For some time now I have watched Canonical grab headlines touting its ‘buntu releases, such as Ubuntu and Kubuntu, as “newbie” friendly. Much of the IT press goes along with this marketing scheme. But, is Ubuntu truly the “best” new user distribution?

Ubuntu Linux is gearing up for the debut of its latest release with Ubuntu 10.04, codenamed "the Lucid Lynx" and scheduled for general availability at the end of the month. It's a release that offers multiple new features on the desktop and a new look to Ubuntu Linux.

Much as we in the open-source world may not like it, progress doesn't necessarily look like a heavily customizable system. In fact, it might just be the opposite. At least, once a market matures.

Sony PlayStation 3 owners who lost the option to install alternate operating systems (like Linux) with last week's 3.21 firmware update have a new glimmer of hope. Hacker George Hotz (a.k.a Geohot) has released a video of a new hack that promises to bring the option back.

Just who is driving a wedge between IBM and the FOSS community then? Here's a clue: it's a big wedge and it's blue.

The latest example of Microsoft applying OOXML-esque tactics to block national migrations to Open Source, just as it stifled a shift towards open standards

KSnapshot is KDE's in-built screenshot grabber. Just hit the PrtScr key and you can save a screenshot in a wide range of formats.

The Linux system call interface permits user-space applications to invoke functionality in the kernel, but what about invoking user-space applications from the kernel? Explore the usermode-helper API, and learn how to invoke user-space applications and manipulate their output.