AskMark

Ubuntu Open Week - Ask Mark - Tue, Nov 28, 2006

(log has been checked for spelling and grammar)

[greguti] SABDFL?

  • "self-appointed benevolent dictator for life"

<davmor2> Is launchpad working out the way you hoped it would or does it still need work mark?

  • LP is working out well, though there have certainly been teething problems along the way. We now have our archives, uploads, builds, bugs, translations, and planning handled there. Quite a lot of upstreams are using it too which is super. We are currently working on a proper UI, so when that is released LP will actually look designed rather than grown.

<Zerlinna> Can we expect more paid developers for Kubuntu? If yes, when? Yesterday in the kubuntu session we were informed that there is still only one paid dev, though on linuxtag (May 2006) there was the promise to hire more people from KDE to work on Kubuntu.

  • Yes, I'm sure that some of the new devs we are hiring will be KDE specialists. Many of our core team just happen to use and love Gnome, so it gets a lot of full-time love. I think you'll be amazed to know there are only two folks formally on the gnome desktop team at Canonical - seb128 and dholbach. It's a testament to them how amazingly good the gnome packaging is.

<mattl> How close do you think we are to getting bug #1 resolved?

  • A long way still. Linux only has a tiny market share. Until we are beyond 10%, I think it will be hard to get ISV and consumer electronic manufacturer attention. That said, I think Linux has a good chance to rebalance the ecosystem, especially if we can find a way to keep it free of charge rather than making expensive shrink-wrapped versions of it.

<bclinch> Will Ubuntu ever be shipped to shops, in boxes with user guides, and then be sold like Suse, I think this would be a good step to get more people interested!

  • There are some retail editions, produced by third parties in boxed sets and you can buy official Ubuntu on DVD at Amazon etc. Also, we are now working with more and more retail companies to preinstall Ubuntu on PC's, you'll see a lot of that in 2007.

<whiprush> Are you guys still pursuing Oracle certification for Ubuntu? Does Oracle moving into the "distro business" change any of that?

  • Very good question. Yes, we are still pursuing that, and have every reason to believe that Oracle will do it once a reasonable number of large companies make it clear that Ubuntu is preferable to them over Red Hat and Oracle. However, now that Oracle is themselves a service provider to the Linux OS, they will likely resist certifying new versions of Linux.

    So it is definitely a setback for us. I think it's great that Oracle has entered the linux services game, though I think their chose rip-off-redhat strategy is cute, but ultimately too-clever-by-half. They will end up either forking outright, and making oracle linux, or buying red hat, or just offering services for Ubuntu

<kai[sds] > What are the aspects of Ubuntu you are not satisfied with yet, that need most of the work? (talking about features)

  • Artwork! I'm very happy that we have the beginnings of a strong artwork community team, but we still need a lot of hard work to get done. In addition, I'd like to see us continue to improve our formal hardware testing, so we know where it works, and where it does not, before each release. We need to continue to grow the number of developers to match the number of users, because more users equals more use cases, more bugs, more packages needed.

    Integration with Windows is important, I'd like to see that addressed and then I'd like to see us showing that the free software desktop can really exceed people's expectations. Right now expectations are set by the proprietary platforms. Its a bit like the browser before Firefox 1.5. I hope that Compiz/Beryl will be an amazing environment of innovation for the desktop metaphor and Telepathy/Galago will change people's sense of "connected." We need to show that the amazing integration of apps and the net is really best suited to a free software world, so there is plenty of work to be done yet Smile :-)

<Admiral_Chicago> What has been the hardest part about developing Ubuntu?

  • Maintaining a clear vision despite the unbelievable growth in the community. Ubuntu has grown in user base, in derivatives (ubuntu, kubuntu, xubuntu, edubuntu, ubuntu studio, guadalinex...), but the core dev team has not grown that quickly. Fortunately, we have an amazing community. The growth in that and folks willingness to help shape ubuntu has made the growth possible.

<dotwaffle> How much influence do you have over the development of Ubuntu - ie/ If 90% of the developers were against a feature, would you override?

  • EVERYTHING is a negotiation Smile :-) There are plenty of examples of places I don't get what I think is best. I agitate and push hard in many cases because that's my job - open doors, break down walls, challenge thinking. In some cases, with hindsight, I'm wrong (Nekkid people, anyone?).

    The community processes are often good at fleshing out an idea and looking it from angles one person would never consider. But, at the same time, I think it's useful to have someone who can take a decision that's tough. Ultimately, though, any push comes at a cost, so I use what weight I have very sparingly.

