Now, now!

If he didn`t have it before, Mark Shuttleworth these days sports a very public persona. At last week`s media briefing at Melrose Arch, he came as the archetypal hippy-geek tycoon (designer cobalt jeans, bob and black shirt).

He carries off a worldly ease (thank you open source, Lady Luck, VeriSign and London), but retains a distinctive and inspiring generosity, sensibly reinforcing this with an opportunity-spotting streak as hard as teak. What must be new is a penchant for Zen-like statements, which kind of work too, and might be just what the rest of the OSS movement needs.

This isn`t Men`s Health, however; I`m going somewhere with this: what is it about Mark Shuttleworth that makes him think he can take the open source community`s work and turn it into the kind of vulgar success that software is trying to move away from? Is that not the work of a capitalist pig-dog?

Actually, he`s merely doing what someone else would have done anyway, given enough time, brains and energy, and what the community itself is sometimes remiss in doing. Shuttleworth doesn`t charge for the software, and anyone can change and repackage it as they see fit. "Let a thousand flowers grow," he says (which provides evidence of that Zen thing).

Ubuntu takes "an open source approach to open source development", working in a virtual, distributed corporate setting, deriving technological benefit from the Debian OSS developer family, giving some business direction to it and donating all of what transpires back to the family.

For his trouble, some of his brothers are calling our Mark bad names. And though he may be exaggerating about it (an innocent tactic that works well in public speaking), this sentiment from the Debian family, if correctly relayed to us, merely holds a mirror up to themselves and the open source cultural phenomenon.

But guys, really, Shuttleworth is a lesson to us all. The lesson is that you can be clever and cool.

Carel Alberts, Special editions Editor, ITWeb Brainstorm

And boy, are they bellicose. The Ubuntu storm raged like napalm on Linuxtoday. The first comment to my story, titled "wtf" (and I`ll leave you to fill in the blanks) reacted to a sentence that read: "Unlike Knoppix and Linspire, also Debian-based, Ubuntu`s intellectual property was being ploughed back into the OSS community."

"Since when has Knoppix souce [sic] been unavailable?????" posed the comment. The punctuation hurt my brain. Another comment answered for me: "The difference is that Ubuntu is making a concerted effort to get its improvements into the core distribution; the Knoppix hacks are available, but no one has really done the work to bring them 'up to code` and advocate them to Debian." So there you go.

Another writer said he didn`t know if it was poor reporting on the journalist`s part or poor diplomatic skills on Shuttleworth`s part, but in "just three paragraphs the article managed to alienate the Knoppix community, the Linspire community (if such exists)".

That really got them going. "Sheese," said another reader. "What is that supposed to mean?" Cleverly, the offending letter-writer then queried whether the other one had "RTFA" (again, you`re on your own in interpreting this) and told him to lighten up. He himself found the situation "slightly" humorous. He conceded that, given the clarifying comment about Knoppix, maybe Shuttleworth`s statements weren`t so unjustified.

As for myself, my journalistic integrity was probably not in question anymore, given that, Shuttleworth, it appeared, was really not so wrong after all. "Sheese," as the man said. Don`t do me any favours.

At any rate, someone else then shot back with: "Your comments about the Linspire community ('if such exists`) are nearly as inflammatory as the point you are trying to make ('in three short paragraphs, the article author/Marc has managed to alienate much of the Linux community`). Suggestions to RTFA, quickly followed by a suggestion to lighten up, are equally inflammatory. All in all it just points out that geeks have no skills in diplomacy. (This comment was intended to be humorous; however, you`re cordially invited to flame-away if you`d like)."

Which, if you re-read it a few times, is kind of cool, since it stands up for me in a way. But guys, really, Shuttleworth is a lesson to us all. The lesson is that you can be clever and cool. That even if you`re clever it pays to think first. And, to the reportedly vengeful Debian dissidents, that you can make money without being evil.

I`ll end off with the most bruising comment of them all: "This is a perfect illustration of how one not-quite-right word can change the meaning of a sentence in such a way that it gives a completely wrong impression and offends a lot of people." Apparently, instead of giving back to the OSS community, my article should have said "Debian community". Damn!

But I`m unwilling to bear criticism alone. Next week, Ubuntu comes in for some stick.