Rick Scott is a Canadian geek who likes testing, writing, and philosophizing about software, and a regular GF commenter.

Ubuntu Open Week, a series of IRC presentations by Ubuntu community members, is winding down today. I sat in on one of the last sessions, “Ask Mark Shuttleworth” (sabdfl):

12:31 <@akgraner> <MarkDude> QUESTION how important is having a diverse group of contributors (women & minority folks) to solving Bug #1?
12:31 <+sabdfl> not especially, but it makes the project more interesting
12:31 <+sabdfl> next
….
12:57 <@jcastro> <MarkDude> FOLLOW-UP QUESTION – did you just say that primarily white dudes are able to address the solving of Bug #1? Women & minorities just make it more interesting? Please clarify.
12:58 <+sabdfl> MarkDude, if you think i can’t see a baited trap from this close, you’re mistaken
12:59 <+sabdfl> i said that having diversity in the project is a wonderful goal. but it’s no more a requirement to fix bug #1 than it is a requirement to do most other things. fundamentalism is something i despise, and that goes for overdone activism too.
12:59 <@jcastro> (that was the last question)

Bug #1 is the fundamental bug that Ubuntu is designed to address: “Microsoft has a majority market share”.)

Full logs will be available shortly on the Ubuntu Open Week wiki page.