If I have time I'll try t pretty print it. ;-)
sabdf
morning/afternoon/evening all
sorry for my tardiness, schedule-itis
ok! this is a Q&A session
so please fire away
will someone volunteer to act as a secretary and keep track of questions?
Question:
sabdfl
we do already meet with ISV's, and encourage them to port to Linux
they always take a business view of the market opportunity
that's a factor of two things
the raw number of users, and the willingness of those users to pay for software
on the raw number, linux is doing very well
so hardware folks are starting to take notice
but on the ISV front, it's more challenging
many folks are on free software in part because they do not have to pay
there are some niche markets where that's not true - mostly places where Linux was a lower-cost (but not free) alternative to UNIX
like workstations
graphics, CAD, movie animation and effects etc
but for raw consumers, i think the free software community should assume that we are going to have to build our own leaders in each of the major software categories
because, unless something changes and linux users start to be willing to pay for apps, the ISV's are unlikely to port
next?
sabdfl
two separate questions, i'll address them separately
on the quality front, i'm very excited about apport, and really want to credit pitti and the dev team with that infrastructure
we are working to make it something that can be deployed for stable releases as well as development releases
this will give us real stats as to places where apps break the most
and allow us to improve the quality of packages after release on a systematic basis
i'm also really pleased at the community iso testing effort, and the hardware database
those are examples of places people can contribute to ensure that the whole platform works well
and then we are working on per-package testing frameworks
we have to figure out how to make those work well in the whole debian universe too
on the user-friendly desktop mods front, we'll happily bring in work from other distros if it's a genuine improvement
upstream's willingness to consider the patches is of course the acid test
but we would bring something in that upstream was not yet ready for if we were really convinced ourselves
if you think there are items that really should be included, then (a) make sure they are packages byworking with -core-dev or -motu
and (b) participate in the ubuntu dev summit, in person or by voip, to motivate for their inclusion
next question?
Mark, recently you told in an interview "the time for mass consumer sales of Linux on the desktop has not yet come". What do you think, when is the time for linux on the desktop? One year, two years, many more years? On what it will depend how quick the time comes?
sabdfl
before mass consumer sales, we will see targeted niche markets
so, for example, right now workstations are a Linux-heavy market
i think there are some other specific markets that can be targeted
in emerging markets, for example, price is a huge driver
so we see people in brazil, china, africa etc being genuinely interested in linux
not just in linux-before-pirated-windows
and in the west, people have said very loudly they want it, we just need to figure out how to reach JUST those folks, and not accidental windows users
sorry, windows users who accidentally buy linux
next question?
Mark, what do you think about the latest MS 3$ initiative?
clever move
http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=business6_april24_2007
^^^ he gets it
free software is a far better platform for education than the $3 offer
- far more applications, means you can teach many more things with technology, not just word processing and spreadsheets
for example, databases, programming languages, art apps, music, astronomy, statistics... you name it
- source code, means you can learn far more about how that technology works, important for super-star students who will rocket ahead of even their teachers
- localisations, means you can teach in your n indigenous languages
in short, education departments that really care about education have lots of reasons to choose free software rather than the cheap (and usage-limited) windows offer
next question?
sabdfl
yes!
alon with training programs, and training materials
next question?
sabdfl
mc44: the first step will be to make it possible for people to subscribe and get the ability to annotate almost any data in LP, privately
so, for example, private bugs, private specs, private branches
then, we will also host other distributions that are ubuntu derivatives, so we handle all the building and archive management for them
next question?
stuart_: yes, the kubuntu team will expand, but i think kubuntu will always be more independent of canonical, which is in many was a good thing
somethings happen first in ubuntu, because that's where we focus our resources for new releases, other things happen first in kubuntu, because the decisions there are more bottom-up
next question?
sabdfl
i think the current system, of 6-month releases with LTS releases every 2-3 years, will work well
there are no discussions or plans to change that at the moment
next question?
sabdfl
no
there's nothing wrong with the profit motive, unless society lets it run amok
regulation is supposed to ensure that every business has checks and balances
competition does the same
i think it's naive to disregard the value of self-motivated investment
i have no problem with proprietary software - microsoft has every reason to charge me to use software they wrote
but i think the free software community can produce better software
and i choose to use that instead
next question?
sabdfl
4-16 million, my best guess including derivatives is around 10 million
sabdfl next question?
sabdfl
no - i was as surprised as everyone else
a good surprise, though :-)
next question?
sabdfl
quite well I think. i'm seeing a lot of people who are NOT tech specialists talking about linux
and who knows, perhaps ubuntu will shortly be available from your favourite source of PC's!
how do YOU think we're doing on the Bug #1 front?
next question?
sabdfl
i don't think so
xubuntu, as i understand it, is a more specialist environment, so we probably would not fund cd shipments for it
it's hard to justify on either philanthropic or business grounds
though it would be nice at least if you could order xubuntu
next question?
sabdfl
i'd really like to see a free software solution that is comprehensive, stable and fast
i'm pressed with the diversity of options
xen, of course, and kvm and then container-style things like vServer and others
*im*pressed, i should say
now we need those to mature
i hope ubuntu will be a good place for people to test those, as well as a good place for people to run things like vmware if they want
next question?
