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Mark Shuttleworth told the O'Reilly Open Source Convention that Linux needs to go beyond what Apple is offering, both on the desktop and on mobile devices.

"Can we go right past Apple in the user experience we deliver?," he asked. "Certainly on the desktop experience we need to shoot beyond the Mac, but I think it's equally relevant in the mobile space. The challenge for us is to figure out how to deliver something which is crisp and clean."

Shuttleworth's ambitions were questioned by a member of his audience, Brad Cavanagh, data reduction software engineer at the Joint Astronomy Centre, who asked whether challenging Apple is possible with open source development, "where so many people have so many different opinions".

For his part, Shuttleworth believes the problem is as much economic as it is technological. He said that free software developers needed to look beyond web advertising to fund their activities, suggesting that services such as tech support may provide the answer.