Fan boy!
On the Ubuntu Users mailing list earlier today someone was asking about the people behind Ubuntu and Canonical. I replied saying that I thought it was Mark Shuttleworth, and when I got back this evening from seeing The Bourne Supremecy (not too bad, the first one was better...) I had an e-mail from him.
"I'd be interested in this information too. A rumour on Slashdot was that Mark Shuttleworth (http://www.africaninspace.com/home/aboutmark/index.shtml) was behind Canonical. Reading his bio, he looks like a really cool guy to have financing an open source project."
More underneath than behind, given that much of Canonical's first London office is in my living room :-)
As I said, he sounds like the kind of guy that we really need championing Open Source. I'm just glad I said nice things about him ;)