ubuntu

Anyone expecting a technical and legal partnership between Microsoft and Ubuntu distributor Canonical to follow existing Microsoft-Linux deals will be disappointed--at least for now.

Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth in a blog posting on Saturday said a deal that resembles the pacts that Microsoft has signed with Linux distributors Novell, Xandros, and Linspire is not on the table.

He said Canonical has declined to talk to Microsoft about any agreement that provides legal protection to Ubuntu users related to "unspecified patents."

"Allegations of 'infringement of unspecified patents' carry no weight whatsoever. We don't think they have any … Read more

Mark Shuttleworth is on a quest to control the British media. Or maybe he isn't, and it's the British media that is on a quest to give him maximum coverage. Whichever it is, my recent trip to London had Mark on the BBC and in this Economist article about free software, and Ubuntu's role in it.

Mark does an excellent job of balancing idealism and pragmatism in how he approaches open source, which comes across perfectly in the article:

...[O}pen-source software tends to polarise opinion. It has vociferous critics who suspect that software written by idealistic nerds, and made available free to anyone who wants to download it, must be some kind of communist plot. Zealous believers, meanwhile, long for open source to triumph over the evil empires of commercial software. This clash is often depicted as an epic struggle for supremacy between Linux and Microsoft's proprietary Windows operating system. But the truth is that most computer users do not know or care about the politics of open-source software. Mr Shuttleworth says most people simply want to read their e-mail, browse the web and so on.… Read more

Last weekend, Dell inadvertently removed the option to purchase extended warranties for its new Ubuntu Linux PCs, but the company said the option will be back Tuesday.

"Due to an ordering system glitch during the weekend, we inadvertently removed extended warranty and CompleteCare options. We're working to get the issue resolved as quickly as possible and those options will be reinstated this afternoon," the company said in a statement Tuesday.

Any customers who ordered a Dell Ubuntu system when the extended warranties weren't available will have the option of upgrading at the original price, Dell said. … Read more

The alternative, open-source operating system Linux has been making news recently. Last week, Dell began shipping PCs with the Linux distribution Ubuntu pre-installed, and on Friday I took a look at Wubi, free Windows software that lets you install and run Ubuntu on your Windows machine without creating a boot CD or partitioning your hard drive.

According to recent stats from W3Counter, Linux still holds only a tiny fraction of the personal-computing market share (slightly less than Windows 98!), but there's definitely a convergence going on within Windows, Mac, and Linux software development. The excellent personal-finance software GnuCash was … Read more

Computer giant Dell made big news yesterday when it began shipping desktops and laptops pre-installed with Ubuntu, a popular Linux distribution. I'm not sure who the heck is going to buy a Linux Dell, but it certainly marks a sea change in retail computing. In terms of prepackaged operating systems, users have basically been stuck for a long time with the solitary choice of Windows vs. Mac. The fact that consumers can now purchase a Linux machine with support from the distributor certainly validates the open-source movement and Ubuntu in particular.

Yet if you're curious about Linux or … Read more

Dell said on Wednesday night it will begin selling three models of PCs with Ubuntu Linux preinstalled on Thursday.

The company announced the models on its Direct2Dell Web site and said they'll go on sale at www.dell.com/open by 2 p.m. PST Thursday.

The three models are the E520n desktop and the E1505n notebook, both with a starting price of $599, and the XPS 410n, with a starting price of $899. The move will fulfill a schedule the company committed to earlier this month.

Dell announced the Linux PC plan after being inundated with requests from … Read more

Several sources are reporting that Dell's previously announced Linux-based PCs will be available Thursday, though Dell is keeping mum.

Blogger Jeremy Garcia says on his blog that a Dell employee e-mailed him to say that the Ubuntu Linux OS will be available pre-installed on the E520 model desktop, XPS 410 gaming desktop, and 1505 model laptop, starting Thursday.

Garcia doesn't name his source, and Dell is not talking. Spokesman Kent Cook said he could not confirm models, dates or availability of the forthcoming Ubuntu PCs. He did say that the release is still on track for the "… Read more

Enough of those proprietary Nabisco confections! MAKE and CRAFT have posted a link to geek/chef Joseph Hall's recipe for Ubuntu sugar cookies.

A fellow Craver also tracked down Ubuntu cake and, uh, soup. M'm! M'm! Linux.

(Photo: Joseph Hall)