I didn't know this is where Mark Shuttleworth made his fortune:
Quote:
Mr. Shuttleworth decided to start a company called Thawte Consulting (pronounced like “thought”) in 1995 that provided digital certificates, a security mechanism that browsers use to verify the identity of companies. As a 23-year-old, he visited Netscape to promote a broad standard for these certificates. Netscape, then the leading browser maker, bought into it, and Microsoft, which makes the Internet Explorer browser, followed.
As dot-com mania surged, companies became interested in this profitable outfit, based in South Africa. In 1999, VeriSign, which manages a number of Internet infrastructure services, bought Thawte for $575 million. (Mr. Shuttleworth had turned down an offer of $100 million a few months earlier.)
and
Quote:
Ultimately, however, parts of Mr. Shuttleworth’s venture continue to look quixotic. Linux remains rough around the edges, and Canonical’s business model seems more like charity than the next great business story. And even if the open Ubuntu proves a raging success, the operating system will largely be used to reach proprietary online services from Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and others.
“Mark is very genuine and fundamentally believes in open source,” said Matt Asay, a commentator on open-source technology and an executive at the software maker Alfresco. “But I think he’s going to have a crisis of faith at some point.”
I cannot recommend Ubuntu to the average computer user because it is "rough around the edges." But it's an excellent initiative, and I hope Mark can develop a financially sustainable business model.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/business/11ubuntu.html?_r=1
Quote:
Mr. Shuttleworth decided to start a company called Thawte Consulting (pronounced like “thought”) in 1995 that provided digital certificates, a security mechanism that browsers use to verify the identity of companies. As a 23-year-old, he visited Netscape to promote a broad standard for these certificates. Netscape, then the leading browser maker, bought into it, and Microsoft, which makes the Internet Explorer browser, followed.
As dot-com mania surged, companies became interested in this profitable outfit, based in South Africa. In 1999, VeriSign, which manages a number of Internet infrastructure services, bought Thawte for $575 million. (Mr. Shuttleworth had turned down an offer of $100 million a few months earlier.)
and
Quote:
Ultimately, however, parts of Mr. Shuttleworth’s venture continue to look quixotic. Linux remains rough around the edges, and Canonical’s business model seems more like charity than the next great business story. And even if the open Ubuntu proves a raging success, the operating system will largely be used to reach proprietary online services from Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and others.
“Mark is very genuine and fundamentally believes in open source,” said Matt Asay, a commentator on open-source technology and an executive at the software maker Alfresco. “But I think he’s going to have a crisis of faith at some point.”
I cannot recommend Ubuntu to the average computer user because it is "rough around the edges." But it's an excellent initiative, and I hope Mark can develop a financially sustainable business model.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/business/11ubuntu.html?_r=1
