Mark Shuttleworth: “Blasting Past” Apple and not Forgetting Windows

Jul 25, 2008

In his keynote at OSCON (O'Reilly Open Source Convention) in Portland (Oregon), Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth talked about his vision of a future Linux.

"The great task in front of us over the next two years is to lift the experience of the Linux desktop from something that is stable and robust and not so pretty, into something that is art," Shuttleworth said. He called to developers to not just emulate Apple but to “blast past” on the design front. He praised the iPhone, saying that it was a “pure software experience”, and pointing out the need for beautiful and elegant software. Having regular release cycles also helped software development he said.

At the same time, Shuttleworth opposed advertising banners in free software, saying: "I don't believe advertising will power free software applications; I think the emerging emphasis on services will help support that."
The Ubuntu founder also went on to talk about competitor Microsoft, calling on developers to pay attention to compatibility with Microsoft's products, even if they don't use them themselves, and that platform tolerance is necessary as many users work on multiple platforms.

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