Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth revealed today that Ubuntu 11.04 will be codenamed Natty Narwhal. In a blog entry, he described the reasoning behind the codename and discussed some of the features that are planned for the release.

Wine, the project that lets Linux users run Windows apps within Linux, has released a major update that fixes a number of bugs and includes 64-bit support. Wine 1.2 includes a new set of icons, a number of fixes for video rendering – improving Windows gaming – and better font anti-aliasing and handling of desktop link files.

Many watchers and pundits, from big corporates, such as Novell to a million tuxhead blogs, saw the price and unpopularity of Vista as a golden opportunity for the Linux operating system to sneak in and steal a slice of the desktop market. But has Window 7 seen off any threat from open source operating systems? In other words, has Windows 7 killed Linux on the desktop?

The Linux desktop has come a long way, but are there still improvements to be made? At least one group of dedicated hackers thinks so, and is working with Ubuntu to improve it.

Tablets with the Ubuntu OS could become available late in next year's first quarter, said Chris Kenyon, Canonical's vice president of OEM (original equipment manufacturer) services. The OS will be a lightweight version of Linux with a simplified, touch-friendly user interface.

The next edition of the Ubuntu Linux distribution could come with added Google, with rumours circulating that Canonical is looking to replace Mozilla's Firefox with Google's Chrome browser.

A lack of knowledge and awareness about how to use Linux mail servers could be contributing to the disproportionately large number of Linux machines being exploited to send spam, according to new Symantec Hosted Services research.

Fusion Garage has announced the availability of its Joojoo tablet in the UK, beating the cappuccino firm's delayed Ipad launch outside the US.

Canonical has published the release candidate for Ubuntu 10.04 — codenamed Lucid Lynx — which adds consumer-friendly features, better integration with cloud infrastructure, and a new look.

Google's Android, the increasingly important embedded Linux, had one major problem: it had been moving slowly away from the Linux mainstream. Now, after the recent Linux Foundation Collaboration Conference, Android and Linux are coming back together.

A new cloud-focused Linux flavour launched recently, known as Peppermint, and will open up to more testers over the next two to four weeks

At the Linux Foundation's annual collaboration summit in San Francisco on Wednesday, Executive Director Jim Zemlin kicked off the event with some interesting perspectives on the state of the Linux marketplace today. The short version: Linux is going strong and getting stronger.

Sony PlayStation 3 owners who held off on updating their systems in order to keep from losing the option to install alternate operating systems have a new glimmer of hope. Hacker George Hotz (a.k.a Geohot) has released a video of a new hack that promises to keep the alternate OS install feature, even with the 3.21 firmware update that was released last week.

The upcoming release of Ubuntu 10.04 is on the way and with its new theme, looks simply stunning. With an online music store built in, integrated cloud backup services and a strong focus on social networking, could this finally be the release consumers have been waiting for?

Lucid Lynx, Ubuntu 10.04 that Friday entered the beta stage, looks to be taking the popular distro to an entirely new - and very consumer-oriented - level.

Dell has told a Linux-loving Reg reader that he can't receive a refund on the copy of Windows 7 that shipped with his new Dell netbook because it was bundled with the machine for "free".

As usual, Linux was everywhere at last week's Embedded World show in Nuremberg, Germany. Especially in Europe, the open source OS seems to be more popular than ever in markets represented at the show, which include industrial, automotive, military, telecommunications, and consumer electronics.

How does Chrome OS fare against the Linux netbook leader? No matter how fast Chrome OS might be, it'll never be more than just a web browser unless Google executes a gigantic U-turn. This leaves the way wide open for full-fat (albeit with glossy front-end) distros that make your netbook into a true desktop replacement, and that's where UNR shines.

The next release of Ubuntu will scrap Google as the default search engine on its Firefox browser in favor of Yahoo!, thanks to a new revenue-sharing deal between Yahoo! and commercial Ubuntu backer Canonical.

Linux inched ahead in the operating-system arena during the final month of 2009, even as Windows and Mac gave up some ground.