<daxelrod> No one can be the leader of a large software project without running into controversy. What controversial decisions do you feel are actually worth discussing (as opposed to ancient debates over, for example, editors)?

  • Funny you should ask Smile :-) Right now there is a lot of discussion around the use of drivers that are proprietary. We have included such drivers in ubuntu since the very first release, along with firmware, but with the new 3D desktop effects work going on in the Beryl / Compiz communities, we will have a situation where some people will have a very different desktop experience to others. This will to a certain extent depend on the use of proprietary drivers. That's controversial Smile :-) I just blogged some thoughts in this regard, and expect the discussion to continue over the coming days

<oblio> Is Launchpad closed source your protection against other companies - let's not forget Oracle boss Ellison said that Red Hat isn't worth anything because they don't own anything? don't you think that Launchpad is far too customized to be taken away by another company, and it would be better open sourced? more eyes on bugs?

  • Man, I would love to have more eyes on LP bugs Smile :-) Yes, LP is part of what I hope will sustain Ubuntu in the long term. Note that this has nothing to do with locking in people's data. We've said that we will make it possible to get any of your data our without having to screen-scrape. In Rosetta, that's easy because PO files are the lingua-franca of translations. In others, we either have text views of reports which are easy to parse, or are working on xml-rpc interfaces. I would like it to be possible to drive LP entirely through xml-rplc. Both inputting and extracting data.

<mattl> Do you intend to ever have more than one Jono, either by an elaborate and illegal cloning exercise, or more likely by hiring other great people as the community expands?

  • Jono is, of course, unique. Hopefully, everyone at Canonical is open to working with the community and understands how important that is to us. Jono led a very good session at our recent AllHands company meeting, introducing our new business guys to some radical ideas. In this regard and yes, we have hired other guys specifically because of their ability to work well with the community. Matt revell starts RSN to help the marketing team @Canonical grok community ideas.

<jjtoymachine> Any truth to the Ubuntu team working with the Google team to create an OS?

  • I think it's well-known that Googlers use a modded Ubuntu as their dev desktop, there are no master plans behind the scenes beyond that AFAIK.

<Admiral_Chicago> Is Ubuntu considering revisitng their own patent license or how they approach licensing in the wake of Novell / MS?

  • We are certainly looking at ways to strengthen our stand against software patents. We are entirely opposed to them, and its possible we can actively help to prevent their spread, beyond the advocacy we already do. Whether or not the Novell executives who negotiated the recent Novell-MS deal were aware of what was going on, it's entirely obvious that MS is working to establish an IP framework that limits the spread of free Linux.

    It was obvious to many of us the moment the deal was announced that "virtualisation interop" was far less interesting to MS than the patent implications. MS paid Novell a lot of money to stand up on stage and validate their theories about patent licensing and MS will expect a return on their investment Smile :-) So, i was not surprised when Ballmer came out with the statement that "anybody running any Linux other than SUSE has an undisclosed balance sheet liability." What that means, in english, is that anybody who uses any version of Linux other than those that pay MS, are liable to get sued by MS that includes Debian, Gentoo, Ubuntu, Fedora etc. Make no mistake about it, this is a major assault on the key things that have driven the success of Linux. This is why i think its so important to protest the deal and why I think we should find ways to take a stronger public position on patents within Ubuntu.

<Warbo> Do you think Ubuntu might become too big for the Free Software community? Although Ubuntu itself is obviously pushing innovation, do you think other distros with more specific targets and more experimental ideas might go under since people would "Wait for Ubuntu to do it"?

  • That's why folks should fork ubuntu Smile :-) Seriously, I really like it when a group of people says "this is something that's very important to us and its not in ubuntu." Make packages, make a derivative. Hopefully, we can make that process easier over time. Shortly, we will make it easy for people to biuld their own versions of ubuntu packages, and publish those. That will allow teams to collaborate on specific things they think are important or cool. If those things belong in the core, we will figure it out soon enough, based on input from places like the Forums which are a good source of "what people want" for us. Then we can move that into the core. Alternatively, those things might belong in a specialised derivative

<ailean> Why are proprietary drivers okay, but proprietary software such as Adobe Acrobat not?

