Shuttleworth is a South African philanthropist and internet entrepreneur who started the company Thawte in 1995 and went on to sell it to Verisign at the turn of the century in a US$575 million deal. He then became the second ever self-funded civilian astronaut traveling to the international space station as a member of the Soyuz TM-34/TM-33 missions. Upon his return to earth Mark formed the Shuttleworth Foundation and Canonical.

Simon Dingle recently authored a chapter on Mark Shuttleworth for the book South Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs. The publication will be available in September 2010.

Use the audio player above to stream the interview or click here to download the mp3 file.

Telecommunications group Vodacom has launched its Linkbook into the SA market – a super-low price netbook that will go for R199 per month on a two-year contract, including a monthly bandwidth bundle of 300MB.

The Linkbook is running a customised Linux distribution based on Ubuntu, and ships with OpenOffice, some games and other applications. It has 2 USB ports, WiFi, a 8.9″ screen, 16GB of embedded flash storage, integrated 3G modem, webcam and a microphone. I can’t tell what processor it is running, but I’d bet it’s an Intel Atom. There is also no indication of battery life.

Vodacom says that R40 of the R199 monthly subscription is attributable to the laptop, while the remaining R159 covers network access and the 300MB data bundle. The Linkbook is exclusive to Vodacom at this stage.

Mark Levy, co-founder of Linkbook (I’m not sure if this is the same Mark Levy from Blue Label Telecoms), says, ”Linkbook is an idea whose time has come. It’s compact and highly intuitive and will bring easy-to-use wireless internet to millions.”

Levy says that users shouldn’t be mislead by the low cost of the Linkbook; “Development doesn’t stop with the hardware. We are working with a number of partners to create exciting applications and dynamic content that will further enhance our customers’ experience of the web.”

Given the price, I’d say this is a breakthrough and I look forward to getting my hands on the Linkbook to try out. I certainly hope that the education sector is paying attention as this seems like a decent solution for schools and other institutions.

And now a new Australian company called Misa Digital has put Linux to work in a digital guitar it has developed. The instrument is powered by Gentoo Linux and uses a touchpad and buttons instead of strings. The result is pretty amazing, as you can see from the video below.

Misa isn’t shipping the guitar just yet, but pre-orders are available from the Misa Digital website. Rocking.

• Large touchscreen with haptic feedback.
• Full QWERTY keypad.
• Keypad that either slides or swivels for easy typing/texting.

Other features listed by HTC include HSDPA connectivity and a built in compass for use with Google Streetview. The device also has a 3.1 megapixel camera and was submitted for FCC testing in the USA for WiFi and Bluetooth. It does not appear to have a GPS chip however – but the compass approach combined with Google Maps is intriguing. Unfortunately Google Maps coverage of South African roads is currently very poor and this will initially limit the device’s use for navigation in the country.

The launch of the dream G1, which has been designed as a direct competitor to the Apple iPhone, has analysts buzzing around the mobile space.

“The G1 is the first device coming to market supporting Google’s operating system Android. Although this will give us a taste of what the platform will be able to do, we are expecting some limitations given this is the first device,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner. “There will be more to come in 2009 when manufacturers such as Samsung and LG will deliver their devices. Android has the potential to become the de facto operating system for Linux and we expect sales to reach around 10 percent of the smartphone market in 2011.”

Stafford Masie, country manager for Google South Africa, says that Google’s intention is to drive smartphone adoption.

“What we’re trying to do with Android is bring iPhone-type functionality to the masses at prices they can afford,” he says, speaking on a recent episode of the ZA Tech Show podcast.

Android is an open source operating system for mobile devices and is based on Linux. It is developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance – a consortium of 34 hardware, software, and telecommunications companies working to advance open standards for mobile devices.

The smartphone arena has been screaming for openness in a market where walled platforms, such as the iPhone, rule the roost. It will be interesting to see where Android goes over the coming months, given the ease with which third party developers are able to provide applications for the platform. The HTC Dream G1 is the first of a series of Android devices from a number of vendors that are slated for launch over the coming months and reaffirms Google’s commitment and drive to mobile.

Look out for my article in the October issue of Net.Work where I explore the mobile space, and smartphones in particular.

No matter what Linux distribution you use compiling your own kernel will always be of benefit, unless you have no idea what you’re doing and b0rk it up completely. I recommend compiling your first kernel using the vanilla kernel sources that will work with any true Linux distribution. Kernel compiling is fool proof and WILL NOT BREAK YOUR SYSTEM if you follow this guide properly and keep your older, working kernels available as a backup. Patience is required, however, and nobody does this right the first time. But it is worth being patient and compiling your own, working kernel is not only very satisfying, but also makes for a better computing experience.

Step 1 – Learn Stuff!
The first thing you want to do is find out as much as you can about your system and what it requires from the Linux kernel. This means gathering all your computer manuals together and using Google. What you’re looking for, primarily, is what chipsets are utilised by your various pieces of hardware. For example, your motherboard may be manufactured by ASUS, but the on-board audio could use a VIA chip-set. Your specific chip-sets may not be supported by the Linux kernel but they may be compatible with other sets that are. So you need to track all of these down.

