____/ Tony Sivori on Sunday 23 December 2007 20:37 : \____
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> South Africa: Shuttleworth 'Is a Brain to Watch'
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | He sold Thawte for $575m at the height of the dotcom boom, when he was
>> | 26. Some of that went to launch venture capital firm Here Be Dragons
>> to | help other entrepreneurs chase their dreams. He set up the
>> Shuttleworth | Foundation to promote open-source software. Through that
>> foundation and | his own pockets he has pumped millions of rands into
>> the development and | promotion of open-source software in SA as a
>> cheaper alternative to | costly big-name brands.
>
> Roy, I am wondering if you know the answer to this. I assume you have read
> Linus' now rather out of date autobiography, Just for Fun. If not, here is
> the background circumstances. On page 166 (of the paperback edition) Linus
> mentions turning down an offer of $10 Million just to sit - apparently
> with no real duties - on the board of directors of a new Linux distro.
This reminds of of a story that never received the attention it deserved
(Microsoft's other attempts to 'pull and SCO' on Linux).
Andrew Tanenbaum: Operating systems' Mr Reliable
,----[ Quote ]
| Almost 20 years on, what would you say has been MINIX's
| contribution to society?
|
| Well, it has educated hundreds of thousands of students worldwide
| in operating system design. It also led to Linux. I doubt that
| Linus would have written Linux if he hadn't had the MINIX source
| code to study carefully. I think that it will yet show that the
| only way to make a system truly reliable is to make it small
| and modular.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id%3b925218285%3bfp%3b16%3bfpid%3b1
Red Hat still has Alan Cox (questionably or at least arguably the #2 man) and
Ingo Molnar. Linspire brought ESR to its board last year, but he quietly left
some months ago (it wasn't supposed to be known, but I enquired a little).
There is _a lot_ going on behind the scenes -- stuff that people are not aware
of. In fact, finding out the networks of people and companies is what leads to
all these stories. Bear in mind that Mark Shuttleworth has used GNU/Linux for
about a decade. When he launched his modest Ubuntu 4.10 (quite ugly, first
version, but a free CD nonetheless) I installed it, but it was still
noticeably behind SuSE (at the time). Shuttleworth could have gone with KDE
and he in fact still uses KDE quite a lot. He could have spun Ubuntu off RHEL,
I think, which would make it another clone or maybe even a fork.
> All that the unnamed "London entrepreneur" wanted was to be able to attach
> Linus' name as a board member to his new (and in the book, also unnamed)
> distro. Unlike the Red Hat stock IPO, Linus turned it down, as he thought
> it was a bad idea to favor one distro over another.
>
> When I read the book I was wowed at a man who had the strength of
> character to turn down an easy $10 million based on a personal belief.
> Later, on a rereading of the book I became curious about the identity of
> the unnamed London entrepreneur.
>
> It seems probable to me that the unnamed London entrepreneur is Mark
> Shuttleworth. How many other Londoners could there be with their own Linux
> distro, and have $10 Million to spare to hire Linus to a no show job with
> no real responsibilities?
Don't worry about Linus. He lives like a Hollywood star. He doesn't need just
the money.
> Probability is one thing, facts are another. I've Googled, and I don't
> find any obvious hits regarding the identity of the person who offered to
> $10 Million to Linus. So I am wondering if you, or anyone else reading
> this, knows the answer. Who was the London entrepreneur that offered Linus
> $10 Million to sit on the board of a Linux company?
He got Waugh and some of the prominent Debian developers at the end, but having
Linus would have helped his get rid of that "Ubuntu is for n00bs" stereotype.
That's why Linspire wanted ESR on the board (it didn't last long). Did you
know that Kevin Carmony has found a new career? Dating site! It was in the
news last week. So he ruined a Linux distro by doing Ballmer's dirty work and
now he's off to Ubuntu and some 'meat market' business. Someone in Digg once
described his correctly, calling his "a cock".
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | McDonald's Certified Sandwich Engineer (MCSE)
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT GNU/Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
21:00:01 up 13 days, 9:48, 4 users, load average: 1.04, 1.35, 1.65
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