Talk:Mark Shuttleworth/Archives/2011

Personal Life

"Shuttleworth revealed that he has had a girlfriend for three years — a Danish woman who loves SA. He does not intend to get married or have children." see [[1]].

Also interesting: "(...) so that the rest of the family can surf the net over my connection." [[2]]

Single or not? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.100.226.38 (talk) 12:42, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

GNU/Linux

Please use the correct term: Ubuntu is a GNU/Linux distribution, which contains Linux, but also a lot of hard, unpaid work from a lot of people who consider themselfs part of GNU and not the Linux project. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.7.249.172 (talk) 09:58, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, always the same question. :) If you ask me, even more correct term would be X11/GNU/Linux following the same principle. Maybe even more projects deserve the honor? Something like "Xorg/XF86/KDE/BSD/GNU/NTFS3G/Linux"? See GNU/Linux_naming_controversy. So to simplify things, I usually follow the distribution atuhors: I say "Debian GNU/Linux", but "Ubuntu Linux". That's what they say, so do I. :arny (talk) 22:32, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

On ubuntu.com it says "Ubuntu is a community developed, Linux-based operating system...". Therefore removed all instances of GNU/Linux and replaced with Linux. 122.162.164.186 (talk) 18:37, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Baudry as first African

Was there a reason for the comment on Mark's claim of being the "first african in space" not being correct was removed?. Baudry was born in Cameroon and lives in France and is therefore a citizen of both countries, Mark was born in South Africa and lives in England. I am therefore putting it back.

Baudry was a French citizen at the time of his spaceflight; being a French military officer he would (in all likelihood) even not be allowed to hold dual citizenship. Shuttleworth was a citizen of South Africa at the time of his spaceflight (and still is) and carries a South African passport. Do you have any evidence to show that Baudry considers himself to be a Cameroonian and does he carry a Cameroonian passport? (Being born in a country does not automatically make a person a citizen of that country.)

Look, if you want to say that Baudry was the first African-born person in space, that would be factually correct. However, I cannot see find any evidence that Baudry sees himself and is seen as anything but French. Even the Wikipedia article calls him the second French citizen to fly in space. Also look at the flags on their respective uniforms - Baudry: French flag; Shutleworth: South African flag.

By your logic we might as well add Mike Melvill to the list of South African astronauts. (P.S. Please sign your posts.) Elf-friend 20:03, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Good point. if you look up the definition on wiktionary for astronaut: astronaut (astronauts)

 1. Person flying in a spaceship

I do not see a reason for Mike Melvill not being added. Im not sure what Elf-friend means by "my logic" but this site has always to my knowledge had a neutral point of view policy and I wonder why my posts are even being questioned... I have chosen not to sign my posts as I know how easily wars start on articles about individuals.

I'm questioning your posts because I find the claim that Baudry=Cameroonian=African doubtful. I've scoured a lot of web-pages about Baudry and all of them list Baudry as a Cameroonian-born French astronaut. (Heck, a few of them even state that he was born in France.) I cannot find any evidence that he either sees himself as a dual Cameroonian-Frenchman or has dual citizenship. Furthermore, I see that he was born in 1946 in the French colony of Cameroon; Cameroon only became independent in 1960. I thus doubt very much if he was ever considered or considered himself as a Cameroonian/an African. Elf-friend 12:49, 16 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I find it funny you guys are discussing this so ardently when you seem, TO ME, to be looking at the wrong things here. I don't claim that my definition is correct, but what I would say is that, regardless of his citizenship, regardless of the status of Cameroon at the time, if he was born in Cameroon, he was born in Africa (in other words, even if Cameroon was part of France at the time, even if it still were, it is still physically located in Africa) and therefore is African (Cameroon, regardless of it's political status, is not in Europe, where France is). Of course you could go into what a person has to be/do to earn the "status" of "belonging" to a continent; if he had only been born there by chance, while his parents were travelling the world, and left the country after a month, I probably wouldn't go as far as saying he was "African", but even in this case, at the very least you can't deny he would be "African-born". Nothing wrong to say that he was African AND French (in relation to his citizenship, ethnicity or to the fact that -- as I understand -- he lived in France later in his life). ______ tmegapscm - 2005-07-08

