OSCON 2008: Mark Shuttleworth Says Linux Must Leap Over Apple
Jul. 22nd, 2008 by The VAR Guy
Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical and Ubuntu, delivered the keynote address at OSCON this evening. Here’s a recap of his presentation, which explored how free software can drive innovation — and how the Linux desktop has to become a piece of art that leapfrogs Apple within two years.
Here are some key themes from Shuttleworth:
- Disclosure is what drives innovation. Free software is the ultimate form of disclosure.
- Free software is the scaffolding for innovation as well. When people were rushing to build out Web sites in the 1990s, the fastest way to do it was on Linux and 386. Today, the equivalent is free software in the cloud.
- How can you drive innovation even faster? First, architect for it. Make your platform extensible and embeddable. If you have a cool idea to change the web, you can write an entire browser but that’s not likely to succeed. You can license Internet Explorer, which would be a painful conversation. Or you can write an extension for Firefox.
- Platform tolerance: It’s critical to work with Windows. Free software that works with Linux and Windows is critical because it offers inclusion to those who continue on with Windows.
- Fresh blood: The real innovation comes from people around the core of a project — rather than in the core of an open source project. So you need tools to make sure people can get in, innovate on your platform, then move on easily.
Thoughts on new development processes and methodologies:
- The purpose of methodologies is to harness talent.
- Architect for collaboration and contribution across community
- Don’t create environments that demand permission. Example: Nobody should have to ask for permission and participate in the project.
- Introduce a rhythm or cadence to your projects. Have a pulse across open source, where multiple projects move forward together.
Thoughts on economics:
- Success requires innovation on the business and technology side.
- The demand side is obvious for free software
- But the supply side is trickier: Who pays for the innovation?
- We’re already better than the proprietary world, in that we have multiple suppliers.
- But we need to do better. We need an ecosystem where every component is sustainable.
- He doesn’t see how advertising will fund web-based apps or free software apps over the long haul.
- The emphasis on online services could justify the continued investment in free software.
Linux Desktop: It must become art
- Can we not emulate, but blow past Apple, in terms of delivering a user experience?
- Linux desktop has to be art.
- It’s not a mad crusade. We need beautiful, free software that is art.
- To survive in a Web world, you need something that’s attractive.
- It has to be profoundly usable.
- That’s the challenge for the Linux desktop for the next 2 years.
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Sounds like an ad for KDE4, because realistically that challenge can only be met by KDE4 .. all other projects will not get that far in just 2 years. ( in a “leap over apple” kind of way .. only KDE4 and Qt have the technology in place IMHO )
And I say that as a Ubuntu ( as in Gnome ) user.
The main problem with both gnome and kde is that they insist on having everything. Instead of being content to provide the APIs and good solid desktop experience they have to go out of their way to create apps which are utter tosh. Gnome is a good desktop if you remove evolution and eds just like kde is a good os if you remove kdepim and kmail. It’s utterly incomprehensible that these desktops need to devote such resources to creating incompatible, desktop level integration when the real work needs to go on behind xorg at the user level core.
Until we sort out user data services we can’t do any of the really fancy stuff that would make OSX look like a pig.
@Martin: that’s why in KDE4, we introduced Akonadi which separates groupware storage (mail, calendaring, contacts..) from the UI (kdepim GUI apps). it’s part of the “kdesupport” package meaning it has no kdelibs dependencies.
we also created Phonon so we wouldn’t have to maintain our own media server, Solid so we could integrate with hardware awareness facilities provided by the operating system, Decibel to do the same sort of thing with presence …… …
as for “apps that are utter tosh”, there are people who would disagree with you pretty whole heartedly.
then again, Tom Albers thought kmail wasn’t good enough and so start Mailody .. using Akonadi. how great is that?
bottom line is that we do need to ensure there are apps for all common uses out there, though you seem to carry a misunderstanding of how it works. we don’t, you see, have a fixed team size and then portion out people to work on various apps. instead, people come up and start working on apps and then those teams join the umbrella group known as “KDE”; as we get more apps, the size of the team actually grows. i can understand how, with an understanding of traditional software shops, you can arrive at your conclusion, but it doesn’t map at all to KDE (and probably most other successful f/oss projects)
as for APIs and a “solid desktop experience”, we do provide very solid APIs which are made better by actually using them in our applications: we push at libraries, test them, pound on them, add to them as needed. and the desktop experience is just one more app in the mix: KDE is *not* a desktop environment; it’s a meta-team that provides, as *one* of the products, a desktop workspace suite.
it is fun to see more and more 3rd party apps starting to use KDE4’s libraries. google just ported the iGadgets to KDE4 for instance and they will be appearing in 4.2.
it’s easy to stand on the outside and offer critique, but it’s more fun to actually peer inside what’s really going on and discovering the truth of things for yourself because what is going on in projects like KDE is absolutely amazing.
KDE? Who are we kidding here? KDE4 is a /knock-off/, in every sense of the word.
Expose’ is from Mac,
Bottom panel+sidebar+ main menu, are all from Vista!
Not to mention, KDE has always felt like Windows, and yes,
it does crash often.
I say we merge Enlightenment and XFCE- something rock solid, and something totally different.
KDE? Hah.
Who said Kontact (KDEPIM) is not good?
There’s no better email client I know of. And it will handle Gigs of email, much better than Thunderbid (not to mention Outlook!).
I wish it would connect to Exchange servers.
+1 to what GH said about KMail connecting to Exchange servers (proper integration).
Gnome is what will dominate. People don’t need the complication of KDE. You have to understand mass mentality.
