Before you wonder what sabdfl is, it stands for Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator For Life, a title assigned to Mark Shuttleworth. Its a meritocracy, not a democracy! Mark was interviewed by Jorge Castro online after the release of Jaunty Jackalope, the code name for Ubuntu 9.04. The full interview is up at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MeetingLogs/openweekJaunty/AskMark Here are some excerpts:

(11:12:54 AM) jcastro: <No`> QUESTION: Where do you think we are concerning the bug #1? do you see it being closed in the (more or less distant) future?
(11:13:02 AM) sabdfl: interesting times
(11:13:20 AM) sabdfl: linux (and to a certain extent ubuntu) is now a major force in the PC industry
(11:13:43 AM) sabdfl: microsoft was able to do a diving catch to save market share in netbooks only by giving XP away at very, very low prices
(11:13:49 AM) sabdfl: a product they wanted to kill 18 months ago
(11:13:56 AM) sabdfl: now, things will get more interesting
(11:14:20 AM) sabdfl: we will see Windows 7 Starter Edition in major western markets, which is new (it was designed for emerging markets to address piracy)
(11:14:28 AM) sabdfl: and we'll see if that model works for users
(11:14:35 AM) sabdfl: i think we can compete
(11:14:59 AM) sabdfl: ubuntu with full office capability competes nicely with uncrippled windows and office on price, stability and functionality
(11:15:04 AM) sabdfl: so, game on
(11:15:29 AM) sabdfl: we will know a lot more in 18 months - can we actually carve out territory that is defensible?

and

(12:41:27 PM) jcastro: <popey> QUESTION: Recent surveys indicate that of those switching from XP but _not_ to Windows 7, 27% would go to OSX and 25% would go to Ubuntu, with Red Hat, Suse, and others below. What do we need to do to overtake OSX?
(12:41:37 PM) sabdfl: 2%?
(12:41:44 PM) sabdfl: ;-)
(12:41:46 PM) mode (+o popey ) by ChanServ
(12:41:51 PM) mode (-o popey ) by popey
(12:41:52 PM) sabdfl: i thought that was an AMAZING result, btw
(12:42:03 PM) sabdfl: credit to the whole community for that
(12:42:12 PM) sabdfl: mostly, i think we need to stand up and be proud
(12:42:25 PM) sabdfl: encourage all of our family and friends to make the switch to free software and promise to stand by them throughout
(12:42:33 PM) sabdfl: since WE are mostly the people who support them, anyhow :-)
(12:42:46 PM) sabdfl: we do need to deliver classy, tight, useful software
(12:42:56 PM) sabdfl: so bring the lessons of Web 2.0 to the desktop
(12:43:03 PM) sabdfl: lean, mean, fast and easy to use
(12:43:07 PM) sabdfl: and we will do well

and

(12:45:39 PM) jcastro: <leviathan_> QUESTION: in the debian community were creating packaged, which get taken by ubuntu. visversa we get packeges back, but with a low quality. don't you think its on the time to get some standarts into ubuntu?
(12:46:19 PM) sabdfl: leviathan_: spelling standards?
(12:46:36 PM) sabdfl: i think your question is based on the assumption that ubuntu == bad
(12:46:48 PM) sabdfl: if you see the world through a filter, you will only see things that agree with that filter
(12:47:17 PM) sabdfl: in your previous question, I *think* you were saying that "ubuntu is bad because lots of developers are moving to ubuntu from other projects"
(12:47:29 PM) sabdfl: so, i don't know how to engage with you
(12:47:46 PM) sabdfl: i feel ubuntu provides a fantastic service to the free software community as a whole
(12:48:16 PM) sabdfl: as Tridge said, hundreds of thousands of free software developers get to work on their software without ever having to think about the OS, because Ubuntu makes it easy
(12:48:23 PM) sabdfl: i think that's valuable, and i'm proud of it
(12:48:48 PM) sabdfl: as for quality, well, I know the team cares enormously about quality, and work insanely hard to achieve that
(12:49:34 PM) sabdfl: the QA processes in Ubuntu make me proud, the QA team are fantastic, the bugsquad are unstoppable, the Bug Days and Hug Days are what make this project a pleasure to be part of
(12:49:58 PM) sabdfl: if you've decided that it suits your view of the world to say that "Ubuntu is bad", then so be it
(12:50:11 PM) sabdfl: but, if that's not true then you are doing yourself a disservice
(12:51:00 PM) sabdfl: this would be a more interesting discussion if you could speak in this channel i just realised :-)
(12:51:11 PM) sabdfl: so, feel free to privmsg me and we can talk further
(12:51:24 PM) sabdfl: but, in summary, this community cares about free software and about quality
(12:51:41 PM) sabdfl: and i would encourage you to look for real evidence if people say otherwise

and

(12:53:57 PM) jcastro: <Froad_> QUESTION: A new announcement by Microsoft says there will be Open Office support in Office 2007, do you think that one way to gain users is to make Microsoft Adapt to us?
(12:54:19 PM) sabdfl: Froad_: i'm glad that they will do this, but i hear the support is terrible
(12:54:29 PM) sabdfl: i think we should rather push harder for open document standards
(12:54:51 PM) sabdfl: the ISO standards process was embarrassing last year
(12:55:06 PM) sabdfl: we have this amazing thing - the web - built entirely on an open format
(12:55:13 PM) sabdfl: and yet .doc lives in the dark ages
(12:55:35 PM) sabdfl: purely because governments and companies chickened out of demanding that openness
(12:55:51 PM) sabdfl: if we demand openness, then we'll get a better long term result