I started getting a fair amount of traffic from TuxMachines yesterday, and I wanted to see what was going on over there so I went and took a look at what all the hype was about. Sure enough I saw a link to my article, but upon further browsing, something else caught my eye. The headline was “Boycott Ubuntu.” I thought to myself, “what could possibly make someone this angry about Ubuntu?” It didn’t take long to find an answer, and it seems that the owner of the site has a fair enough reason to cause an uproar.
Apparently Mark Shuttleworth said something along the lines of “linux is hard to explain to girls.” Now, I’m not sure what he meant by it or if he really even said it, but I’ll take the Kirrily Robert’s word for it. You can check her letter to Mr. Shuttleworth out here. I’m not a feminist, and to be honest a lot of feminists are off the deep end (in my opinion) and are completely irrational, but Kirrily seems to have raised a good point and I totally understand her frustration.
I’ll let you, the reader develop your own opinion about this whole controversy but I do want to let you know what my opinion is on this whole thing. First off, I’m not going to call Mark Shuttleworth a male chauvinist quite yet, but I do think he needs to recant, as do some of my readers. The field of engineering, computer sciences, and software development are male dominated fields, and they could use more females. It is a medical fact that women ARE different than men, psychologically and physically. The physical part doesn’t really matter when it comes to engineering, but what about the psychological part?
I don’t imagine the IQ distribution among women is that much different than it is for men, so logically it follows that women are just as capable of working in engineering. That being said, they think differently – perhaps this is why most women don’t choose engineering or software development as careers. In my previous post, “Misconceptions about Ubuntu Linux” a guy by the name of Frank posted a great comment which I’d encourage everyone to read. He mentioned that he’d worked with some women in his undergrad computer science studies at UMN and had a delightful experience. I think he’s right on – women could add new dimensions to software!
So I’d like to close with asking Mark Shuttleworth to please recant his comment or at least explain it. I’d really hate to think that this OS I love so much is headed up by a guy who doesn’t respect women.
Obviously, he made a mistake and should not have said that. I’m sure he realises that now but I do not think he can just take the comment back. Once it has been said you cannot take it back. It does shed a lot of lite on how Mr Shuttleworth views the opposite sex. I wonder is he married or perhaps a homosexual? I will find out.
Found your post on twitter, thanks. I dont favor ubuntu over any other operating system anyhow.
You know what, until recently women didn’t even have any rights so I don’t know why their all gettign their pantys bunched up over some benign comment by this guy. Who cares? Women do have a hard time understanding how things work and they don’t care. When i try to explain things about computers to my wife she just stares at me blankly which just reflects her stupidity. I think he was right, so forget about all you womens rights activists. Linux is hard to expalin o girls.
Tom, you’re such a douchebag. I bet you’re wanking it to a mens underwear catalogue right now.
Tom is obviously a troll. And he provoked you. You responded by insulting him; by insinuating he is gay. I am pretty sure you are just trolling Alyssa- but, I still feel the need to point out that your remark is homophobic or gay bashing. Either way answering hate speech with hate speech is goofy.
If you really believe Tom is not just trying to provoke people; try a different tact. There is no need to respond to neanderthals with a juvenile reply. Either way +1 on the 1st part of your comment.
OK, I’m not “trolling” just becuase I’m blunt about the issue. Alyssa is though. I have the right to say my opinion and I don’t think your comment makes much sense either Mark since you called me a neantreatal. So funny that you are okay with name calling but as soon as someone makes a gay joke or says something slightly abrasive towards women losers like you get all bent out of shape. Feminists and gay rights people need to calm down and quit trying to force issues and micro manage other people it’s annoying.
To answer your question yes, he is a male chauvinist. There have been numerous other occasions on which he has done/said things that belittle women. It’s good that you took a stance on this issue, but if you do more research you will find that what I say is in fact true.
And Tom F, guys like you should be castrated.
Wow, I really can’t believe Mark Shuttleworth said that. Well, I never really liked Ubuntu that much anyways. I use Snow Leopard
For the record: Nobody on GF is calling him a sexist person–just a person who made a mistake in phrasing unintentionally and will hopefully say “oops, I’ll try harder next time.”
She’s referring to the site geekfeminism.org with “GF” so no one is confused. It’s the site with the letter to Shuttleworth mentioned in the post.
Well, I’m glad you’re not slapping a label on him – no one deserves that. But he is a prominent person in the world and I don’t think “oops, I’ll try harder next time.” is quite enough. Perhaps saying “I’m not against women, and I think girls can understand Linux just fine. To show how much I care I’m donating a few million dollars to such and such a charity that helps women in blank way.” would be a little better. People like him should know to be more careful about they way they talk. There’s a lot of women and men a like looking up to him and he needs to set a good example.
