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I noticed Mark Shuttleworth will be on the Tech Show on May 31st. This is sure to be a huge show. Any of you guys have any questions? We should get a nice list going here.

That is cool. I don't know a lot about this guy. I'm only a few months into Linux exclusively (Ubuntu being the first distro I really got to work semi-satisfactorily after a few years of screwing around with Linux from time to time - though Ubuntu was too heavy for my old hardware - moved from there to Debian to Slackware ). The ease of use - coupled with it's widespread promotion - I have to believe has probably led many more semi-literate newbies to where I'm at now.

I'm constantly surprised at the veterans who choose it as a system also (I know when my present laptop finally dies, it's what I'll choose). It seems to me though that Ubuntu (and I guess Mark Shuttleworth) doesn't get the credit I would think he deserves for the impact he's made in the existing Linux community. Maybe see what he thinks .

Wally Balljacker wrote:Any of you guys have any questions?

I sure do:

1. Why did you start Ubuntu? At the time there were already hundres of distros in existence, why create yet another one? Did you feel anything was bad about other distros?
2. What's with the shit-brown default desktops on Ubuntu?
3. Why did you choose GNOME as the default desktop for Ubuntu? The fuzz about "Qt not being free software" was solved years ago when Trolltech GPLed Qt.
4. You speak of Ubuntu 6.04 Dapper Drake as the first "enterprise-class" version of Ubuntu, do you include Kubuntu in that saying too?
5. How is KDE prioritized in the Ubuntu project? After all, it does have a larger userbase than GNOME does.
6. What desktop do you personally use and prefer?
7. When will Ubuntu have a graphical installer?
8. Will Ubuntu someday have a control center in the same way that SUSE has YaST and Mandriva has DrakConf?
9. Can we expect better "out of the box" multimedia support in the future?
10. Will Beagle, F-Spot and other applications built with Mono be included in Ubuntu in the future? If not, do you have anything against Mono?
11. What do you see coming for Ubuntu in the future? And what can we expect to see coming from Ubuntu in the near future?
12. Where do you see Linux going in the future?
13. vi or emacs?

Thanks for suggesting some good questions. Obviously this will be a prerecorded interview as Mark is based in London these days. I don't think he wants to do what Rick did the other night. It's understandable.

Patrick wrote:Thanks for suggesting some good questions. Obviously this will be a prerecorded interview as Mark is based in London these days. I don't think he wants to do what Rick did the other night. It's understandable.

Sure no problem, but if he don't have anything against staying up late, it would be cool to have him on live, but of course it's understandable if that is not desireable. And Pat please do grill him about those brown desktops!
Since the new Clearlooks window decoration is blue by default, it would be a good chance for Ubuntu to get rid of that "disburingly brown theme".

Also, maybe you could ask him a little about his background in Linux, and how he got into Free software.

I was just looking over the questions you posted, tsuroerusu, and I think I've read about a few of them, not that it wouldn't hurt to hear them from Mark Shuttleworth. I'm sure the brown thing was going for the earthy look, and you have to admit, pretty much every other desktop out there is blue, so if you want your desktop to stand out and have personality, then it doesn't hurt to pick something else. I'm not saying I'm wild about it, personally I like the way the gnome looks in the new kororaa live cd. But it looks like Ubuntu is going for an orange look next time around. We'll know that before the interview, though.

Number 9 is interesting, but I'd phrase it differently, since one of the core statements of Ubuntu is that they plan to use only free software, so using any of those non-free codecs violates their core statement. Not a bad ideal to strive for, so I don't mind them doing it, but it does seem unfortunate that this choice is forced on users who don't know how to find automatix or add repositories through synaptic. Of course, I guess there aren't many users like that right now, but if Ubuntu were ever preinstalled on a machine, that could cause problems.

Let's see if I can add any more questions...

• 1. Is there any work being done to see Ubuntu preinstalled on machines that are sold through a large (or any) vendor? (Preferably a laptop with open source drivers on the wireless card! I'd preorder that in a heartbeat.)
  
  2. Have you found many hardware manufacturers willing to work with Canonical on supporting their hardware on Ubuntu and linux in general, or do you think that in the future, a greater amount of compliance with Linux Standard Base will convince any hardware manufacturers to provide some level of driver support? (basically in the same vain as the wireless card driver in the first question, maybe video cards, sound cards, mp3 players and the like)
  
  3. I read that Ubuntu plans to include Xubuntu as a full fledged sibling. Thank him for that on behalf of me. (I have an old beige G3 I'm about to install Ubuntu on, and I think I might wait for this release to throw Xubuntu from Dapper Drake on there.) Are there any other plans to support older machines in any other way than using XFCE? (Not that XFCE doesn't do a good job.)
  
  4. How trippy was it in outer space? Are there laws up there? How was the room service up there? Will a version of Ubuntu follow some sort of outer space theme?

That's about all I have tonight.

Vogateer wrote:But it looks like Ubuntu is going for an orange look next time around. We'll know that before the interview, though.

Thanks goodness for that, orange is a nice and warm color, much much much better!

Vogateer wrote:Number 9 is interesting, but I'd phrase it differently, since one of the core statements of Ubuntu is that they plan to use only free software, so using any of those non-free codecs violates their core statement. Not a bad ideal to strive for, so I don't mind them doing it, but it does seem unfortunate that this choice is forced on users who don't know how to find automatix or add repositories through synaptic.

Well, Fuendo was kind enough to make a free mp3 plugin for GStreamer (http://www.fluendo.com/press/releases/PR-2005-05.html) and also release the sourcecode for it under the MIT license. I don't really see why Ubuntu couldn't include that, it would be completely legal to do, and would benefit users.

One of the nice things about Novell's upcoming SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, and even the consumer product called SUSE Linux, is that they will include mp3 playback out of the box, SLED does it by using the Mono-based Banshee music player which uses the Helix engine to playback stuff, and that provides the mp3 stuff, I don't know how it is going to be implemented in SUSE Linux, I guess they will set up amaroK to use the Helix engine by default, or maybe they will do something else, I don't know

Yo Pat, here's few other good ones to throw at Mark:

1. What do you think about MEPIS' decision to base their future versions of Ubuntu?
2. Will Ubuntu do anything to help MEPIS on this?
3. How do you see MEPIS' decision affecting the future of Debian?
4. When MEPIS' transition is complete, what will the difference be between MEPIS and Kubuntu?