Mark Shuttleworth - DeveloPassion

# Mark Shuttleworth ![[50 Resources/51 Attachments/51.03 Public/2026-02-11 Mark Shuttleworth.jpg|400]] Mark Shuttleworth is a South African-British entrepreneur best known as the founder of [[Ubuntu]] and Canonical (2004). He holds the self-appointed title "SABDFL" (Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life) within the Ubuntu community. His mission with Ubuntu has been to make [[Linux]] accessible to everyone, bringing free software to the widest possible audience. Before Ubuntu, Shuttleworth founded Thawte, a digital certificate company, in 1995. He sold it to VeriSign in 1999 for approximately $575 million. In 2002, he became the second self-funded space tourist and the first African in space, spending eight days aboard the International Space Station on the Soyuz TM-34 mission. ## Career - **Thawte** (1995-1999): Founded SSL certificate company; sold to VeriSign - **Space tourist** (2002): First African in space aboard ISS - **Canonical** (2004-present): Founded company; CEO and funder of Ubuntu - **Shuttleworth Foundation**: Philanthropic work in education and open source ## Key Contributions - **[[Ubuntu]]**: Made Linux accessible to mainstream users - **Canonical**: Built sustainable business around open source - **Snap packages**: Universal Linux packaging format - **Philanthropy**: Funds open source and education initiatives in Africa ## References - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Shuttleworth - https://markshuttleworth.com ## Related - [[Ubuntu]] - [[Debian]] - [[Linux]] - [[Ian Murdock]] - [[Linus Torvalds]] ## Quotes  ## Books