To me it seems belonging to a country, ethnicity, or continent is primarily a matter of self-identification (especially when there is no legal definition.) So: does Baudry call himself an African? Shuttleworth does. MartinPool 19:17, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

It seems pretty clear that hes an African-born Frenchman. Htaccess 01:20, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

Education

Did Shuttleworth actually attend Rondebosch Boys' High School? It seems clear that he did attend Diocesan College (Bishops), as mentioned by NASA and Bishops, but a reference to Rondebosch was added by 196.34.16.68 on 18 December 2008 without any source. Anyone able to clear this up? Owenozier (talk) 18:42, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Funny name

Has anyone ever thought that Mark Shuttleworth has a funny name that correctly describes his most famous achievement, i.e. being an early space tourist? "Shuttleworth" = "worthy to be in a space shuttle"? Hahaha LOL ... Well I have to admit that he flew in a Soviet Soyuz rocket, not in an American soace shuttle. But anyway ...Meursault2004 10:50, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, that's a bit funny, and I came here once to see if he had actually changed his name for being a true space nut. But it just seems like a strange twist of fate. :-) Shuttleworth from Free State was in space and built free software. ;-) -- Northgrove 18:59, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Could also say his greatest Mark is to be Shuttle Worth. If I were the public relations of this man, I would put some semi dark and geeky stuff not so easy for hero merit. Maybe being a Debian developer in the 90s is enough. Pablo2garcia 20:40, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

Indeed, when I first heard of that "Shuttleworth flies to space", I found it very amusing. :) What a coincidence, really. :arny (talk) 22:57, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Cameroon part of Europe

"Cameroon was still a French colony at the time of his birth." This sentence seems to imply that, just because Cameroon was at one time a French Colony, somehow the country was transported magically to Europe. I don't think that people born in European colonies located outside Europe would be considered legally European either. Can anybody confirm this?

I think the formulation is quite ok. Cameroon was a part of France, despite its physical location. In fact, there is a former colony in south america that is now part of the EU and people born there are Europeans, too. --84.60.120.218 00:27, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

France has a long tradition of considering its colonies an integral part of France. In any case, does the fact that Hawaii is a group of Pacific islands make their inhabitants anything less than fully-fledged Americans (although the islands have not been magically transported to the coast of California)? Elf-friend 11:53, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

I do agree with the people above but still it is a bit odd treating someone who was born in Cameroun as being a non-african. A continent has nothing to do with boundaries of countries but just with geographical coördinates yanneman 07:30, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Who is this reffering to?

In the beginning of the artile, it says "(born 18 September 1973 (just over 3 months before my birth - 27 December 1973)". Who is the second birthdate reffering to? Article writer? Anyone else?

How many € (EUR) have been 3,5-billion R (ZAR)?

He sold Thawte in December 1999 to VeriSign earning R3,5-billion. How many Euros would that have been back then? --Hhielscher 14:48, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

According to fxhistory the average exchange course has been 0.16113, that would translate to about 560 million €.--Hhielscher 14:58, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

At that time the EUR/USD were pretty much on par, with it being about $570mi; I'm wondering whether it shouldn't be stated in USD instead, seeing that it is a US company involved as well? dewet|™ 15:13, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

You are right, € and US$ are about the same according to fxhistory:

	ZAR to EUR	ZAR to USD
Average (31 days)	0.16113	0.16281
High	0.16300	0.16370
Low	0.15770	0.16170

Thus, I have added US$ as well, using 0.16 as the exchange rate.--Hhielscher 15:48, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

Afronaut

Is the infobox supposed to read 'Afronaut', or is this vandalism? --Vinatta —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.42.73.85 (talk • contribs) .

