Barton George of Dell joins us to discuss his involvement with 'Project Sputnik', an initiative created about 11 years ago aimed at making Dell hardware more appealing to developers. The project involved making pre-installed Linux laptops available to consumers.

Our conversation touched on the community's loyalty, support, and critiques, which have significantly influenced Dell's approach. Notably, Barton highlighted the crucial turning point in Dell's market strategy of veering towards high-end hardware while preserving the open source platform, enabling synergy between corporate dynamics and grassroots community efforts.

00:00 Introduction and Event Impressions
00:58 Barton George's Journey in Open Source
02:17 The Birth of Project Sputnik
07:33 The Role of Community
11:23 The Future of Linux Laptops
20:53 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Guest: Barton George has been involved with Linux and open source for over 15 years. For the last 10+ years he has been at Dell Technologies where, beyond Linux and open source, he has focused on cloud native computing and devops. Currently Barton is a member of Dell’s developer relations team. In addition to his day job, Barton is the founder and lead of Project Sputnik, a line of Ubuntu-powered developer laptops and workstations. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Barton is a single father of three teenagers. He and his children happily reside just outside Austin, Texas.

It's Finally the Year of the Linux Desktop