Q: How did you get involved with the Ubuntu Studio
project?
A: Another Ubuntu user from the Ubuntu
Forums wanted to spin a customized Ubuntu disk
set up for audio work. He put out a call for help
but didn’t get much response other than the normal
lip service. A couple of months after that, I
became a stay-at-home dad, so I had the time to
help. I reached out to him, and within a week I had
a team built. Two weeks later I was the lead, and a
month later I was invited to the Ubuntu Developers
Summit in Mountain View [California].
Q: To an outsider who does not understand the
community, it might seem as if you are doing free labor. Does it ever
feel that way?
A: Yes, but only if you regard money as the only payment. Don’t
get me wrong, I think about the lack of payment sometimes. But I
really enjoy doing this.
Q: Why do you think software should be free if people such as you
work hard on it? 
A: I must say I speak personally here and don’t
represent Ubuntu Studio as a project. Whether it
should or shouldn’t be “free” in any sense can be
deeply personal, and I feel it’s up to every developer
to decide for himself. I want to see more
open collaboration and interoperability between
operating systems, and fi rm standards for proprietary
software.
Q: For Linux to advance and be adopted beyond the
grassroots level, does it need to be commercialized
as a boxed product?
A: I’m unsure as to how much more commercialized
it could be, unless you’re talking about the
full-on marketing blitz that Microsoft and Apple have put forth.
You can walk into many computer shops and buy some form of
Linux. I love the Dell/Ubuntu deal. My next laptop will come from
Dell, with Ubuntu preinstalled for my wife. I have said I would pay
for a nice retail box version of Ubuntu that comes with a manual,
all the drivers, codecs, and such, out of the box, though I can just
spin one myself.—John Brandon