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"The great task in front of us over the next two years is to lift the experience of the Linux desktop from something that is stable and robust and not so pretty, into something that is art," Shuttleworth told delegates at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention.

"Can we not only emulate, but can we blow right past Apple?" He asked. "I see this need for free software - beautiful, elegant software. We have to invest in making this desktop beautiful and useful."

Questioned by an audience on how to fund such development, Shuttleworth claimed it was time free software vendors looked beyond cluttering their software with advertisements and towards offering services and support.