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Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth: Prepare for the Shared Software Tidal Wave

technewsworld.com — "I was poor. I was desperate. I wanted to be on this bandwagon of this Internet thing, and I wanted to find a business that wouldn't require large amounts of bandwidth or large amounts of capital. The key was Linux. It was Linux that let me connect to the Net so I could start soaking up this knowledge," said Mark Shuttleworth.

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schestowitz 1 year 33 days ago, made popular 1 year 32 days ago

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scabbers, on 10/11/2007, -12/+6Space tourist, not explorer.
wolf08, on 10/11/2007, -2/+7I would be interested to hear more about when Shuttleworth was 'poor'
- darkyoshi, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1Well, you know, compared to being a multi-millionaire. And is he "Shuttleworth" because he want's to get on the NASA bandwagon too? :D
- ptFoe, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Poor as in when he hadn't started his internet business in 1995.
- cr1t, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1I don't think he was ever poor, white midldle calss South African more like it.
Slacker1031, on 10/11/2007, -11/+1if he was able to drop 20 million to go to space right out of college, i don't see exactly where he was poor.
- puelocesar, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4please read the text before saying anything.
  
  He got multi-millionaire AFTER selling his company to Verisign
freeb26, on 10/11/2007, -1/+24What I like abut this guy is he believes he can change the world and is doing so in his own way.
GabrielAmes, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11I started using open office a few years ago and never looked back. Open source FTW
pompeydude, on 10/11/2007, -3/+0wow he was poor once cool! i dual boot ubuntu and xp pro
- insanebrain, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1so you have the best and pay to dual boot to crap . .hmmm ..
puelocesar, on 10/11/2007, -1/+24Linux helped him getting multi-millionaire, now he's helping Linux to became much more popular, and, someday who knows, to became mainstream.

That's just a beautiful history :)
theghoul, on 10/11/2007, -9/+5((Shuttleworth >= SteveJobs) > Michael Dell) > BallmerGates^10
DonCarcharo, on 10/11/2007, -16/+7Bill Gates was a self made man. He was a technical genius and a down-right brutal business person. His company single-handedly brought desktop computing to the world.

Steve Jobs knew enough to surround himself with people capable of meeting his incredibly high standards while still managing to bring his products to fruition. His company redefined how we interact with computers and now how we use consumer electronics.

Mark Shuttleworth got rich selling overpriced Internet security certificates and now runs a company who's main product (itself a heavily modified version of someone else's work) has no means of generating revenue. Oh and he dropped $20 million to go to space.

Which one of these three doesn't belong?
- darwin81, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5While I don't know how much of that is true, it sounds like you're just using clever wording to make Shuttleworth look bad.
- bradleyland, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5While Thawte might seem overpriced now, they were a hell of a lot more affordable than VeriSign when they started out. IMO, Thawte started the ball rolling on more competitive certificate signing. Thanks Mark.
  - init100, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I completely agree. I remember when I worked as a web programmer for an internet travel agency in 1999. We were in the process of separating from the parent company, and thus had to get our own web server, and as a part of that, our own SSL certificate. Thawte offered SSL certificates for just around $200, while the market leader, Verisign, charged ten times as much (no, I'm not exaggerating, the price was around $2000).
- ilovenicotine, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4No means of generating revenue? Of course, it's free. If Bill Gates gave you Windows for free would you bitch about him? Retard.
- ronin691, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4"Bill Gates was a self made man..." Excuse me? The Gates family is one of the wealthiest in the state of Washington, worth millions.
  "His company single-handedly brought desktop computing to the world." - False IBM and Compaq made desktop computing available first. Gates simply change a small percentage of the code he wrote for IBM ( OS/2 ), calling it his own. Then intentionally underdeveloped IBM's OS/2 product.
- MicrosoftBob, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"He was a technical genius and a down-right brutal business person. "
  
  I'll concede the second part.
farksucks, on 10/11/2007, -5/+6Shuttleworth made his money through blind luck:

He was friends with a couple of employees at Netscape back in the day, and they included his company as a root ssl certificate authenticated host. Every single penny that Shuttleworth made in his life came from those original inclusions. He also paid kickbacks to his friends at Netscape who included his root certificates in the binaries, and eventually paid the same kickbacks to people at Microsoft for IE.

He didn't even write the code that generated the certs, he just copied it verbatim from public RSA code.
- DonCarcharo, on 10/11/2007, -3/+4My point exactly, though I was dugg down and called a "retard" (excuse the phrase) for saying it. People hate industry icons like Gates and Jobs but at least they've done something to actually make an impact - for better or for worse. Shuttleworth made his cash in a way that's diametrically opposed to the Linux mentality, yet he's deserving of a pedestal because now he gives away an already free product.
  
  Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against the guy and I use Ubuntu, but he's certainly not an icon and I put very little value into anything he says.
  - loopyloopy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4well he's not an American. But how can you say he hasnt made an impact? Whats the most popular Linux distro out there right now?
    
    Gates and Jobs arent technical geniuses but they're good managers with vision. (ok Jobs might not be a great people person, but he knew how to build up a company and market a product.. but i digress) Thats where the value is here. And this guy didnt use his cash to just live large.
  - coder_cotton, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1I'll give you Jobs, but Gates not a technical genius? The guy is a walking windows codebase...
    - init100, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1And the Windows codebase is a result of a genius at work? Excuse me while I go and laugh.
- fires, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7Luck definitely plays a large role in what is sometimes called lottery deals, but luck is definitely not enough. Someone still had to have the initial idea and vision and get off his butt and start doing something.
  
  To imply that Bill Gates made his money just because he's some kind of bohemian genius is also wrong. He was lucky as hell. A lot more than Shuttleworth. IBM made the huge mistake of letting Microsoft create the OS for their computers (they thought the money was in hardware), and the rest is history. Microsoft didn't even have an OS. They ***** IBM and then bought DOS from a friend (Just like all their 'innovations').
  
  But still, to say Gates was just lucky, is obviously wrong, the same with Shuttleworth though.
  - init100, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"and then bought DOS from a friend"
    
    I guess he didn't remain a friend for very long, as he soon found out that Gates were just a middle-man selling it to IBM. He later sued and received one million dollars in a settlement with Microsoft.
- kilps, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2How did he know the people at Netscape so well? He lived in Africa - afaik Netscape is based in the US...
- neondiet, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1
  So ***** what! Wake up and smell the coffee. It's WHO you know in this world and mutual back scratching that gets you on in life; not what you know (or think you know). The sooner you learn that lesson the better. To really excel (and make the big bucks) it's best if you can combine both; but failing that your network will open more doors for you in life than your competence.
  
  Sucks hey, but it's true!
mayonaise15, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Is it just me, or does XEROX PARC never get the props they deserve?
PierceUK, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Is it me or have i seen this article before somewhere... maybe CNet.......
- squegie, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1You know that digg.com doesnt' actually originate articles? People find an article circulating the net and post it to dig. That article could have been through 5-6 news organizations, in various forms, before it ever gets submitted to the world of digg.
guisar, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I don't think it matters where he got his money- he's using it in a way that's good for the industry. However much he has, he's putting a lot of effort into ensuring Linux is here to stay and raising the level of interest among the general populous. I mean I had to install it and get familiar with it because so many of my students were asking about it.
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Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth: Prepare for the Shared Software Tidal Wave

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