I recently read with great interest Walt Mossberg’s review of the latest Ubuntu Linux, described as “relatively slick,” but still not ready for non-technical users. I have a couple of differing perspectives. The first is that Ubuntu is ultra slick. It’s free. It’s open source. It’s growing. It’s Linux and it works (usually).

There are two kinds of fast in programming: Fast to code and fast to run. 3D applications and games are known to be speedy. But the time it takes to write and understand the code behind it? Not so much. On the flipside, many abstraction layers designed to make coding easier usually aren’t very efficient. So where’s the median? Meet Pyglet for Python.

Almost two years ago, I reviewed Ubuntu, the user-friendly version of the free Linux operating system. I wasn't impressed. I found the software a pain to install, a pain to work with, and—even if it cost me nothing—far less worthy of my time than other major OSes.

Linux: It’s fast, it’s free, but is it time to load into your PC? Maybe not quite yet. Recent revisions of the software make it easier to overcome the biggest hurdle for the non-techie users — installation — but it is still an operation that will take lots of time and may just be beyond the skills of the average user.

tried to pick some features that I have not seen mentioned before - these are some of the things that change my everyday use of the computer, so I feel they are worth mentioning. Some of the below features are provided by Gnome, some by Compiz Fusion. All are not exclusive to Ubuntu, but as that’s what I have installed at the moment I’ll demo them on that.

When the average computer user hears about Ubuntu or Linux, the word “difficult” comes to mind. Using Ubuntu is actually easier and better than using Windows. Don’t believe me? Here are some examples.

Here’s an interesting experiment. Take a novice user, place them in front of a Linux distro (in this case Ubuntu Hardy Heron), and see how they get on with basic tasks. But will these “12:00 flashers” (you know, people who’s VCRs constantly flash “12:00″ because they’ve not bothered to figure out how to set the time) help change Linux and make it easier to use?

JPEG is a very old lossy image format. By today’s standards, it’s awful compression-wise: practically every video format since the days of MPEG-2 has been able to tie or beat JPEG at its own game. The reasons people haven’t switched to something more modern practically always boil down to a simple one -- it’s just not worth the hassle.

Ubuntu Tweak is a tool that lets you change hidden Ubuntu settings, for example: hide or change the splash screen, show or hide the Computer, Home, Trash, and Network icons, change Metacity, Nautilus, power management, and security settings, etc. Currently Ubuntu Tweak is available only for the Ubuntu GNOME desktop, i.e., it will not work on Kubuntu or Xubuntu.