  • I blogged about exactly this question today Smile :-) Drivers allow free software to shine, they make it POSSIBLE for the free apps to gain traction. It's a somewhat arbitrary line... firmware, drivers, X drivers, FCC-compliant blobs... but after a LOT of discussion, a long time ago, we decided that we wanted to make sure the OS Just Worked with your hardware, and then install only free applications. People really wanted java, but we left it out till it was GPL'd. People today really want Flash, but we don't include it. Hopefully, that's an incentive to people to write free versions of those apps, which is much more feasible than free drivers for undocumented hardware. I do believe we can win over the hardware guys to our cause, but we need to engage with them over time. Drive users to choose hardware that is free-software friendly. Make the case based on security and support rather than ideology. We will get there that way

<greguti> Did you take some time to test the news Windows Vista, and if yes, what's your opinion on it?

  • I ran an early beta of Vista under VMWare, which is not an ideal test environment. I think MS have done a very good job with it. Though I think of course that it might have been better for them to set a more modest set of release goals and actually ship it years ago rather than go through the tortous path they have taken Smile :-) Interestingly, I watched the way MS related to their community. I think they have been studying the free software world and trying to learn about building community. Open bug tackers, classes for beta testers about how to submit really good bug reports, lots of interactive sessions between developers and testers. Very interesting, and kudos to them. We are going to have to raise our game substantially to compete. We are going to have to innovate faster than they can over the next five years. I think it is possible for us to take the desktop by storm, but it won't "just happen."

<levander> Has Canonical been able to make any money off Ubuntu yet? In what ways are Canonical business model for Ubuntu different than other Linux distributions?

  • Yes, we offer 24x7 tech support for Ubuntu from our Montreal office. Mostly, our customers there are using it on servers. Also, we have done some work customising it and now we are starting to work with people who want to use Launchpad commercially too. We are still a long way from breakeven. A lot depends on whether we can convince the major ISV's and IHV's to recognise the benefits of having a free platform they all certify with a company behind it. In terms of difference: (a) We don't have separate "community" and "enterprise" versions (b) We don't charge for the binaries, at all, you can use them free on as many servers and desktops as you want (c) We don't charge for security updates, you get those free too we only charge for services provided by humans on the team.

<ailean> How threatened do you feel by Microsoft? Do they actually have any claim on Ubuntu's code, will any legal threat fail, or does money talk?

  • Interesting question. MS have done some wonderful things for the world. They made software cheap, which is great. They made it standard. They have produced some excellent software and some not-so-excellent software. I think, now that we have the internet, that the free software process is a fundamentally better way of producing software, though.

    I think that free software platforms will innovate faster than proprietary ones. So at a deep level, I think its them that should feel threatened. That said, history shows that a big organisation that can't change fast enough to adapt to changes in its environment and ALWAYS tries to lock the environment down. Look at the RIAA, the members there cannot see a way forward that preserves their profitability, so they are suing their own customers to try to preserve a 70's era analog business model. I think MS is prepared, if worst comes to worst, to sue their own customers in order to protect an 80's era business model, of software licensing. That's dangerous. They are of course also trying to innovate out of the corner, Windows Live is interesting, so is the X-Box, and the Zune. They are all attempts to shift to subscription-based revenues, relationship-based revenues. If they can be successful there, they are less likely to go nuclear, but if not... That's why we can't legitimise their IP dogma now. Why the Novell deal is so treacherous.

<pointwood> Are there plans to make the upgrade process more smooth? Edgy upgrade didn't go well for many people, which often was their own fault, but still :)

  • Yes, the team has an upgrade tool, which is designed to smooth the process. A lot of folks just change the apt/sources.list to point at the new release and hope for the best. That won't work. What we do need is more testing of the upgrade tool with each release and more community contributions to that tool. So - please help out with Edgy->Feisty.

<Spec> Pending legal action, would Ubuntu redirect all of their efforts in extracting "patented" code from the OS?

  • We would certainly do our bit. If anything that Canonical has created infringes someone's patents, we hope they will let us know so we can fix that, or that they will licence the patents for free use with free software. We would also of course coordinate with upstreams working on their part. I do not actually believe that a nuclear patent option will stop linux at all. IBM and others have made it very clear they will use the muscle in their patent portfolios to stop big IT companies from trying that and as for small patent trolls, we can work around any patents they might come up with. While at the same time, the Linux vote is getting stronger and stronger. If we had 50 million users in the USA, we could certainly block dangerous patent legislation.

<stefg> You mentioned more extensive testing as a step to tackle upgrade issues in the future. Who actually is formally doing the testing? What happens with the results? How can I help?

  • Please chat with mvo on #ubuntu-devel.

What do you want for christmas sabdfl? For the man who has everything?

