Mark Shuttleworth

Mark Shuttleworth, the South African entrepeneur, used open source to help build his Internet start-up Thawte. In 2004 Mark launched Ubuntu Linux which rapidly became one of the most popular Linux distributions world wide. Mark also funds the Shuttleworth Foundation where the Freedom Toaster was born.

Why is open source software so important?
Software libre is a more effective way of producing great software. It results in software that is not only freely available, but more supportable, more flexible and often more reliable. Free software has been at the core of most of my projects, so I have come to depend on it and would like to make it more widely known.

What is your opinion of the Freedom Toaster?
It's such a good idea I wish I could take credit for it :-)

One challenge in developing countries is that free software is generally distributed online, and in those countries the bandwidth is often expensive or non-existence so free software does not reach those communities that most stand to benefit from it. The Freedom Toaster is a way of making free software (and in fact many forms of free content) available in these places.

Why do you think the Freedom Toaster is being so widely accepted and enjoyed?
It's the right idea at the right time. Free software is suddenly becoming hugely popular, and at the same time broadband is still not widely available.

How do you think the Freedom Toaster and open source standards benefit developing countries?
Open standards, open source and software libre make it possible to jump onto the information highway without having to pay a toll. They give people the tools to build amazing infrastructure, and to reshape those tools in the ways that they need without having to ask permission.

Where do you think the development of the Freedom Toaster will go next?
It's already freely available - all the code and the designs are published for anybody to make their own toasters. I predict that people will make their own variations and variants, to suit specific needs.