Mark Shuttleworth has apologised “unreservedly to all offended” for his “poor choice of language” during LinuxCon 2009 during which a comment made by the Ubuntu founder was deemed to be sexist by many members of the Linux community
The redress, given in the comment section of his blog, states: – “I apologize unreservedly to all offended by my poor choice of language on that or other occasion.”
The apology is particularly welcome in light of a previous remark in which Mark is alleged to have remarked that he had no intention of doing so.
“Explaining to girls”
The reason for the apology largely stems from a comment made during a keynote address made by Mark at LinuxCon 2009 during which a remark was made inferring that if the Ubuntu community considered non-technical users more then "explaining to girls what we actually do" would be easier.
Many members of the Linux community – of both sexes – took offense to this quote, sending open-letters to Mark, writing on blogs and coverage garnered on prominent Linux news sites.
With this admission now made those affected by the unintentional opine can hopefully put their grievances behind them and we can all move on – hopefully much more wiser.