  • My two front teeth Smile :-) Actually, thank-you notes from folks who appreciate ubuntu to the ubuntumembers would be nice. Please don't address them to me - it's the whole community that builds the distro, including doc, translations and artwork. I get a kick from the thank-you's that I do receive, and I know the core devs feel exactly the same way.

<tiagoboldt> Ubuntu is all community driven, and there are lots of volunteers helping. I'm sure that many more would come if there was crystal-clear documentation and How-to's for new people to get their hands dirty in bug reporting, packaging, everything. Is'nt it worth to put some extra energy on teaching everyone how to get inside the community? How to really be useful for Ubuntu?

  • Yes, I think you're right. The doc team is doing AMAZING work. They have really leaped forward in recent months. This open week is designed to welcome new members to the community and there are sessions ... on the Doc Team

<DraxNS> How can one get certified as Ubuntu user/admin?

  • There is an LPI Ubuntu exam. You can take it at any Vue or Prometric site, or at an LPI exam. We will soon announce more formal training courses in some countries. If you know training companies, you can ask them to contact billycina on irc Smile :-) or billy.cina at canonical.com

<lorenzo> Where do the really cool names for Ubuntu releases come from?

  • Dude, I love you. We make them up after a LOT of debate.

Will apt be replaced with something else/better?

  • NEVAH! Well, there are interesting possibilities, like SMART. Apt is not very maintained right now and smart would be an easier codebase to work with. It's also a good candidate for creating collaboration with other distros, like.... OpenSUSE Smile :-) So i'm open to this of course, the Tech Board would have the final say on that one.

<torkiano> What about change Linux kernel or make special version of Ubuntu with OpenSolaris kernel if it is GLP'ed

  • I would like to see Ubuntu-on-OpenSolaris. There are some legal questions, grey areas rather than outright problems. Ideally, the SUN libc and libm would need to be BSD or GPL'd or LGPL'd. Alternatively the glibc would need to be ported but that would leave Solaris apps in a bit of a pickle. If those can be resolved, then yes, I would like to see Ubuntu embrace OpenSolaris. There is a lot of great work in the BSD universe. We should be trying harder to collaborate with NetBSD and FreeBSD for example. If this is an area that interests you, please go ahead and see if you can muster up a team Smile :-)

<neuro_> Three years ago, Ubuntu Linux didn't exist; where do you see Ubuntu in October/November 2009?

  • Hopefully continuing to accelerate the awareness and adoption of Ubuntu. Err, free software Smile :-) I think we have made amazing progress. I'm very proud of the work this community produces, and very happy to be helping to underwrite that. We can change the world so lets keep at it.

<slam> What is your personal motivation behind the projects you started? Why are you doing it?

  • I benefited hugely from the existence of free Linux. That's how I got to build Thawte, it made it possible to build something great from the tip of Africa that could compete with VC-backed US companies. I want to bring that some advantage to desktop users so there's a strong philanthropic case for devoting some of my ill-gotten gains to this project. Also, i think we can make it a commercial success without compromising and making it a RHEL-style proprietary offering, where you have to pay for the privilege and without putting Flash and codecs in either. So I'm challenged by the commercial game and opportunity too.

<LjL> How do you see the future of office suites in Ubuntu? Currently, OpenOffice.org is shipped by default in both Ubuntu and Kubuntu. Would you favor a switch to KOffice in Kubuntu, once it is regarded as "mature enough"? OpenOffice.org is practically the only desktop application in Kubuntu that is not KDE-based.

  • Interesting question. On the one hand, we all benefit hugely from OpenOffice, because it is cross-platform. It has become a real wedge helping people wean themselves off proprietary software. They can run it on Windows, then move to Linux. On the other hand, the project is in dire need of some real community action. I sometimes wish that we had all focused our energy on KOffice and GnomeOffice, because they are both much more agile, much leaner, much faster... much better poster children for what free software apps should feel like. I think the OO.o team are facing a fork in the road. if the KOffice guys can match their MS office interop, then I think KOffice would be a better bet.

<stefg> What's your opinion on MS tightening the license-policy on Vista? Will this help promote Ubuntu, since a lot of people dont't want MS looking over their shoulder every three weeks?

  • Yes, if MS really enforces their licensing of Vista, and makes it impossible to run it without paying for it, this will hugely drive the adoption of desktop linux.

<Seveas> Would you return to space if you had the chance?

