Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth on Oct. 26 is set to speak with the press about Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop Edition and Server Edition. WorksWithU will be extra careful not to "hype" Ubuntu 9.10 over the next few days. Instead, we hope to ask Shuttleworth some timely questions about the new Ubuntu and Canonical's long-term business strategy. Here's a sampling of issues on our mind.

During a phone briefing today, Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth described the Ubuntu 9.10 desktop, server and cloud strategy to members of the IT media. WorksWithU tuned in and posed some key questions to Shuttleworth. Here are 10 highlights from the call.

One month ago LINUX For You magazine made a call to the Linux/OSS community to send in questions it has for Linus Torvalds. We were overwhelmed by the amount of questions we recieved. It took us a whole night to sort out the best ones. The final setlist? 35 questions.

The Linux Foundation will be calling its first LinuxCon conference from September 21 through 23 in Portland OR. Linus Torvalds and Mark Shuttleworth will be among the speakers and Linux Magazine Online will do a live stream, free for the keynotes.

You have two days to get your questions to Torvalds via the email address in the article. Focus is the kernel and India's role in developing FLOSS

A good friend of mine, who is very computer savvy, recently bought a new computer and installed Ubuntu on it rather than Windows. Now, despite being a very smart guy when it comes to PCs and Windows, he was still a newbie to the world of Ubuntu, so he and I went through a series of questions and answers before, during, and after his Ubuntu install.

It's interesting, for sure, but Google Chrome OS as a game changer? No way! Everything from assuming people will want another Apple-alike 'buy the hardware to get the OS' model to thinking the average user is ready to surrender a PC paradigm for a cloud-based existence is wide of the mark. Google would appear to have got this one about as wrong as it got Google Answers or Google Lively.

The inaugural LinuxCon organized by the Linux Foundation is set to become the biggest Linux gathering of 2009. Scheduled for next month, September 21-23, in Portland, Oregon, the event will draw some of the best and the brightest that the Linux community has to offer. No less than Linus Torvalds and Mark Shuttleworth among other industry experts will speak at LinuxCon.

"Founder of Ubuntu Linux Mark Shuttleworth took time out of his busy schedule to talk with us about email, productivity, travel, web applications, Ubuntu, free software and much more..."