Question:
sabdfl
ask of course! we haven't sponsored anything like that before, but it is possible
so feel free to make a case for it
next question?
sabdfl
several reasons
first, it's worth pointing out that we fund a huge amount of GPL software development
so LP is not non-free because we don't know any better in general
we've thought about it very carefully
the major reason is that LP is explicitly a short-term, WRONG solution to the problem
the problem is a lack of information flow between projects
the right solution, from an engineering perspective, is a federated, distributed, standards-based approach
where data from bugzilla flows to LP, and into debbugs, and into roundup, and into sourceforge
then everyone uses their preferred tools, and the data just migrates as needed
but, we couldn't wait for that to happen, so we wrote a tool for ubuntu that new how to link to other tools
it's centralised
now, if there were MULTIPLE tools like that, it would divide the eyeballs interested in agregating this information
so, imaging you have a bug, reported in ubuntu, debian, upstream and gentoo
with LP, someone from each community just has to annotate it once, saying "our bug tracker knows about that issue, and we are tracking it as #324342"
if there were multiple LP's, people would have to do that work multiple times
the result would be a mess
you would not have 1 bug number for 1 problem
no more Bug #1!
so that's the major issue
we have released bits of code that we thought WOULD be useful to other communities
either infrastructure stuff (Zope, SQLObject, translation bits etc)
or app stuff
we do have a plan to get to a point where we can GPL it
but that involves a lot of work, and i think it will take time, i don't want anyone to expect it to be free in 2-3 years even
but we're working to that roadmap, and will hopefully get there
next question?
sabdfl
only that i think it's important work, and a good transparent process, and I really hope they come to a result that the community embraces wholeheartedly, even Linus
from the drafts, we're not there yet
i do trust both rms and eben moglen
when v3 is out, we'll take a decision about the code we have copyright in
ultimately, though ubuntu is an aggregated work of hundreds of items under many licences
so that will remain true :-)
next question?
sabdfl
interesting
i admire the WINE effort, hugely
i think it's important
but i don't think that the future of free software lies in running non-free software!
we should definitely discuss it at the UDS, so please come along, and remind me to invite the WINE guys too
next question?
Question:
sabdfl
it would be great if folks running huge data centers adopted ubuntu
alesforce would be awesome
ebay, amazon etc
i think they would have a great experience, save money but still get great support
are you asking becuase you know such a company?
ok, i'll assume so
sabdfl
ah, right
well, the oracle test is one we have to pass, and we will do so eventually
unfortunately, oracle's strategy means they will likely not look at the hard data showing rapid adoption of ubuntu in the wild
because they want to see adoption of Unbreakable Linux (UBL)
i tihnk they could have done UBL around Ubuntu and had a much better result already
but they decided to do it as a RHAT clone
we just have to be patient and keep growing elsewhere
if you know a company that has a large data center, its worth asking them to find a niche area where they can test ubuntu
usually they will do this in low-risk areas
like web farms, or redundant compute farms
and when they have a good experience there, they will often expand their use
and put pressure on the ISV's they deal with to certify the platform
a foot in the door is all it takes
so try to find a low-risk area where they can try it
next question?
Question:
Mark, what do you think about interaction at a level of the governments (Russia & East Europe) for distribution edubuntu. Any plans?
sabdfl
well, Georgia has already done a large program like that
i think Armenia is looking at the same
i do expect others to follow
and we will work with any government that wants consulting and customisation help
next question?
sabdfl
the ubuntu forums and ubuntu wiki are already an amazing resource for users
it's incredible, the knowledge that is encapsulated there
we are also seeing amazing work in the ubuntu question-and-answer tracker
which formalises community support for the platform
and builds a knowledgebase
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu
there is a superb team building there
i'm open to other suggestions too!
next question?
What OS do you use on your PCs at home and at work? Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Debian, etc?
sabdfl
i use ubuntu on my laptop, kubuntu on my desktop, i also have a MacOS PPC machine at home
and i've seen vista running in a virtual machine, but never for very long :-)
next question?
I think we all recognize Canonical ltd.'s importance to the Ubuntu project's continued growth and prosperity, however Canonical remains a mysterious figure to Ubuntu users because it is a private corporation. I'm sure many users of Ubuntu are concerned with Canonical's financials (profit, etc.) and would like to invest (read: buy stock) in the company. Are there any plans to 'go public', if not why?
sabdfl
no plans to go public at this stage, though it's nice to have lots of VC's expressing interest
i don't want to take a short-term view, and the markets ultimately force you into that
it's rare to find public companies that don't have that pressure, or even VC-funded private companies, and right now we have the luxury of having plenty of funding and a long-term mandate to change the economics of the software industry in a profound, philanthropic and commercial way
we are slowly building up a revenue stream in canonical, all of which gets reinvested in ubuntu
my dream is to build something unique: a genuinely free platform, that PAYS FOR ITSELF
that has never existed before, but i believe it can exist, and our goal is to find out
at the same time, canonical and ubuntu are separate entities
other companies are starting to invest in ubuntu too
sometimes via canonical (contracts for development, ports etc)
and sometimes directly (hiring developers and getting them to spend time on ubuntu or kubuntu)
ubuntu is bigger than canonical, and that's a very good thing
it would be nice to have more non-canonical people in the CC and techboard
nobody can buy their way onto those
Question:
sabdfl
that's a very long time, my crystal ball gets all cloudy :-)
right now, the goal is (a) be the best free software desktop possible, and (b) work towards sustainable without licence fees
that's all i can see!
sabdfl next question?
PriceChild I hadn't prepared another question as we've reached the end of the hour already!
sabdfl is it kiko-time?
PriceChild Thanks very much sabdfl
sabdfl kikomatic, you're up
sabdfl thanks everybody, great questions!