It was interesting reading a post on PlanetKDE about people who post comments that would be constructive if they weren’t also mocking and derisive.
Unfortunately, Truefire, your comment is mocking and derisive.
Try just saying: “I say we merge Enlightenment and XFCE- something rock solid, and something totally different.”
Much better
I’ve been testing KDE4 on the Alpha 2 Release of Mandriva Linux 2009.0, KDE4 is still very much Alpha software, but it has a lot of promise. It takes a number of common desktop themes and takes them to the next level, in addition to extending this Linux desktop functionalities that cannot be found in either MacOS or Windows.
I can hardly wait until KDE 4 (4.2) arrives.
Yes Aaron, I’ve become a convert to KDE4, Mandriva seem to have managed to put together a really nice implementation, where it’s actually possible to find the various tools and settings, of KDE4 on the Alpha of their Mandriva Linux 2009.0 release.
Don’t call Timmy fat, it might hurt his feelings.
His entire reasoning for ‘doing something totally different’ is the inadequacy of KDE. Leaving that ‘derision’ out robs his sugggestion of purpose.
…
And tell me you didn’t laugh at GH suggesting there is nothing wrong with KDEPIM and then sighing about a major deficiency of it two paragraphs down.
I like the direction that KDE 4 is going, and when they get the major kinks worked out, it’ll be beautiful. Good integration with Compiz Fusion will be key here. Ubuntu’s GNOME has the integration done nicely, but Kubuntu’s KDE 3.5.x integration could use a bit more refinement (e. g. the desktop pager). If KDE 4 gets this nailed, then it’ll really give Apple a run for its money.
I do find it hilarious that Windows Vista’s widgets are a direct rip-off from Ubuntu.
The first time I saw Vista, I thought, oh, is that a new Ubuntu theme? Then I looked closer and saw the Windows logo in the left hand corner. I just laughed. “Innovators”, eh? 
Now, to address the 10-year-old GNOME-vs-KDE issue that got brought up here.
First, I DON’T CARE. It’s *your* computer, use what you like. That said….
One big business benefit of GNOME over KDE is that it lets you run Evolution, with its integrated MS Exchange Server connectivity. Fortunately, GNOME apps run just fine on KDE, and vice-versa. Additionally, Evolution, like KDE4, runs on Win32, so we can get Windows users using it instead of MS LookOut. What KDE-Win32 brings is multimedia stuff like Amarok (the music program) and K3b (the CD/DVD burner), both terrific programs. These, along with Firefox and OpenOffice.org, will make it considerably easier to get people to switch to GNU/Linux down the road.
–SYG
What about Evolution (e17)? Yes, still in alpha/beta depending on your point of view but still very usable. Enough that gOS uses e17 and does it very well, without mucking up the system too much with apps that seem bloated save firefox.
Ubuntu’s method of enabling Compiz/Beryl since 7.04 had made it much easier to add desktop effects that are very eye-catching. I do agree that what is needed to overshadow OSx is yet to come.
The user data services al la Apple is IMHO locks the user in to a so-simple-to-use interface that makes it harder for them to migrate to another platform later on. Never having used anything from Apple before, it does sound a bit like the Zonbu system that, while you can have the basic services for free – extra services that a user may want do cost more.
While Zonbu is still Linux (Gentoo at heart), I’ll stick to less-friendly user-data-services. I like the ‘feature’ of doing it myself that I’m sure other Linus users also enjoy.
@Himo
“KDE? Hah.”
“KDE? Who are we kidding here? KDE4 is a /knock-off/, in every sense of the word.”
Its just unnecessary. While using these words can describe his issue, it is also offensive – which is unnecessary. It would be very easy to just think of something less in-your-face–slap–offensive and just to word it in a generally less derisive tone.
I mean, it would probably help him get his point across to more people.
BTW, I’m a Gnome user. But I’m also sick of the unfair bashings that the great developers over at KDE are getting. IMO they’ve done a great job. Especially when you think of the future benefits their groundwork will afford.
‘There’s no better email client I know of….’
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I happen to use Linux in a business environment, and the poor support for HTML mail is a real deal breaker. Even in the Kontact suite for KDE4 you cannot create a proper HTML mail. E.g. you cannot embed images in the text. And when you forward or reply to a message, the formatting is lost. Whether you like it or not, HTML mail is mandatory in day to day business. It is how people work, so until Kmail fully supports it, it is of no use to me, and I will stick with Thunderbird.
We need to be careful. Linux needs to be whatever it evolves into in its free and unfettered environment. That’s how it got where it is, and that’s a good place. Forces like MS and Apple are not forces to be reckoned with. They are forces to be ignored. Mark sees that (”Can we not emulate, but blow past Apple, in terms of delivering a user experience?”), but even trying to “blow past” is a form of emulation.
Apple does not shine because the OS is particularly good. It shines in its little niche (where it will stay unless forthcoming price changes alter the equation to some degree) because its locked down proprietary hardware AND software deliver a really harmonious and satisfying experience to a unique crowd that appreciates that “coolness” more than liberty. Linux cannot compete with that. It should not try.
1up for Frihet. I very much agree that emulation is not a path to excellence. (anyone care to emulate Win 98ME? LOL) Open source has progressed because of liberty and a lack of innovation. Liberty is the response to Apple’s control and innovation is a response to… well 98ME. F/OSS will go where it’s needed most because it CAN. That means other devices (mobile, embedded, etc), other uses/apps, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, the next thing around the bend that we can’t see yet, but if team F/OSS stays nimble and cooperates, it can react to.
swesleyd
hmm. funny