  • Well, technically, I have the chance every April and October when a Soyuz goes to the ISS Smile :-) I would love to go up again, it's a huge privilege, but I feel I want to earn that privilege by doing something awesome on the ground. Something noone else can pull off and that's Ubuntu. Also, I am waiting for the possibilities in space to open up for example, a new craft, or the ability to push a Soyuz further or faster than anyone else Smile :-)

<woodwizzle> How about Fluendo's solution to mp3 codecs. They purchased the rights and then made a plugin that can be legally used in lgpl players such as Banshee

  • It's still binary-only, AFAIK, with redistribution issues, so we won't ship that. If I'm wrong, someone please holler! However, we WILL make it very easy for you to activate MP3 support if you can legally do so for example, if you have a patent licence, or for research purposes, or if there are no relevant patents in your jurisdiction.

    • [Seveas] afaik it's open source and they offer free patent licenses to redistributors (free as in gratis)

Will PPC support be discontinued soon?

  • We will make a final decision on PPC for Feisty by the end of next week. If there is sufficient community contribution on this, then the community port can be just as good as a Canonical-supported one. We would keep the builds in place, but not block the release if things failed to build. So if people step up to unblock issues when they occur, then PPC would be on the same footing as it currently is.

Will "but ps3 is ppc" be a valid argument? (asked a few times as well)

  • The extra architecture costs us a lot in terms of testing bandwidth at release time, and figuring out issues like how to deal with the live CD are compicated. If SONY fund Ubuntu-on-PS3 then I guarantee it will happen Smile :-) If not, then its hard to rationalise it on either philanthropic or commercial grounds.

<Sanne> Do you think that the free software community could be an example for other areas of human interaction, to show the benefits of not being primarily money motivated, but cause motivated?

  • Yes. it's not so much money-vs-cause as collaboration and participation. I think this meme will spread to every industry. Commerce will of course continue, salaries get paid, contracts get issued, but people will find a way to express their personal interests as community-owned work like wikipedia.

How can we coax GPU companies to open up? How can we attract game developers and users?

  • First, we have to make them care about the Linux platform. That means - get tens, hundreds of millions of users. Without that, they have no incentive even to spend the money to THINK about this question. Second, we have to show them that they will benefit by being open. That their cost of production will be reduced and their quality will go up. I would like to hear from Intel on their experiences, for example. Third, we have to show them that their competitive position will improve. So, if we push Nvidia users to ATI, and there are lots of users who make buying decisions based on that, then Nvidia will notice and act accordingly. we need to gather leverage, and then use it.

<gip> How many people is actively using Ubuntu today? How is the market share increment now?

  • I think 4-8 million use Ubuntu directly probably double that if you factor in derivatives too.

<gummibaerchen> What about the mysterious "landscape-client"?

  • It's a GPL piece of code that will allow you to get web-based monitoring of your machine, in future, through a service from Canonical. We will encourage other ISV's to extent that GPL client to monitor other aspects of the system, for example, database performance to make it easy to manage large numbers of Ubuntu machines.

<tom56> What are the chances of seing some Ubuntu-branded online services. For instance, a calendar that shows your appointments on every (internet connected) Ubuntu computer you log into, or perhaps some Ubuntu-branded email/webmail?

  • Damn, that's a good idea! I'd like to provide a syncing service, and we do have ubuntu.net so...

<ryeyawn> With Java now under the GPL will Sun's JDK/JRE be included in Fiesty? Also, do you anticipate some of Sun's Java Desktop being included in future releases of Ubuntu?

  • Yes, absolutely, now that SUN has taken that step its just a question of time before Java makes its way to main. I think the core pieces might be there now and it's great that SUN engineers are working to make this possible. There are still some licence blockers (we're missing a few core pieces that aren't free yet), but sun is committed (I believe) to clearing those as fast as possible. We won't move pieces to main till they are free. If you want to help there, I can put you in touch with the right people starting with tmarble Smile :-)

How to deal with the problem of people with Internet connections that cannot be used by Ubuntu by default, when installing the software to enable them would involve having a working Internet connection in the first place?

  • Ndiswrapper-by-default is not something I want to wrap my brain around just now. It's possible and it would be legal, AFAICS. if it were proven stable, then it might be a useful last-ditch plan for WinModems etc. I would like to see PPPOE solved, if anyone else would like to help then please get in touch with me. I believe cjwatson is working on the ability to add drivers at install time, so folks could use a USB drive to add a driver they downloaded using <cough> some other OS</cough>

    • [gnomefreak] Thats what we have them do but im hearing its on alternate cd
    I thought it was on Live CD, but please check with cjwatson (or Colin)

<ToonArmy> What needs to be done to push FOSS software in UK schools today? I have come through schools that have used almost exclusively Microsoft software and other propriatery software solutions, for almost everything. It could save huge amounts of money on licensing etc. and the Vista upgrade looks a scary one for most education establishments.

