Financial Times,
20/01/2006
So you've made half a billion dollars and you have paid for a trip to space. What on earth do you do next? Some might consider politics, others would sit back and enjoy a life of leisure. But for technology entrepreneur and cosmonaut Mark Shuttleworth the next battle was to take on the might of Microsoft on its core territory - the desktop.
He has developed a complete suite of software for
personal computers that handles everything from the inner workings to
word processing. It is called Ubuntu, named after one of the founding
principles of post-apartheid South Africa, the country where he was
born. In both the Zulu and Xhosa languages, it means "humanity
to others".
The project is based on Linux, the free operating
system written largely by volunteers and widely used by businesses,
governments and other organisations to run servers, the computers
that sit at the heart of networks. Ubuntu is meant to take this
complex but powerful system and make it easy for non-technical people
to use. Hence the project's mission statement - "Linux for human
beings".
Although the technology behind it may be very
different, a computer running Ubuntu looks much like one running
Microsoft's Windows. The interface is based on similar menus, icons
and windows, and users can surf the internet with the popular Firefox
browser, or edit documents and spreadsheets with OpenOffice.
Instead of the largely blue world of Windows XP, Ubuntu is predominantly brown. Some quirky features hint at its African origin, such as the little burst of drumming that rings out when an application opens. Each new version of Ubuntu is known not just by the usual number, but an animal codename, such as Warty Warthog or Breezy Badger.
Less than two years after launch, Ubuntu has
established itself as a favourite among the hundreds of different
Linux-based operating systems. Ubuntu is top by some distance on a
popularity chart for different flavours of Linux compiled by the
website, DistroWatch. Exact numbers are hard to come by, but
estimates put the number of computers running Ubuntu at up to6m and
doubling everyeight months.
Unlike some of the other leading Linux projects,
such as Linspire, Novell and Red Hat, Ubuntu is distributed free.
Users can download it and use it without paying at all, and Mr
Shuttleworth's company, Canonical, will even post a free installation
compact disc to anyone who requests it.
This is possible because of Mr Shuttleworth's vast
fortune. He made $575m (£327m) selling his internet company, Thawte
Consulting, in 1999, and invests about $10m a year in Ubuntu. It is
unlikely to make him any money, at least not for several years.
Canonical sells support and related services for Ubuntu, but Mr
Shuttleworth has no firm idea about when it will make a profit.
He launched the project because he believes he is
in the vanguard of a revolution. "It is very high risk," he
says. "It is not a sensible business model. But shaping the
digital platform of the future is an incredibly interesting position
to be in."
He has certainly created a powerful and effective
desktop software package. From its commitment to freedom to its
quirky public image, Ubuntu has many appealing features and
considerable momentum. However, to continue growing at the current
rate, it will need to expand beyond its existing technology-savvy
base to embrace people with no prior experience of Linux.
Linux consultant and author Tom Adelstein thinks
it is still hard for such people to use. "From a usability point
of view, Ubuntu is ahead of the others, I think. But it is still in
the Linux bag - you have to be computer literate to use it. Microsoft
is still far ahead on that." Likewise, many buyers will be put
off by the fact that a number of programs, notably games, are not
available for Linux systems.
Few of those target users would install an
operating system themselves. So a key stage in Ubuntu's growth will
be persuading PC makers to sell machines with Ubuntu already
installed. Some computer makers already ship PCs with Linux suites
such as Linspire.
Smaller PC makers, competing at the lower end of
the market, are particularly interested in free software, as it helps
them to cut their prices. Small companies account for one-third of
the global market, according to research company IDC, and Mr
Shuttleworth is soon to visit Taiwan to open negotiations with some
of them.
Corporate and government desktops may also be
fertile ground for growth. A survey by Forrester, the research
company, found that 30 per cent of companies in North America are
considering switching some or all of their desktops to Linux.
Among those changing is Google, which has
developed its own version of Ubuntu, called Goobuntu. Mr Shuttleworth
says he is also in talks with the city government in Munich about
creating an edition of Ubuntu for them.
This ability to customise Linux is a big selling
point, and Canonical is developing an easy way for corporations to
design and maintain specific versions of Ubuntu to suit their exact
needs.
Although a stock-market darling such as Google may
seem an excellent reference customer, it has an intense rivalry with
Microsoft so it is keener than average to try alternatives to
Windows. Other organisations will need more convincing reasons to
adopt Ubuntu. Being free is clearly an advantage and Linux advocates
argue that the security and robustness of Linux products are superior
to those of Windows, although these issues are hotly debated.
Mr Shuttleworth has managed to rally one important
group around his standard: developers. Canonical has just 50 staff,
but Ubuntu has attracted many thousands of engineers at partner
companies, as well as volunteers and students, who do most of the
work of extending and improving the software.
The Ubuntu community has a reputation for
friendliness - which is important when you are not being paid. Also,
many developers who dislike the increasing commercialisation of other
Linux projects are attracted by Ubuntu's commitment to remaining
free.
However, selling Ubuntu beyond the circle of geeky
initiates will require a massive marketing and education process, and
even Mr Shuttleworth's deep pockets are no match for the budgets of
Microsoft and Apple. He hopes that the virtues of a free, open
operating system will sell themselves.
"My instinct tells me that free software is
going to be a significant force on the desktop," he says.
"Whether that is an Apple Mac-like force of 3-5 per cent; or
whether that is a Linux in the data centre [on servers] force, that
is 50 per cent and growing really, really fast - I don't know."
With no serious business plan, it would be easy to
dismiss Ubuntu as the plaything of a whimsical hobbyist that will not
go far beyond the geek fraternity. Can a Breezy Badger really be a
serious challenge to a titan like Microsoft?
During his interview with the Financial Times, Mr
Shuttleworth sits across his chair with both legs on the armrest, as
if it were a hammock - not something you imagine Larry Ellison,
Oracle's chief executive, doing.
But he has an impressive record, and you certainly
cannot question his dedication. He is currently on a gruelling
three-week world tour in his private jet, promoting Ubuntu and making
contacts in Croatia, Pakistan, India, China, Indonesia and Kenya.
After that, he plans to "unwind" by meeting other
enthusiasts for free software in, of all places, the war-torn
republic of Sierra Leone.
For some, Mr Shuttleworth just seems to be having
too much fun to be taken seriously. But Linux has surprised many
people before - there is nothing a geek finds more fun than turning a
whole industry on its head.
A STELLAR CAREER
Mark Shuttleworth has no clear idea of when his
new venture will make a profit but, based on his past experience,
tech watchers are treating the project seriously.
*Mark Shuttleworth made his fortune in 1999, when
Thawte Consulting, the company he started in a garage in Cape Town,
was bought by VeriSign for $575m. An e-commerce security company, it
did much to make the explosion of online retailing possible, and its
technology is still widely used today.
*In 2002, he spent $20m to join the Russian space
programme as a cosmonaut, training for a year before blasting off
from a launch pad in Kazakhstan. He was the first African in orbit
and the world's second paying visitor to space.
*After spending some time "sowing my wild
oats and enjoying the world", he decided to put his financial
and intellectual weight into a free software system for the desktop,
Ubuntu. "I was struck by the incredible pace of change in free
software to the desktop. It seemed to me that the key developers in
the free software world had identified the desktop as the next
interesting problem," he says. For him, it was a return tohis
origins, as the technology his first company developed was based on
Linux. "It was only possible for me to build Thawte because of
the existence of Linux," he says.
Copyright (c) Ben King MMVI
REF: https://web.archive.org/web/20101115224130/http://www.benking.co.uk/art/Ubuntu_the_entrepreneur_who_wants_to_give_it_all_away.php
