Bucking the historical trend of comparing desktop Linux with Windows, Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth recently told journalist Bruce Byfield that he was looking to Mac OS X as the operating system to beat for future Ubuntu releases — particularly in the areas of usability and user experience.  Now that Ubuntu 9.04 is out, how does it compare to Apple’s latest offering?

When Mark Shuttleworth first announced plans for Ubuntu 9.04 his primary objective was to make the operating system boot faster. With a battle with Microsoft’s Windows 7 looming, the speed of startup - and shutdown - of a laptop PC has become a critical battleground.

Some people are scratching their heads over recent Windows 7-related comments attributed to Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth. But Shuttleworth’s words provide an important reminder that innovation and competition from Microsoft will help to propel Ubuntu and Linux forward. Skeptical? Read on.

Shuttleworth discussed a wide variety of subjects, ranging from Ubuntu's governance model to plans for the upcoming version of Ubuntu, codenamed Jaunty Jackalope.

Mark Shuttleworth made news in 2002 when he fulfilled a lifelong ambition and became the first South African to travel into space, paying $20 million to be a civilian cosmonaut on an eight-day flight aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. In 2004, he founded Ubuntu Linux to bring the operating system to people around the world.

I’m a fan of Ubuntu Linux, and think that Mark Shuttleworth is a good guy. However, to many in the Linux community, the South African entrepreneur is a rock star, a god. What’s more, Ubuntu Linux is seen by many as the first, and only, Linux distribution that might have a shot at gaining market share on the desktop.

Are you considering an enterprise-wide switch from a Microsoft operating system to Linux? Or are you using Linux already and want to know how your distro stacks up against others?

The public perception of open source software is changing fast, said Mark Shuttleworth, who leads distribution of the Ubuntu operating system (OS).
A new version of Ubuntu, a version of the Linux OS, is released on Thursday.

Microsoft might be betting big on Windows 7, the next version of its flagship operating system, but to Ubuntu Linux founder Mark Shuttleworth, the upcoming release is really an opportunity for Linux to shine.