  • We should not push the "save huge amounts of money" button. instead, we should ask how the govt plans to provide for:
    • - musician pupils - statistics pupils - physics pupils - language pupils - comp sci pupils
    • ..

    The point is that, with free software, we have a HUGE variety of tools for teaching and learning. Really, really wide variety. The equivalent in proprietary software is (a) not possible to find and (b) enormously expensive. Windows+Office is not "it." we have to broaden people's perception about what computers can achieve in learning and show that free software is the only way, really, to deliver all of that

<Bourlotieris> Best and worst moment since Ubuntu project started?

  • Dapper release, and the X update mistake.

<sadiq> Can we learn something from Apple in terms of getting Windows users to 'switch'? What are your views on OS X?

  • I think we can learn a lot from Apple in terms of "what users want." However, we don't want to go down their proprietary road of AAC-hell. OS X is a testament to what is possible with end user experience on UNIX, so lets show that it can be even better even more open.

<amachu> Ubuntu Server, How about comparing/ competing with red-hat clusters?

  • Interesting. There are a lot of scientists that build their own HPC platforms. It would be nice to get enough of them together to work on a REALLY-SCALABLE-BUNTU. HA-clusters are slightly different that is more enterprise-ish. Chat with fabbione, I think he wants to see Ubuntu HA clustering rock.

<jonasj> Let me rephrase my question: If the Nouveau drivers manage to provide working 3D on nvidia cards, would a certain decrease in performance be acceptable to avoid using the nonfree driver by default?

  • Yes. at least, IMO.

<guglielf> A few municipal administrations in Europe are in the process of implementing linux for their infrastructure. How could ubuntu take part in that?

  • We could provide a forum for the specific items they want to collaborate with the community on. Of course they could contract to get commercial support etc with Canonical. So hopefully Ubuntu should represent the best of both worlds to them. If you know folks involved, please encourage them to look more closely at Ubuntu.

<arjun> Debian call themselves 'GNU/Linux'. Why not you guys?

  • We do give appropriate credit to the GNU community both personally (i always make a point of this in presentations and speeches) and on the website etc. I'm not going to get drawn into calling it "GNU/Linux for Human Beings." That's just... silly, and I don't mind you quoting me on that. The FSF and Gnu project have breathed life into the free software movement. We should always credit them with that, but also, remember there's a huge amount that we depend on every day that comes from other parts of the free software community. Look at the amazing work of the Apache Foundation. so to my mind its about giving credit where its due. Debian, FSF, even the much-maligned OSI, Apache, BSD, UNIX... we stand on the shoulders of giants.

<amachu> How satisfied are you with the LoCo Teams ? Few words about them?

  • LoCo teams are an AWESOME part of our community. Often when I visit countries and run into the LoCo teams I'm very humbled by the energy and advocacy they bring. Its an amazing thing, to interact with people face to face and help them learn about this free software thing.

    I never read about Linux in a magazine. Actually, that's not true, I read about it a LOT and online. I just never did anything about it till someone GAVE me a stack of Slackware floppies. That's the power of real-world advocacy. I'd like to figure out how we help the LoCo teams get more organised, give them better materials, help them work with the media, but in general, those that are active are fantastic.

<suzan> What about a some Ubuntu-commercials like the Apple "switch" ones, or some video-contest like the Firefox-flicks? It would be nice to see some Ubuntu users in a video. It's time to show, that linux-users are not only "geeks" and "nerds" anymore. :-)

  • Cool idea! Why not talk to the Ubuntu-Studio guys about that?

<stefg> Why are you taking all the trouble, like competing MS, running a distro and making it big... Wouldn't it be nicer to spent the whole day poolside with a cool drink ?

  • Well, some days.... thing is, it would be boring to do nothing. I've had my time off between projects, and I just get itchy. I start thinking about how the world is changing and how to make it GO FASTER and this is the best thing for me to be doing right now.

07:57   sabdfl  thanks guys
07:57   sabdfl  thank you for the contribution everyone makes to this project
07:57   sabdfl  makes me very proud to be a part of it

MeetingLogs/openweekedgy/AskMark (last edited 2008-08-06 16:59:48 by localhost)