Shuttleworth named IT Hero
2008-10-01 14:56
Cape Town - CNET Networks UK, the UK's largest online-only publisher, named Mark Shuttleworth the IT Community Hero of the Year at its sixth annual UK Business Technology Awards in London last week.
The ceremony, hosted at London's glitzy Park Lane Hilton, featured 16 categories in total ranging from IT Team of the Year, won by Credit Suisse for the Gears (Global Equities Aggregated Risk System) IT project, to Green IT initiative of the year where BT Operate were recognised for their 21st Century Network Data Centre Project.
Winning a CNET Networks UK Business Technology award has become one of the most sought-after accolades for those involved in business and technology in the UK.
The Community Hero Award is a recent addition and was included to give due recognition to those people, teams or organisations who make the lives of people in IT easier through building connections that foster a sense of community.
Shuttleworth was recognised for the support he had given to the community of developers working on the Ubuntu project and his commitment to a freely available operating system that can be used by anybody, anywhere in the world.
"Mark Shuttleworth has given great support to the community of developers working on the Ubuntu project, as well as being an active member himself," the judges said.
"The desktop and server versions have grown in popularity, including within enterprises, and as a side-effect, the project has also spun off tools for developers, such as Launchpad, and has worked on desktop OSes tailored to particular needs, such as Edubuntu," they added.
Shuttleworth launched Ubuntu in 2004. It is a free open source operating system, based on the Linux Kernel.
Ubuntu, which roughly translates as "humanity towards others" in Zulu, has a strong focus on usability and ease of installation, and comes with free tools and utilities.
Ubuntu is updated continuously and the new versions are also free of charge.
Click here to find out more about the Ubuntu Linux System.