A useful tool for detecting the chipsets installed in your computer is lspci:

Running the above command will provide you with a list of detected chipsets and controllers in your box. This information is useful for finding out what kernel modules to compile or when asking gurus for help, so keep it handy.

There are volumes of writing about the kernel and its modules – how it all works and how to integrate your hardware into it, so read as much as you can, or jump straight into your first compile and spend time reading the information provided in the kernel configuration menu (we’re getting to that). For loads of info checkout The Linux Documentation Project.

Reading up on the kernel might seem like a tedious process but will help to make compiling your own kernel a breeze. This is beneficial knowledge to you anyway and will not go to waste.

Step 2 – Procure the Source!
The first thing you need to compile a kernel is a set of source files. The best place to grab this from is http://www.kernel.org/ – this is where the ‘vanilla’ (or pure) kernel source originates from and what all other Linux kernels are based on. Download the latest stable version of the source (2.6.24.2 at time of writing) and download the tarball.

You can also acquire source in different distributions of Linux using your package manager (like urpmi in Mandrake, apt in Ubuntu or Portage in Gentoo).

Once you have downloaded your kernel source you need to untar it to the directory /usr/src/ – a sub-directory will be created that looks something like this: /usr/src/kernel-2.6.24.2 (this directory will show up after you emerge source or use urpmi to acquire it).

Now the source is with you and you’re ready to roll!

A quick note concerning patience: You will most likely not produce a working kernel on your first attempt. Chill out – no one does. You will not break your system if you do this properly – your old working kernel will still be there for you to boot back into.

Step 3 – Lets Get Rolling…
Ok, time to get down to business. Execute the following from your terminal:

This is the first step in preparing your kernel source. The command make mrproper will never have to be repeated again, you only need to do this on your first compile (unless you download new source).

Next, we continue to prepare our source and then start configuring the kernel:

If you have X running you can use xconfig instead of menuconfig – either way is good, but I prefer menuconfig from the CLI.

In the config script you will be presented with a menu for the different sections of kernel configuration. You’ll notice that you can bring up help pages for each section and module that will explain what they are used for. It’s now time to tell the kernel all about your system. Go through the various sections and select the CPU you have and other chipsets that must be supported. This is where all that knowledge of your system’s hardware comes in to play.

Now, you’ll notice that you can specify the various modules as either being built into your kernel or as a separate module. If something is built into your kernel it will always start up with your system (or try to, at least). If it is a separate module it can be loaded only when necessary.

So if you know something works and will always be present in your system build it straight into the kernel. If it is something you are not sure of, or pertains to a piece of hardware that might not always be attached, build it as a separate module. You’ll notice that some things must be built into the kernel though and other things run better as separate modules. Pay attention to the help text for each module.

At this point it is important to note that some distributions require different things from the kernel, especially when it comes to initial ram disks. So visit your chosen distribution’s website or forums and ask around so you get these things right.

Once you are done configuring, exit the menu and save your configuration. This will be saved to a file called .config in the /usr/src/linux-2.6.24.2 (or whatever source you’re using) directory. The .config file can be used in the future to compile updated kernels or to make changes, so you won’t have to do the whole thing again. Warning: the ‘make mrproper’ command will wipe out your .config! I always back mine up somewhere, although remember that you will not have to run that command again if only making changes to a kernel of the given version.

Step 4 – Watch it go!
With the .config file ready, it’s time to do the actual compiling bit. All you have to do is:

And watch it go! This could take between 5 and 25 minutes – depending on your processor and how much you’ve put into the kernel.

Once the compile is finished, you need to do the following:

This will install all the separate modules that aren’t being compiled directly into the kernel.

Tada! You now have a file called /usr/src/linux-2.6.8/arch/i386/boot/bzImage. The bzImage is your actual kernel.

Step 5 - Boot Into Your New Kernel
All the kernel images (bzImage) files are stored in the /boot directory. Look in that directory and your old kernel should be hiding. If, however, the directory appears empty, a mount might be required (/dev/hda1 might be where all your /boot images are hiding). So mount it, and then copy your new kernel into /boot.

You can rename bzImage to anything you want, so give it a different name from your old kernel, and keep them both in /boot in case something goes wrong and you need to boot back into your old kernel environment.

You now need to configure your boot loader, either Grub or Lilo. The two are very different and I will not handle configuring them here as there is ample information available online already, so use Google, forums, etc. to find out how to configure your bootloader. This is important and if you mess it up you might not be able to boot. So be pedantic about your bootloader and do it right. It’s not difficult.

When compiling your bootloader be sure to keep your old kernel on the boot menu, so that if the new kernel bombs out you can reboot and select the old, working kernel. Once you are back to the old kernel, you can repeat the configuration and compiling steps to fix the newer kernel.

And that’s about it! If all went well you should now have a new, working kernel. If not (usually the case first time round) then boot into your old kernel. Tweak, tweak, tweak. You kernel’s .config file is there to be worked on. With the help of Google, forums and other users you’ll get it right eventually and the end result will be an all-round better computing experience.