There's no doubt that Linux—particularly Ubuntu—is a killer operating system full of excellent apps, but for about a million reasons, you're stuck running Windows as your main operating system. We understand, these things happen. But what about all those killer Linux apps you've left behind when you decided to live the Windows life?

More than any other technology before, the Open Source and Linux world is one where the choice of systems integrator to implement your solution is a difficult one to get right.

Last time, we spoke about the Linux process scheduler and how it runs in the shadows swapping processes in and out of a running state so everyone gets a stab at the CPU. Today we’ll go over how the kernel keeps track of time and just what it means to do something in a jiffy.

The Ubuntu developers are moving very quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source Community has to offer. Hardy Heron Alpha 5 is the fourth alpha release of Ubuntu 8.04, and with this new alpha release comes a whole host of excellent new features.

In the world of computing, six years is a lifetime, and no one should be stuck with the same operating system that long, and now because of the failure of Vista, one-time rational people are still not considering the alternatives as much as they should; a lot of them are saying you should wait it out another two years? three years? who knows how long for another potential Vista. The following is my two cents on the matter, and why I think it's time everyone considered the alternatives.

We're introducing Ubuntu 7.10-based Dell systems in Canada and Latin America. Beyond that, we're introducing the Inspiron 1525n to customers in the United States. Like Daniel mentioned earlier this week, the 1525n is already available to customers in the U.K., Spain, France and Germany. All of these systems will include built-in DVD playback capability.

One undeniable sign of progress among Linux distributions is the proliferation of easy-to-use, graphical package management applications. Tools like yum, Synaptic, and CNR are the rule these days rather than the exception.

The long-awaited release of the first service pack for Vista is now just around the corner. Software maker Microsoft is still planning a mid-March release of the update that is reputed to increase the security and stability of the operating system. But there have been challenges along the way.