Mark Shuttleworth: Ubuntu vil gøre fri software til normen

Ubuntu-projektets Mark Shuttleworth skriver i et indlæg om projektets fremtid, at formålet med at lave en brugervenlig GNU/Linux-distribution og gøre den tilgængelig overalt er at gøre fri software til reglen frem for undtagelsen – altså overalt og ikke bare på de mere tekniske områder:

Everyone that I care about in open source has a shared dream: they want free software to become the norm, not the exception. And Ubuntu is the only way I can see for that to happen, which is why I spend all my time on it, and why so many other people spend huge amounts of time on it too.

I simply have zero interest in the crowd who wants to be different. Leet. ‘Linux is supposed to be hard so it’s exclusive’ is just the dumbest thing that a smart person could say. People being people, there are of course smart people who hold that view.

What I’m really interested in is this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a free and open platform that is THE LEADER across both consumer and enterprise computing.

With Ubuntu (and Unity) we have that. It’s amazing. Think about it – unlike years gone by, a free software platform is actually winning awards for innovative leadership in the categories that count: mobile, cloud. Investing your time and energy here might have a truly profound impact on the world. That’s worth digging into. Just roll your eyeballs at the 1337 crowd, roll up your sleeves, find something interesting to improve, and join in. To the extent that you can master a piece, you will get what you want. If you think the grand vision should follow your whims, you won’t.

If we work hard, and work together, Ubuntu will become a widespread platform for phones, tablets and PCs. You’ll have the satisfaction of designing, building and fixing tools that are used every day by millions of people. That’s meaningful. And it’s worth looking hard at our practices to ask the question: how best to achieve that goal? Of those practices, interim releases are just as subject to evaluation and revision as any other.

Du kan læse mere om fri software og Ubuntu her. Det interessante er, at projektet synes at om ikke ligefrem lykkes (proprietære systemer som Windows og Apples OSX er desværre stadig mere udbredte) så dog at omdefinere, hvad det er muligt at gøre med computere i disse år.

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