Chrome nearly replaced Firefox in Ubuntu Linux, Mark Shuttleworth says part 4

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"Very simplistic characterizations of any large group are almost certainly going to turn out to be false," he said. "The company has been caught abusing a monopoly position. I think that's terrible. They're not the first to do it. They're not the last to do it, either. The question really is, can one engage and work with them and compete with them on an evenhanded basis?"

Shuttleworth called Microsoft's patent lawsuits related to Android "acts of desperation," but said the company's attitude toward open source is maturing on the whole. (See also: "Microsoft: 'We love open source'")

Shuttleworth says there is "every reason to believe" Canonical and Microsoft will come to terms on a partnership to run Ubuntu Server more easily on Hyper-V, Microsoft'svirtualization platform.

"We have constructive conversations with them about people running Ubuntu on their virtualization service, and vice versa," he said.

While the tech industry is undergoing an evolution toward new form factors, like tablets,smartphones and thin clients, Shuttleworth acknowledged that Ubuntu isn't going to supplant Windows as the top desktop operating system.

"It's clear that on the standard desktop front, the Windows position is unassailable," he said. "What's less clear is how relevant that traditional definition of a desktop remains."

Space: Shuttleworth's first and final frontier

Shuttleworth became an amateur astronaut before he even founded Canonical, spending more than a week on the International Space Station in April 2002. He said space "remains the final frontier. It's also vastly unexplored. Right now, there are real limitations in our ability to go deep into space. I've done low Earth orbit. Someone is going to around the Moon and I'm going to be very envious of that.

"Right now, I'm tied up trying to solve some very interesting problems here on Earth, but who knows about the future. The key thing for me would be, 'Can I really be part of helping push back those frontiers. [Going to space] was an enormous privilege. If I go back it's because I really want to help push back the limits."