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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.
That's a good name for an astronaut I guess... Too bad the shuttle isn't worth flying...
Give me a job. Please?
... what's a shuttle worth nowadays anyway?
Sorry, couldn't resist. : )
You can't take the sky from me...
Shuttleworth was the second african to visit space.
Dont forget the bravery of starvin' marvin
Who is the blonde?
Since you have an awful lot of money, how does an average joe, such as myself, convince you to simply give me.... oh.... $500k or so?
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
A more important question is: "After putting two hot chicks on the login screen, why did you have to ruin that picture with the dude? Have you considered a Lesbian-based distribution?"
Laws are for people with no friends.
Are there any alliances with the other Debian-based
what is this? 'survivor' or something?
I don't know if you've heard it or not but if you have then I'd like to know the truth of it.
:)
Once upon a time a very bright young lad decided he wanted to work for a young startup in Cape Town. The Internet was getting big and he thought the company was going places. Ultimately he didn't because his parents talked him out of it - too risky, too far to travel, this startup looked dodgy, blah blah blah.
However this career move (or lack thereof) deprived him of the million dollar bonus that you paid to your employees when the sale to Verisign went through since Thawte was the startup! I hear it left his relations with his parents quite strained.
Keep it up with Go OSS and Ubuntu and tell Craig he needs to work harder
--- Hot Shot City is particularly good.