“Mark Shuttleworth has flown into space on a Soyuz TM-34 and founded Thawte Consulting that later sold to Verisign for over USD 500 million, but he is now known most for being the founder and leader of the Ubuntu Linux distribution. In addition to Ubuntu he also established HBD Venture Capital and is involved with several other free software projects. Earlier today we had spoke with Mark Shuttleworth to discuss the latest happenings in the Ubuntu world including Dell shipping Ubuntu PCs, getting open-source drivers from hardware vendors, and what is coming down the road for Ubuntu 7.10.”
Mark: It was very clear to me at the time the deal was announced that the real thrust from Microsoft’s perspective was to try and do an end-run around free software’s continued rate of adoption and growth using intellectual property restrictions. I don’t think that was really clear to everybody else when they first made the announcement.
[tape recorder paused during hyena-like laughing]
Mark: “You need to look into the future and see what is really interesting and then pursue it. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be successful as nothing in life means you’re going to be successful.”
WTF?,
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Edited 2007-05-30 23:37
He’s got a point.
Nothing guarantees that you are going to be successful as a painter or an actor, even if that’s what you want to do. Just do what you like doing, and if success come, that’s good, if not, that’s good too.
Anyone remember the show Dharma and Greg?
It’s not overly new-agey, but there’s a concept called following your bliss – even if you’re not going to be a success to society. Not going to make a ton of money or impress anyone. But doing it for the sake of doing it. Sometimes it can be doing ‘what’s right’
Now this is a bit too philosophical, but I get what Mark’s saying – it’s radical, it’s different – it’s…cool.
Wait…could Dell one day be cool again?
…Nah
Oh wait..IBM did it
oh, *please* show up at the next Dell shareholder meeting and suggest to management that they “follow their bliss”.
I’d pay good money for a front-row seat for THAT one.
Did I say anything for a freaking shareholder company? I said something about actors and painters though.
As long as Mark (or ANYONE else) does not serve a publicly traded company (Canonical is not one AFAIK), let him follow his bliss indeed. Let him use his money the way he wants to. If DELL shareholders have a problem with it, let them go with Red Hat or Novell instead.
So, Adam, please don’t try get to my nerves. Read my comment more carefully, and the way the reply was made. It was a reply to explain a philosophical idea about life, not to delve into today’s capitalistic values.
Thank you Eugenia. Well said, both your original post and the response.
You could try reading my comment more carefully, and realize it was not a reply to your comment. That might help.
Ummm. I was talking about Mark Shuttleworth.
I’m not nearly so naive as to suggest a ceo / public company/corporation do anything remotely similar.
Try reading before commenting.
I hope that was his attitude before he made all that money. It’s a great philosophy to have but most people can’t even consider doing what they find interesting for fear of job security and the like. Having billions behind you makes that risk a little less daunting.
Never the less, I think his point is a good one and to be truly successful there is always going to be an element of risk.
It would be nice to think that someone reading that comment would be spurred to action over an idea that might otherwise been thought of as too fanciful.
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http://www.linuxlaptops.eu
Yeah no fake. Its pretty easy to say that my bliss is to work at game stop when you have a cash reserve to supply you until death for bills and the like.
But when you work at gamestop as your means of income and can’t afford to even hold an apartment then its not so blissful.
btw, I do not work at gamestop
I love how he was all passionate and wordy the whole time, then:
—————————
Phoronix: Out of all of your achievements up to this point, what would you consider the most rewarding?
Mark: Staying unmarried.
Not that hard for a Linux nerd…
(For the touchy ones, that was just a joke)
But probably really difficult for a 33-year-old megamillionaire that went to space and spends his time and money inspiring people to use technology to promote freedom. I bet he does OK… for a Linux nerd.
But pretty damn hard for a 30 year old multimillionaire who isn’t ugly.
I always knew Mark was a smart guy.
I like what Mark is trying to do. He is trying to show people that FOSS is a viable way to make a profit.
Good on Mark and the Ubuntu team for making Linux better.
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Phoronix: Out of all of your achievements up to this point, what would you consider the most rewarding?
Mark: Staying unmarried.
I thought the opposite was true for geeks!
Instead, I would expext something like “Managing to score the sweet room in the corner of my parent’s basement” instead.
see this:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+…