The most recent release of the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution has been available for a few months. You may not use Ubuntu, or perhaps you know little about Linux, so why should you care? The answer is because it offers a number of improved features, the best 10 of which I list here.

Software giant Oracle has closed the book on open distributions of the enterprise operating system OpenSolaris, according to a leaked memo.

Dell has stopped selling consumer PCs and laptops featuring Ubuntu Linux operating system on its website, but claims it remains committed to the OS.

If new desktop users know what mistakes to avoid, they can save themselves a lot of grief. Here are some of the most common Linux desktop mistakes that I regularly see new users make.

Hewlett-Packard will buy Linux-based quick-boot OS and client virtualization assets from Phoenix Technologies for $12 million, Phoenix said on Thursday.

Dear Ubuntu 8.10 users, the time has come to say goodbye to the Intrepid Ibex release of the popular Ubuntu operating system.

Some buyers of one incense product are choosing to smoke it for it's marijuana-like effects, a practice that has drawn the attention of lawmakers in several states. It's manufacturer, Pandora Potpourri, is discouraging such use and advises it's consumers to use the product only as an aromatic potpourri product.

Fully-featured apps to keep on top of your tweets.

For the tinkerers and testers, 2010 is shaping up to be a perfect year. Almost every desktop and application we can think of is going to have a major release, We've selected the few we think are worth keeping an eye on and that can be installed easily.

Another day, another company developing Linux-based tech falls into line with Microsoft's intellectual property wonks. Japanese Flash maker I-O Data Device Inc has agreed to cough up an undisclosed sum of cash to Microsoft under a Linux software deal.

Check out these LED grow light reviews from previous customers. We know LED grow lights work great for indoor gardening, but don't take our word for it.

Microsoft is dropping its Linux and Unix search cores in the Fast Search and Transfer enterprise search products it has been providing since it acquired FAST two years ago.

There are some things in life, like good manners, which never go out of style, and there are other things, like clothing styles that fall in and out of fashion, but when an IT skill falls out of favor it rarely ever comes back. Here's our list of 10 dying IT skills. If any of these skills are your main expertise, perhaps it's time to update your skill set.

After removing Google's Android driver code from the Linux kernel, Novell Fellow and Linux developer Greg Kroah-Hartman has argued that the mobile OS is incompatible with the project's main tree.

Don't let an old, unusable version of Windows stop you installing Ubuntu on your PC.

Linux's main merit, as a kernel and an ecosystem, is its open source nature. That means the software that runs on it has little choice but to be open source. This doesn't mean closed-source software is unavailable on Linux—just that it's got the deck stacked strongly against it.

Terminal must Die. Call the mortuary, tell them; there should be one on the way.

Few days after the fact now, but:

It's been a long time in coming, but it's finally here! Don't let the version number fool you! The openSUSE 11.2 release features new and massively improved versions of Firefox, OpenOffice.org, GNOME, KDE, and more than 1,000 open source desktop applications. openSUSE also includes a full suite of server software and a rich selection of open source development tools.

Apps to keep track of your DVDs, music and all your other stuff.

A patent granted to Microsoft has stirred up worry that world's largest software company wants to claim Unix's "sudo" as its own. Sudo is a Unix program used to raise a user's privilege level to accomplish tasks that require administrative privileges. It allows a user to temporarily execute commands as the root user.