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.
`----
http://allafrica.com/stories/200712200321.html
Related:
Ubuntu Backer Is One Lucky Guy
,----[ Quote ]
| VeriSign bought Shuttleworth's Thawte, and he went on to found a venture
| capital firm and the Shuttleworth Foundation, which aims to give schools
| low-cost Linux-based computer labs. That prompted him to put $10 million into
| Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, one of the few Linux distributions
| focused on ease of use. "Linux doesn't need to be something that's arcane and
| difficult to use," he says.
`----
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204803059
Shuttleworth: Microsoft Fracturing the Open-Source Community
,----[ Quote ]
| "That's extortion and we should call it what it is," he said. "To say, as
| [Microsoft CEO Steve] Ballmer did, that there is undisclosed balance sheet
| liability, that's just extortion and we should refuse to get drawn into that
| game. On the other side, if Microsoft is concerned about its intellectual
| property, there is no one in the free software community that wants to
| violate anyone's IP. Disclose the patents and we'll fix the code.
| Alternatively, move on."
|
| Microsoft has said it does disclose which patents are being violated, but
| only in one-on-one conversations with vendors. To Shuttleworth, that is not
| disclosure, because patents are public documents.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2167193,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000616
[Mark Shuttleworth Interview]
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is asking people to pay them for patents, but they won't
| say which ones. If a guy walks into a shop and says: "It's an
| unsafe neighbourhood, why don't you pay me 20 bucks and I'll make
| sure you're okay," that's illegal. It's racketeering. What Microsoft
| is doing with intellectual property is exactly the same. It's a great
| company and I have great admiration for it, but this was not a
| well considered position.
|
| So you wouldn't do a deal?
|
| No, absolutely not. But the time will come when the folks at
| Microsoft who have a clear vision for the company as a participant
| in this community, rather than as a hostile antagonist, will win.
`----
http://mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=6672
Survey Says … Linux Desktop Is Ever More Popular
,----[ Quote ]
| The first thing we can say about the Linux desktop in 2007 is that there are
| more users than ever. The Linux Foundation 2006 survey had fewer than 10,000
| people signing in. This year more than 20,000 Linux desktop users reported
| in.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2235654,00.asp
,----[ Quote ]
| Okay, now lets tie this all back in together. Novell claimed several months
| back in a video ad that Desktop Linux users accounted for upwards of
| 30,000,000 different people. That's 30 million. Recent statements made by
| some Novell representatives indicate that they expect there are upwards of
| 50,000,000 Desktop Linux users. Microsoft has never contested the number of
| Desktop Linux users, and if anything the deal Microsoft signed with Novell
| was tacit agreement that Microsoft believed those numbers to be accurate.
`----
http://zerias.blogspot.com/2007/11/desktop-os-vista-vs-linux.html
Linux Users Base More Than doubled Over Last One Year: Survey
,----[ Quote ]
| The number of Linux users has more than doubled over the last one year, says
| a new survey by DesktopLinux.com. The survey also said Ubuntu remains their
| Linux distribution of choice.
`----
http://www.sda-india.com/sda_india/psecom,id,22,site_layout,sdaindia,news,19940,p,0.html
Survey: Desktop Linux use grows
,----[ Quote ]
| DesktopLinux.com, which is a Web site devoted to, obviously, desktop Linux,
| has finished a survey that found more than a doubling of Linux desktop users
| in the past year.
`----
http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/013576.html
Desktop Linux on the Rise, Linux Foundation Reports
,----[ Quote ]
| For starters, almost 20,000 self-selected users filled out this year's survey
| compared with fewer than 10,000 in 2006's survey.
|
| [...]
|
| In those businesses and organizations that have deployed Linux desktops, 39.5
| percent are running Linux on more than half of their machines.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2220549,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594
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