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Ask Mark Shuttleworth Anything
In addition to founding Canonical Ltd., the Ubuntu Foundation, and funding the Freedom Toaster, Mark Shuttleworth is a space enthusiast. In April 2002 Mark became the second self-funded space tourist and the first African in space. He spent eight days participating in experiments on the International Space Station as part of his $20 million trip. Now he's ready to answer your questions. Ask him anything you like, but please limit yourself to one question per post.
We've seen Linux go from servers to supercomputers to smartphones in a very explosive manner but not as pervasively on the personal computer. What, in your opinion, is the next frontier for Linux and is that frontier part of Canonical's future?
My work here is dung.
Are you interested in colonizing Mars?
#
#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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Once Steam for Linux comes out on Ubuntu, what is the first game you will download and play?
sudo make me a sandwich
I heard a story of you sitting in on a LUG dressed in a Darth Vader mask so people wouldn't recognise you until the end of the talk. Do you find that people treat you very differently now that you are famous, and seeing that a lot of people take exception to the direction you have taken Ubuntu? How do you deal with this, and what steps do you take to make sure you stay grounded in reality?
Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
Dude. Really. WTF?
Windows 8 has been launched and did not receive a very warm welcome from the market so there's another chance for Ubuntu and although Apple's OS X is a nice alternative, Ubuntu would even be better, however when looking 'in the field' (European Enterprise, SME, ) there is so much Windows (custom applications, custom hardware, widely used applications etc etc etc) that the cost and process of replacing those is too complex and too expensive. And as always, end user like evolution, not revolution.
Wouldn't it be better to integratie a CrossOver alike solution (or Crossover) in Ubuntu that allows easier transition from win32//64 to Ubuntu?
"Can entropy be reversed?"
Dude. Really. WTF?
Although it doesn't fully address "WTF?", he has spoken about this in prior interviews:
DM: Ubuntu has adopted a new user interface called Unity. That seems well suited to tablet devices. Is this part of a plan to extend Ubuntu on tablets and other mobile computing and touch-based platforms?
MS: We haven’t said that, and it’s not the right time for me to say any such thing. [Laughs.] But if you look at it, Unity is born of an era where touch is important, and we’ve done quite a bit of work around touch generally and it brings a level of clarity and device-like simplicity to Linux desktops that just hadn’t been there before.
DM: Unity has attracted a fair share of criticism.
MS: Sure, it created something of a storm. The idea for us was we wanted to bring design-led engineering to the Linux desktop so we followed a fairly rigorous process of design. That meant testing assumptions and evaluating each little change on the basis of some realistic test of how people reacted to change. It is a fairly radical shift from where we were previously but we can see a fairly clear roadmap of where we want to get to over the next few months and years and not all of that is evident in the release so far.
[Unity] has raised the bar for usability on the Linux desktop. That’s not to say it’s without its issues. There are some quite definite issues in that first release, but when we did a detailed review of that versus the alternatives, it came out well ahead. It was the right one for us to ship at the time.
My work here is dung.
Hi Mark! It seems based on your blog and other sources that an Ubuntu tablet is definitely planned and should be in the works at least sometime in the next year. When do you think consumers will be able to walk into any decently-sized electronic store and pick up an Ubuntu-based tablet?
"What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Did NASA bitch and whine about your trip on your ISS too, the way they did Dennis Tito (for daring to be a space tourist on a Russian rocket instead of a proper American-Non-Commie-John-Wayne one)?
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Since you like to comment on both government interaction with businesses and seem to be interested in space travel, what is the appropriate level of the government's role in space? Can you define what is too little and what is too far? What, if anything, should each nation regulate? Are nationalistic programs and races good for space travel or should it just all be privatized and given a sort of 'international waters' anything goes freedom?
My work here is dung.
When you made your trip to the ISS in 2002 there were reports that your body had some challenges transitioning into a micro-gravity environment. Many astronauts have similar challenges, can you tell us what physical challenges you encountered, the duration and what if anything did you do to overcome those challenges.
I know some white south africans who became US citizens and to answer your question, no, the politically correct class does not like them very much at all when they self-identify as afro-american. Especially WRT college admissions quotas and such. I lost track of those guys after high school but I assume they're still confusing HR personnel to this day.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
I just wanted to say that I was very excited when I first heard the phrase "Freedom Toaster", but felt sad and let down when I found out that it was actually a CD writer.
Is there any way that toasted bread can be used bring about individual liberty?
