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Ask Ubuntu Founder (And Astronaut) Mark Shuttleworth
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.
There is genocide occurring in the Sudan, the U.N. is doing what it does best in such circumstances (forming committees and hand-wringing), and you people are worried about freaking Unga Bunga Linux or whatever??!! Unbelievable!
Dude, that's easy.
Any and every ego in the world can copy an existing linux distro, rename it, and proudly announce their own brand new distro.
Doing it from scratch would require actual work, but this is as easy as standing on a giant's shoulders and saying "look how big I am everybody!"
See also Bruce Perens User-linux.
That is so politically incorrect and funny! I would have given you +1, Funny if I had moderator points! :D