Linux was already established as an
enterprise server platform in 2004.
But free software was still not a part
of everyday life for most computer
users. That's why Mark Shuttleworth
gathered a small team of developers
from one of the most established Linux
projects – Debian - and set out to
create an easy-to-use Linux desktop:
Ubuntu.
The vision for Ubuntu is part
social and part economic: free
software, available free of charge to
everybody on the same terms, and
funded through a portfolio of services
provided by Canonical.
To find out who was involved it is best to checkout the relevant Ubuntu mailing lists. An example would be ubuntu-devel from 2004 ordered by users.
From About Ubuntu on ubuntu.com:
To find out who was involved it is best to checkout the relevant Ubuntu mailing lists. An example would be ubuntu-devel from 2004 ordered by users.