Will Ubuntu ever be a certified platform for running Oracle databases?
You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
who do we blame for the Unity UI?
(Insert my standard question for all ask /. tech people)
Describe a hack that you personally participated in that you find cool. Not you paid someone to ... or I once saw someone else ... or you bought something cool that ... I mean traditional hack like "identify problem" "flash of insight in ur brain" "minutes to days of sweat using techie tools" "something cool now exists, lookit". I don't care about the subject as long as its vaguely slashdot style technical and you think its cool and the slashdot audience would think its cool. The coolest hack is not necessarily the biggest or most famous, either. Maybe you have a hobby where you personally programmed the worlds coolest christmas light display on your house, or you handmade a truly elaborate model railroad fully articulated draw bridge, I donno, whatever floats your boat. TLDR just tell your hack story, and make it cool.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
There's a lot of rhetoric bandied about by political figures here at the moment. What do you think would contribute best to the development of South Africa?
One thing I know, and that is that I am ignorant...
Do you feel that Ubuntu might be losing its way amongst the more technical users with some of the decisions that are being made? For example, forcing a beta-level UI onto users for 3 versions of Ubuntu from 11.04-12.04, integrating paid search results from Amazon etc. Linux Mint, which is rapidly growing in popularity, would seem to be a backlash against Unity and is a splintering of Ubuntu (in fact the vast majority of packages are identical to Ubuntu). Do you therefore feel that Ubuntu's popularity has reached its peak and is at risk of stagnating or declining?
SURELY NOT!!!!!
And should world leaders be sent into space (I get the inherent joke) to see how fragile the little blue ball is? We are all one.
Do you think Canonical and Ubuntu will be able to deliver a good user experience without making (or assembling) their own hardware or laptops like Apple?
Linux is a huge success in mobile. Linux is a huge success in servers (and Ubuntu in particular seems to be doing very well in servers, congratulations).
But Linux on the desktop seems to be going nowhere fast as far as market share is concerned.
In your opinion, what would have to happen in order for Linux to start gaining ground in the desktop?
Can you tell me which computer to buy so that Ubuntu upgrades won't break? (arguably the question most people who have been raped by ubuntu upgrade breakages want to ask).
Lots of distributions are moving to systemd. Why not try to merge some of the upstart functionality into systemd, as it looks like a superior design, and use it rather than developing a parallel but incompatible alternative?
Your viewpoint on how Ubuntu and Canonical contributes back to the community notwithstanding, there seems to be a stark difference between the management style of Red Hat and that of Canonical.
The perception raised with Unity is that Canonical has decided to diverge from upstream more and more: this is evident from the problems that the Debian project (which contributes the majority of code to Ubuntu) is facing, as well as GNOME and the dissent with the upcoming signed boot EFI implementations.
Red Hat (and the Fedora project) is trying to prevent the balkanization of Linux userspace with projects like systemd, which only Ubuntu rejects.
Red Hat's business model seems to be very successful, and Canonical, despite it's massive desktop market share, doesn't seem to be able to match it in reputation or revenue. Would you attribute this to Red Hat's deeper involvement in the kernel community and higher technical skills?
How much money you devolved to Debian organisation in the past three years?
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
Over the last several years, Microsoft has done much to close the gap in terms of performance, stability and security. What do you see as Ubuntu/Linux's primary selling points on the desktop now, as opposed to the early years of the Ubuntu project when Windows had significant problems in these areas?
Ubuntu has made decisions that have been less than popular with the Free-software only crowd. Personally, I benefit from these decisions, for example, via easy access to Nvidia and Broadcom drivers on my laptop, but I also see the importance of the other side of the argument. What is your short- and long-term perspective on including restricted drivers and non-free software in Ubuntu? Is your approach simply pragmatic, do you hope to bring long-term change in industry practises by making free software a viable and important desktop platform, or something else entirely? Thanks!
Indeed. I know a white South African who is now a US citizen. He annoys HR guys.
HR: "So, it says here you're African-American."
Him: "Yup."
HR: "...but you're white."
Him: "You never asked my skin color. My parents are South African. I was born in South Africa. I grew up in South Africa. I spent much of my adult life in South Africa. I've since immigrated to the US and am a US citizen. How could I be anything other than African-American?"
HR: "..."
Ask him anything you like, but please limit yourself to one question per post.
What part of one question per post did you not understand?
