What would you do if you'd made £400m in the last tech boom? Relax and take it easy?
Well, for Mark Shuttleworth, the choice was easy, writes Ben King. After a quick trip to space as an amateur cosmonaut, he went back into computing.
But his choice of projects has been a fascinating one. He launched his own desktop operating system. So instead of a Windows computer or a Mac, you can run your machine on Ubuntu.
Even with those deep pockets, taking on tech industry titans like Microsoft and Apple will be tough. But Shuttleworth is giving his product away for free.
Ubuntu will still do all the basic things you'd want a computer to do, like email, web surfing, music or document writing.
For the technologically minded, it has the advantage of being 'open source' - which means you can plug around in the innards and change it or adapt it as much as your technical ability allows. It's less likely to be attacked by a computer virus.
And for some people, the fact that it's not Windows is enough.
It's not the easiest thing to install - it took me about four hours, which I'm told is far above the average, but still too long. And some things just won't work on Ubuntu, notably computer games.
But it's become something of a phenomenon in the computing world. It's the most popular free operating system around, and even the mighty Google has started using it. It's made its own version of Ubuntu, called, naturally, Goobuntu.
Mark Shuttleworth doesn't do many television interviews, but he gave some of his time to More 4 News. Watch the report here.
> And some things just won't work on Ubuntu, notably computer games.
Correction: computer games designed and built for Windows won't work on Ubuntu. Same as computer games designed and built for GNU/Linux won't work on Windows.
Posted by: Daniel | Thursday, 10 August 2006 at 12:01 AM
I put Ubuntu 6.06 in a portable. It took me (with openoffice as office suite, firefox as navigator; konqueror as other navigator; thunderbir and evolution as mail suites; anti-spam; and oher thousand proggramm) exactly 12 minute. And the installer found the ip address... And in these 12 minutes I also include the download and installation of Flash that not is in the DVD because of copyrights.
Posted by: flexarorion | Thursday, 10 August 2006 at 05:16 AM
No offense, but if it took you 4 hours to install Ubuntu then you're doing something wrong all together. Ubuntu Dapper 6.06 took less that 30 minutes to install for me. The previous version took less than an hour. Those were from scratch installs, not upgrades.
Posted by: Wil | Thursday, 10 August 2006 at 05:41 AM
It's good to see Linux getting some exposure, but I have to quickly say: it's completely false to say that computer games "won't work" on Ubuntu. There are Linux versions of quite a few commercial games, as well as a bunch of free ones, some better than others. Things could be better, but it's definitely possible to enjoy yourself while using Ubuntu.
Posted by: Simon | Thursday, 10 August 2006 at 05:55 AM
Thanks for the replies. As you say, there are some computer games that work on Linux, but the vast majority of computer games, including all the big titles, are designed for Windows and may eventually come out on Mac. But if you buy a Linux PC to play computer games, you'll be disappointed.
As for the four hour install, I was using a high-end graphics card which Ubuntu didn't seem to like. I got an Ubuntu live CD to work fine, but couldn't repeat the trick with the proper install. In the end I got it working with a generic driver, called (if I remember correctly) Vesa.
The key point, though, is this - Unless you're relatively experienced, getting Ubuntu up and working is not going to be easy. Windows is still easier.
Thanks for dropping by, though!
Posted by: Ben King | Thursday, 10 August 2006 at 09:44 AM
Why did the computer weekly editor ask who was supporting it, when just before you showed a shot of the website saying : Dapper 6.06 LTS (long term support)??
Posted by: john | Thursday, 10 August 2006 at 09:53 AM
Thanks to him, we have Ubuntu! A bit of off-topic, well, I am still looking forward to see Edgy Eft in action, this coming October.
Posted by: Keith | Thursday, 10 August 2006 at 10:42 AM
well, I'm not into nix os but I did tried Ubuntu and it was ok, though the whole setup (including getting some files on the net) about a day (slow broadband internet). Aside from a long installation, synaptics was really that easy to understand and actually get the files you want due to different packages for one program. And ubuntu isn't really a beginners linux os, its more for intermidiate users. This are all my own experience and opinions.
Posted by: vace | Thursday, 10 August 2006 at 11:44 AM
Some problems, computer games designed for ubuntu will run in ubuntu, computer games designed for windows will not, and it took me 45 mins then updates to install in a dual boot environment, how it took 4 hours i have no idea.
And yes some things wont work on ubuntu or linux in general, however thats not ubuntu's fault, it's the hardware manufacturers that choose not to support it.
Posted by: nickm | Thursday, 10 August 2006 at 01:21 PM
www.Transgaming.org
windows games work fine on Ubuntu, I play Counter-Strike: Source (with steam installed), Quake 4, Rise of Legends, and F.E.A.R. just to name a few.
Posted by: BenL | Thursday, 10 August 2006 at 02:52 PM
Two things will correct the major complaints about Ubuntu here. First: Windows games. Using Wine, many Windows games will play, and many of those play as well on Ubuntu as they do on Windows. I can personally attest that World of Warcraft does. ;) Second: installation time. It should take about 30-45 minutes for the base install and if you use Automatix getting all the compatibilty and additional helpful applications installed shouldn't take more than 20.
http://www.winehq.com/
http://www.getautomatix.com/
Check 'em out :)
Posted by: elduder | Thursday, 10 August 2006 at 03:25 PM
Simon, you are incorrect. Unreal Tournament, Counter Strike, Quake, and many other games such as Neverwinter Nights all run on linux. And, with the aid of WineX, you can run games without Linux builds.