He’s not the worst though byfar, I feel for him. But I understand why this agitates people. Imagine if Bill Gates or Obama said something along those lines.
Mackenzie is right. Kirrily Robert (Skud) is a respected geek feminist. She has given him time to respond; he did & chose not to apologize.
The deeper issue here is something called privilege. Mark has it & maybe misused it.
I have always supported equality, but, until recently I hesitated to call myself a feminist. Part of the reason I do is because of Skud, Liz Henry, Mackenzie & others writings. Read what women have experienced in tech & life in general.
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/So_you_made_a_mistake
Yes, I’ve taken the time to read over some of the writings on GF and I find that they are reasonable and rational for the most part. It’s great to see feminists take an objective stance on issues that maybe even enrage them on the inside.
I believe what Mark Terranova and what Ryan said are correct. Any person in a position of power or prestige is looked upon by a large audience and therefore has an inherent responsibility to do the right thing. Mark Shuttleworth has done a lot of “good” things, but folks if we look at his personal expenditures objectively, there are better causes that the money could have gone to. I could name dozens off the top of my head but that is not the point. I think actions speak louder than words and Shuttleworth has a track record of doing self-gratifying things as opposed to selfless deeds. Ubuntu Linux is his little baby, whether it’s a great OS/Project/Contribution or not. He also paid an absurd amount to fly to space, and lives at the top of the world.
I hypothesize that Mark is chauvinistic to some extent, but has hidden it rather well throughout the years. He’s also probably not anywhere near a bad case of it. If you can just meditate for a while and think as freely of your own bias as you can about what kind of person Shuttleworth is given his track record and past actions you will find the truth about his character.
Think analytically, just make sure it’s “outside the box”
Hi,
http://www.eloquentspace.net – da best. Keep it going!
[...] girls.” Some in the Linux community have taken this opportunity to question whether or not Shuttleworth is a chauvinist, while others have gone so far as to discuss boycotting [...]
I feel like it’s pretty dumb that this has been taken to the point it has been. If he posted something that was insulting women continuously, or even made a really negative remark, then I could see some backlash being deserved. But to be completely honest, I’m sure Linux is hard to explain to girls, and probably to most guys as well. Let me know when he stops allowing women to download his free software and starts donating money to Anti-Feminist groups. Until then, find something better to do with your time people.
Amen. You people need to STFU and get a life, like maybe go back to writing COBOL or whatever it is you do. And by the way, Windows XP and Windows 7 are currently the best OS’s out there. Ubuntu is just a project made up of things that aren’t theirs even though they imply they are. Use Fedora if you’re going to use Llinux – CEntOS on your Linux servers.
Thanks for the post dude, it’s good that you’re looking into some of the issues of the industry and not just turning a blind eye to it. I’m going to digg your article and check out GF…
By the way, Bill Bartmann is a legitimate business person technically. I read about him somewhere in the blogosphere but he’s one of those network marketing guys, so spam is synonymous with him. I get spam in my inbox daily from Bill.
Good comments by Mark and Mackenzie too btw.
As a woman in technology and out in the working world for a while now, I think it has more to do with what happens to women in this culture. Less respect, less pay, harassment on the job and career penalties for child-bearing. If society is, subtly and not so subtly (see @tom above) telling you you’re not capable, is it any wonder if some women believe it?
As for @Tom, maybe is wife really isn’t capable of computer literacy. That doesn’t make her stupid. Or maybe, given his attitude, she has no interest in learning about it. I wouldn’t care to learn from someone who calls me stupid. In fact, it might be quite impossible to learn from someone like that.
You get back what you put in — if you go through life convinced that women are stupid and inferior, all the women who aren’t — most of us I’d say — will stay away from you and for you, the world looks like what you believe it is. And there’s the common result that all the women who don’t fit your stereotype will be denied or explained away.
People say thoughtless things all the time and maybe Mark Shuttleworth was merely thoughtless. And yet, what is his mind set such that a thoughtless moment produces a comment like that? And how many women hear something like that and decide they’ll stay the heck away from a profession where women are denigrated? No wonder women stay out of technology. In droves.
If he only said linux is hard to explain to girls, I dont understand why that is such a big issue. Because linux is hard to explain to non-techies, both guys and girls. Since most techies are guys, the statement that linux is hard to explain to girls simply means that it is hard to explain to non-techies. We can’t assume that he meant it in a sexist way.
I am a non-techie and a new Ubuntu user and guess whose tutorials I have found to be among the most helpful? A girl’s!