Ubuntu and it's derivatives are now mature, pleasant to use operating systems that for many users, are completely suitable for mom and pop desktop users. Some will disagree with this, but overall, much of using a standard Linux desktop for browsing the web, doing your email and sorting out your photos (which is what Apple seem to be marketing the iPad market firmly at, with exception of ebooks), then Ubuntu Linux or Linux Mint really is the obvious choice if you care about software freedom.

Next year is going to be an interesting year for Linux. Or is that Ubuntu? This week, Google proclaimed (inadvertently) that Ubuntu would be more popular than Linux. That certainly seems to ring true if you look at the popularity of searches - Ubuntu goes up, Linux goes down. All of the media hype aside, what does this really mean for Linux, or Ubuntu?

This excellent website allows you to create a floppy disk, USB stick or CD-ROM which you can boot any computer from. It connects to the Internet and downloads a list of operating systems which you can install/boot. This is great because you don't always know which operating system you might need. One day you need Ubuntu, the next you might need Linux Mint. The site also gives you the opportunity to customise it so you can boot a system which is not on the large list of systems preconfigured to boot.

Here is a video of the system in action, check out this great site at www.netboot.me.

Although ULNG aren't usually ones to get involved with the mobile phone world, we thought it worthy to note that Nokia previewed the N900 Maemo 5 based phone today. It certainly looks to be a real showpiece for how Linux can work very well on a mobile phone but more importantly, trump the market leader in this area, the Apple iPhone. This device will replace the N800 smart tablet, so remember, this baby isn't small in size.

Here's the tech specs: ARM A8 processor, up to 1GB of application memory with 32GB storage memory (expandable to 48GB with the use of a MicroSD card). It's got proper OpenGL 3D graphics acceleration by the sounds of things so this will run 3D apps and games pretty sharpish. It multi-tasks too - time will tell if the N900's ability to multi-task as you would on a PC is a good thing or not. In theory, the ability to jump between a stack of apps quickly is great, but in practice, it's something not yet sucessfully pulled off on a mobile device due to limited CPU power. The display on the device is a now popular high-res WVGA touchscreen and full slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It's also got the almost-normal-by-now 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lense. It's got GPS ability built in, an FM transmitter (yep, transmitter), oh and, beat this Apple: 9 hours of talk time!.

Vice President of Markets at Nokia, Anssi Vanjoki said the following about the new N900:

A lot of great artwork has been submitted to Ubuntu for selection for the upcoming release of the latest Ubuntu release, 9.10 which is due out in October. Most of the really nice artwork goes unseen, so here are a few submissions, plus a first glimpse at what will probably become the boot screen and login screen for Ubuntu 9.10:

Here is a nice animated bootloader which will probably never see the light of day, but here at ULNG towers we think it looks pretty nice:

Also by the same artist, this one is a lovely example:

When Netbooks (the low-cost notebook computer) first came on the scene back in late 2007, Linux was the darling default netbook Operating System which was suddenly given a new customer and a new lease of life - cheap laptops for everyone, bestowed in part by a cheap operating system. Over time, through various unsubstantiated quotes such as a popular OEM saying that Linux netbooks had higher return rates than Windows based ones this reputation was marred slightly. Todd Finch, Dell's senior product marketing manager stated this month that this was not true, at least for Dell. No more Linux netbooks came back from unhappy customers to Dell HQ than their Microsoft counterparts, a fact that Mr Finch was pleased to say.

Mr Finch is right to be pleased. He can't argue that Linux is a cheaper operating system than Windows, so it improves their bottom line and makes the point of sale price more interesting to their customers.

Always Innovating Touchbook

To be honest, I've never thought that Installing Linux in Linux, especially Ubuntu was ever that tough a task, apparently some fans of Windows disagree, so not to be daded - Mark Shuttleworth and his merry band of men (and women) at Ubuntu have taken up the task to get rid of Add/Remove Software, Synaptic Package Manager, Update Manager and Software Sources. Yep, instead, you get one fisher price screen called the App Centre. "Huzzah!", I hear the Apple 'App Store' fan boys cry!

First Glances: App Centre showing Available software (to install), Installed software and Updates.

Whilst we can probably applaud Canonical for once again stepping up to the mark to make Linux even easier to use, surely this was one of those areas that just wasn't that hard to understand in the first place. Anyway, I guess that come a few months time we will be making some new 'This is how you install software' tutorials for you all!... Thanks Ubuntu ;)

The new App Centre will first appear in Ubuntu 10.04 which is due in April 2010. A a polished final product will follow (and probably hail the removal of Synaptic and pals) by Ubuntu 11.04.

Check out Ubuntu's work in progress page over at ubuntu.com

In the world of large corporates, you need to list your competition with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Every year Microsoft dutifully does this, and it gives analysts a pretty good idea of what Microsoft will be targeting as a major threat to it's business for the future. In the past, Linux has featured on it's competition list only in the Server area, completely dismissing that Linux may be a threat to Microsoft Windows on the desktop. All that has changed all of a sudden by the looks of things, and MS have woken up to the fact that Linux' popularity on Netbooks alone is causing massive dents in Microsoft's near flawless reign at the top of the desktop market.

Here is an excerpt from the competition claim: