Major IT publisher, CNET Networks UK, has named South Africa’s Mark Shuttleworth as the IT Community Hero of the Year in its sixth annual UK Business Technology Awards. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The judges in the awards said that Shuttleworth had "given great support to the community of developers working on the Ubuntu project, as well as being an active member himself. <\/p>\n
"The project is dedicated to building and maintaining a freely available operating system that can be used by anybody, anywhere in the world. 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."<\/p>\n
Shuttleworth is the head of Canonical, the commercial company that backs Ubuntu development. <\/p>\n