The sincerest complement a Linux distribution can get is when the onetime CEO of a rival Linux company switches to that distribution. Thats exactly what happened when Kevin Carmony, former CEO of Linux desktop distributor Linspire, publicly announced that hes switched to Ubuntu.
Carmony, who left Linspire in late July, announced his switch to Ubuntu in the Ubuntu Forums on Oct. 17. In his note, Carmony wrote: “Now that Im no longer the CEO of Linspire, or under any obligation to use that particular distribution, I thought I should take some time and look around at all the distributions and decide which one was right for me and my PC. In addition to already being quite familiar with Linspire and Freespire, I also looked at Novell/SUSE, Red Hat/Fedora, PC Linux, Ubuntu, and Kubuntu.”
His decision? “Well, after all my research, I have to tell you, it was an easy choice. Ubuntu! Im excited for the new release [Ubuntu 7.10, Gutsy Gibbon] in a few days, which I will use to replace the many Linux desktop and laptop PCs I own (five).”
Going back to Windows was never a real possibility, Carmony said. “I just couldnt bring myself to go back to Windows for most of my computing. I do have one Vista box, but only use it when needed. I got spoiled by the stability and no-bloat of Linux,” he said.
Carmony added, “I was very proud of many of the things I was able to accomplish at Linspire, but its no longer the distro for me.” He said he believes Canonical, Ubuntus corporate parent, is doing many things right with Ubuntu, so hes looking forward to not only “using Ubuntu on all my PCs, but also becoming an active member of your community here.”