ARTICLE

Mark Shuttleworth on Life, Business, and Ubuntu

by | Tue 6 Oct 2020

Mark Shuttleworth has weaved a fascinating story in his life so far. He founded and sold his company, Thawte, was the first South African in space, created one of the most popular open source projects, Ubuntu, and has built a successful company, Canonical. There is little doubt that his story still has many chapters ahead.

As many of you will know, I used to work for Mark at Canonical, and I learned enormously from him and my colleagues there. As such, I was thrilled to bring him on Conversations With Bacon where we have a rather intimate discussion about how his story has unfolded, the choices he has made, and his experiences so far.

We dig into:

  • His experience selling his company and choosing his journey.
  • Why he started Ubuntu and how it came together.
  • His background and how he got involved in business.
  • The role of credibility in the open source world.
  • How the business of open source has shifted and adjusted.
  • How he has dealt with the pressure of being a notable figure in open source.
  • His experience as a South African working in an industry often dominated by Silicon Valley.
  • His evaluation of previous decisions, failures, and opportunities.
  • The role of an emotional connection with our work and how to make choices.
  • …and much more…

This was a fascinating discussion brimming with insight. Well worth a listen!

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Thank you to always rocking Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for mixing the show!

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