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
I used Linux for over a decade as my main OS, eventually ending up on Ubuntu. When I started using Linux, it had a reputation for being rock-solid and about as stable as you can possibly get, and I was happy with that. Newer hardware wasn't supported very well, but older hardware support was unparalleled. This was also reflected in the beginning of Ubuntu - I seem to recall you had a push to make sure the hardware on every laptop model was supported as best it could be.
However as the years progressed, I found Linux becoming more and more buggy and unstable. The final straw was when I tried to upgrade Ubuntu, and not only had I lost hardware support for several things, but there were even crashes upon loading the LiveCD installer (this was solid hardware that lasted for a couple more years). I bounced around trying to find the stability from years ago, but never found it. Today, I'm using OS X, which is far more stable than Linux in the last few years I was using it.
What happened?
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
Have you talked with Adobe about bringing the Creative Suite (or parts of it) to Ubuntu? Please don't point to open source alternatives in your answer.
Why did you insist on integrating Amazon searches into the product despite users' concerns and complaints to the contrary? A large body of users including myself consider this to be abhorrent and a step back to the dark ages of sponsored software (remember Bonzi Buddy)?
two parter:
1. Do you think the touch screen interface already the standard on phones and tablets will replace the traditional standard of keyboard & mouse interface on desktops/laptops in the next 5 years, 10 years, 20 years?
2. On a desktop/laptop, do you think a touch screen interface would be as functional/productive/efficient as keyboard & mouse?
thanks
How hard was it to start and run a global Internet company in South Africa? Why certificates?
Why doesn't Ubuntu include Android emulation so people can run their vast catalog of Android apps on their laptop, tablet or the like?
I love Unity, but notice all the work items this cycle are around things KDE already has (Widgets from multiple vendors, compositor performance, File manager isn't onboard, preparing for Wayland). Is the KDE compositor & utilities a better direction for Unity?
Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
While I love desktop Linux as much as the next guy, it's the little bugs crawling here and there that often ruin the experience. What could be done to improve the general quality assurance of Ubuntu and other distributions?
When Red Hat, Suse, etc ... finish it
Now that Ubuntu's kernel & GNU tools run Dalvik, PulseAudio has an AudioFlinger API, and Ubuntu creates its own notification system... if a few other libraries gain some APIs then an Ubuntu tablet would natively run Android applications. This could easily push a native Linux userspace into the mainstream. Do you think it should be done?
Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
Punch a baby in the face, or kick a baby in the face?
...answer the question that's been burning in our minds. Just what is a Shuttle worth?
Does the Serval Project factor into your plans for Ubuntu in the mobile space, and if so, how?
BTW, thanks for funding it. I've been following the project for quite some time, and the strides that have been made in a short time are nothing short of amazing. I've got some crazy ideas about how I might leverage it to build decentralized voting systems, and may be offering you a new way to put that money of yours to good use if things go well.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
FWIW, I was born in Britain and emigrated to the US. When I became a citizen I became an American, not a friggin British-American.
(I guess I should add an "America? Hell Yeah!" and "Love it or leave it" here, although I still have some of my British reserve so I don't really feel that comfortable saying either of those things.)
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
but here goes...is Canonical financially solvent? If it is why did you burn so much good will that you had with the users by allowing the Amazon search which doesn't even have an adult filter that works so that kids can be exposed to inappropriate, in violation of Amazon's own rules which state you have to be 18+ to use their market?
And if Canonical currently isn't in the black, how much will it take to make it a cash positive company? did the Amazon deal bring in enough, or is there gonna have to be MORE ads and MORE revenue making apps baked into Ubuntu to make the company solid financially?
Watch me get modded down for daring not to ask the cutesy ass kissing questions like what are being modded up here, but when one has the head of a company on the horn, and I don't give a damned WHICH company it is, one ought to ask the hard questions and use the opportunity to get some real answers.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Since the Ubuntu project is committed to free software and the freedom entailed by it, I believe that underlying must also be commitment to the freedom of the donation flows which make this development possible. With PayPal and other companies arbitrarily withholding payments, based on competitve interest or government pressure, WordPress and others have taken a big leap forward in accepting Bitcoin for donations, because they have opened themselves up to donations from vast sections of the world left unserved by the traditional payment processors.
With that progress ongoing, what steps is Canonical taking, if any, to engage in the nascent Bitcoin economy?
That may be because Africa, unlike Britain, is a continent. You are, demographically speaking, a European-American.
This comment is fully compliant with RFC 527.