sending out free disks on request.