Sam Varghese
Monday, 15 February 2010 10:47
Opinion and Analysis
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Canonical chief executive Mark Shuttleworth says his creation of the Ubuntu GNU/Linux operating system is not motivated in any way by animosity towards Microsoft.
He was responding to queries from iTWire about
a recent blog post that has claimed Canonical is becoming the new Microsoft.
"I admire many of the things they (Microsoft) have done. I think it is as wrong to demonise the people who work at a company as it is to demonise people of a particular colour, nationality or other demographic," Shuttleworth said.
"I think there are appalling abuses of market dominance that have been perpetrated at Microsoft, and I'm proud of the fact that Ubuntu gives people a real choice between continued serfdom and freedom that is useful, safe and genuine.
"But I'm not here to punish Microsoft, or hate them, I'm here to build a better way, if I can. It will be hard, but we can. And in the cases where we have common cause, I am happy to work with Microsoft. That may be a hard concept for people who think that life is easier to understand if you have an enemy to make your own cause right, but I find that attitude leads to bigotry and bad results, and makes it impossible to get past the wrongs of the past.
The blog post had listed a number of reasons why the writer thought Ubuntu was allegedly becoming the new Microsoft: the inclusion of Mono as a default; the creation of Ubuntu One, a proprietary software repository; removing the GIMP and other applications from Ubuntu; changing the default search engine to Yahoo!; discussion about what proprietary applications should be included in the Ubuntu repositories; and the appointment of Matt Asay as chief operating officer.
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