I wondered the same. The title started as Astronaut, then Cosmonaut, and was finally changed to Afronaut by User:Chris.lester, a valid contributer. So I am also quite unsure. --Desheffer 02:31, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

According to the Astronaut template talk page (link below), Africans who go into space are called "Afronauts" and I believe Shuttleworth himself calls himself this. -- Hux 16:12, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

Afronaut is a marketing neoligism. He was the first african in space - so he called himself an afronaut (african + astronaut). We're an encyclopedia - he was a space flight participant (neutral) or a space tourist (less neutral but more commonly used in the UK media). Secretlondon 19:26, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Astronaut/Cosmonaut

See discussion at Template talk:Infobox Astronaut#Astronaut/Cosmonaut regarding the infobox fields and the designation of space tourists. --Dhartung | Talk 06:47, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

The Afronaut debacle

It looks I may have caused a bit of a problem...

The evidence in favour the term afronaut comes from a number of sources. Check here [3].

I'd say 600 google hits is enough to prove that the term truely exists.

However, the questions that need answered remain:

• Is the continent (in this case) from which this person comes not an arbitary distinction?
• Does it matter that Shuttleworth travelled on a Russian rocket - shouldn't he be a cosmonaut then?

I'm really not sure, though my vote would go to identifying him uniquely and use the term afronaut.

-- Chris Lester ^talk 19:12, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

A term can truely exist but still not be the correct term. It's a neoligism. We're not part of his marketing machine. Secretlondon 19:28, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Would an afronaut not be a person who travels (sails) to Africa?? Like an astronaut goes to the stars (astra) or a cosmonaut travels through the cosmos?? from the wikipedia page "aquanaut": "aqua-naut derives from aqua ("water") plus the Greek nautes ("sailor") " 212.17.87.133 16:17, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

That would mean it literally. The other meaning normally used is a pun, and I'm not quite sure I appreciate it. :arny (talk) 23:01, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

2009 LinuxCon offensive remarks controversy

I'm not sure if this is sufficiently notable to go in the article, but it seems worth mentioning at least on the talk page to help people looking for information about it. At the 2009 LinuxCon, Mark Shuttleworth, in a keynote address, made various comments that were widely interpreted as being denigrating to female technical ability. He later apologized for them. See http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Mark_Shuttleworth_at_Linuxcon for more details on the controversy. JesseW, the juggling janitor 01:44, 31 July 2010 (UTC)

Are you able to find WP:RS that make it WP:N and WP:V ?—Sladen (talk) 01:59, 31 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, see the numerous links given on the page I linked to. I'm still not sure it's sufficiently notable, though. Further comments, anyone? JesseW, the juggling janitor 06:57, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

Residence

While it's pretty easy to confirm that Canonical is registered in the Isle of Man, I've tried for a while to find a source to support the claim that Shuttleworth lives on the IoM, and I haven't been able to find anything at all – either that he lives or has ever lived there. The only thing I did find was a page from a local newspaper claiming that a certain Mark Francis Shuttleworth sold a property there in 2006. [4] This Mark Francis has or had a wife, so I'm guessing it's not the same person, and even if they were, there's no reason to believe it was his residence just because he owned it.

Shuttleworth's website biography [5] states that he is currently living in London, so I think we should stick with that for now. In any case, if you have different information, feel free to change the relevant part on the opening paragraph, but please provide a source. universalcosmos | talk 15:44, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

That biography[6] appears to have been updated at some point, looking at it today (2010-09-21), it states "...live on the lovely Isle of Man". I've had a quick look and was able to find a photograph[7] (from 15 August 2010, on Flickr) which shows the Bombadier aircraft mentioned in the #Transport section parked up at Isle of Man Airport—and which would support this assertion. Would it be worth partially reverting the earlier change[8] (but keeping the citation)? —Sladen (talk) 22:18, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

Hi there Sladen. I guess he has read the article or someone mentioned it to him, it said London just a few days ago :) But I also think I see new sections, so maybe he just updated his biography and this was a coincidence. I'll fix it right away. Thanks for keeping an eye on this (and for warning me, I hadn't noticed your update here). universalcosmos | talk 02:09, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

There's another article here: Gregory, John (2011-01-11). "Space tourist and entrepreneur inspires students". Isleofman Dot Com Ltd. —Sladen (talk) 08:58, 12 January 2011 (UTC)