Posted by: Chris | Thursday, 10 August 2006 at 03:28 PM
I have just installed Simply Mepis which is derived from Ubuntu but with a better, in many people's opinion, desktop manager. Ubuntu's default desktop manager is Gnome, Mepis defaults to KDE. Any way, installing Mepis takes no more than 15 minutes. I have used other distributions of Linux for several years, but Mepis has really impressed me.
Posted by: JustinPassing | Thursday, 10 August 2006 at 04:09 PM
Hi, I'd like to say one thing: your bad install experience reflects one of the problems with an OS that doesn't have 90% market share. Because not as many people use it, vendors often don't ensure that their products get supported right away on Linux, and sometimes downright refuse to disclose information that would make it much easier for developers to use their own resources to add support for hardware, which is arguably a favour to the vendors who sell the hardware. Such is the case with ATI and Nvidia cards, where they release a closed source driver that is not stable enough, and still doesn't support the latest cards as quickly or as well as they are supported on windows. Distributions like Ubuntu rarely ship those drivers on the install CD, but they can be easily installed later. However, the open source drivers that do ship on the CD have to play catch up to support newer hardware, and, to my understanding, need to reverse engineer the hardware support, because ATI and Nvidia don't release the documentation for their hardware. So because of that, newer is unfortunately not always better. Best of luck to you in using Ubuntu though; I currently use ATI's closed source drivers, but I plan on switching from them within the next four months as the open source driver becomes acceptable for my needs.
Posted by: Simon | Thursday, 10 August 2006 at 10:29 PM
Where can you get Ubuntu ? (I thought that was a film with Robin WIlliams).
Posted by: Iain Mchardy | Friday, 11 August 2006 at 10:03 AM
Unfortunately, the video itself it not viewable on Ubuntu itself. Even with the mplayer-plugin & the codecs and all. Interestingly Konqueror comes futher, yet also never reaches the video playing. Its a javascript thingie, i'm sure.
Does it work on Firefox on Windows?
Posted by: Meneer R | Friday, 11 August 2006 at 12:04 PM
Hi,
Iain - that might be Flubber you're thinking of. You can get Ubuntu at www.ubuntu.com.
We've had quite a few Ubuntu users saying it doesn't run in Ubuntu. Are you sure it's not a codec problem?
Ben
Posted by: Ben King | Friday, 11 August 2006 at 01:31 PM
Using ubuntu here, and I managed to see the movie with the mplayer-plugin package.
The guy who said that open source software had no "accountability" or no one to turn to blame (appart from the weird "who can I f**k afterwards" mentality) failed to tell that neither does Microsoft give support for Windows. He, and you, failed to tell that this version of ubuntu would be supported for many years, by Canonical, the Ubuntu Foundation, and other companies.
Posted by: anon | Saturday, 12 August 2006 at 08:51 PM
4 hours... bah... did you spend 3 of them trying to install it on a Commodore 64?
I've used Linux since 2000, and mainly stuck with SuSE (http://www.suse.com/) and still do for all servers. However, on my personal desktops and laptops I use Kubuntu , and am just trying out Ubuntu. The difference being the two main desktop window managers (KDE and Gnome). I've used KDE since 2000, but feel now is the time to really put Gnome thru its paces....
Ubuntu/Kubuntu for desktops 9/10, an alternative for buiness desktops SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (SLED 10).
Respect to Mark for what he's done and doing tho, long live Linux and all its distros
Posted by: El Diablo | Sunday, 20 August 2006 at 11:25 PM
"It's not the easiest thing to install - it took me about four hours, which I'm told is far above the average"
What were you installing it on, a 1980's computer with a tape drive? Jesus, man, it took me all of 1/2 hour with Ubuntu Dapper, the installation was all point and click goodness with a graphical user interface. I've even helped people set up their shitty Windows systems with the superior Ubuntu OS in a dual boot setup in 1/2 hour's time.
"And some things just won't work on Ubuntu, notably computer games"
Because some companies choose to develop CLOSED SOURCE games, document formats, media formats, etc. to FORCE people to use one operating system because it's all about MONEY for some.
This is why I moved AWAY from Windows and MacOSX because I don't want to be using closed source anymore. If I want to use a few games that only run on Windows I can try WINE for free or pay for Cedega or something like it.
Linux would have more games if we didn't have a bunch of companies devoted to developing for CLOSED technology. Consider this: DirectX, is it open source? No? Why not? How do most Windows games work? Via DirectX, right?
Yet if DirectX had an open free alternative (I know, I know, OpenGL) then people could develop even closed source games for an open DirectX alternative and have them work on Linux.
It's all about GREED, MONEY, and POLITICS. Google the list of Microsoft litigation for starters (which is listed on GROKLAW)
I switched to Linux for freedom, and eventually as more companies join up and run Linux more applications and games will be developed for it, it'll just take time.
But first they'll all have to learn to stop worshipping the bea$t.
Posted by: Monkey of Fire | Wednesday, 23 August 2006 at 01:43 AM
"Correction: computer games designed and built for Windows won't work on Ubuntu."
Here's a hint: Don't talk about things that you know NOTHING about. What you said is complete and utter bullshit, and it's quite possible that you know that already.
(I've heard of people from big closed source corporations being paid to spread lies about open source on the internet)
WINE
http://www.winehq.com
WINE is one of many choices in running Windows applications and games on Linux. Check out the popular game PREY and many others, they run well on Linux with WINE and/or Cedega.
Ubuntu IS for beginners and Windows games DO run on Linux, don't listen to the bullshitters who are either stupid, paid to spread lies, or both.
Posted by: Anonymous | Wednesday, 23 August 2006 at 01:48 AM