Linux vendors Red Hat and Novell's SUSE division Wednesday unveiled updates for their enterprise Linux operating systems, adding new capabilities and hardware support in between the next major releases of their products.

Part of Michael Dell's strategy to revive his namesake company is operating systems. But with technical glitches plaguing Microsoft's Vista software, many tech eyes are waiting to see if Dell will tip his hat toward a favorite - Vista, XP or Linux.

As many believe, web users and innovators emerged winners upon the completion of the European Commission’s investigation into Microsoft’s browser-bundling practices. Microsoft will now offer users of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 a screen presenting a choice of Web browsers.

If you read my blog yesterday, you noticed my entry about Microsoft's move to retire XP and effectively force Windows shops into a wasteful migration to Vista.

Operating system security is always a hotly contended subject, and last week Microsoft amped up the hype by claiming that Windows Vista and the soon-to-be-released 7 is the world’s most secure OS, beating both Linux and Mac OS X.

Here’s what Microsoft’s chief operating officer Kevin Turner had to say at the MidMarket CIO Summit last week:

Almost a year on from the release of Microsoft's Windows Vista, only 13 percent of companies say they expect to move all desktops to the operating system, according to a survey released this week. Furthermore, adoption of Linux continues to gather pace, with a particular emphasis on the desktop emerging.

I grew up with Microsoft operating systems. I’ve been through MS-DOS 5.0, Win 3.1, Windows 95, 98, Millenium Edition, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP. Notice how I stopped there. After over a decade of Windows, I decided to give Ubuntu a try and now have no reason to install Vista. Here are nine reasons why I chose Ubuntu:

There has been a meme going around in the Linux world that Vista is really a dog and that Microsoft is only managing to make its numbers by jamming the new OS down the throats of unwilling customers. Now I admit I don't use Vista and haven't spent a lot of time benchmarking it against Ubuntu or Mac OS X or any of the other non-Microsoft alternatives.

Are Linux and Mac OS X becoming too popular for their own good?

Security company Symantec said Monday that a new worm is attacking the operating systems, along with Microsoft’s Windows, in what may be the first time this sort of malicious software has been designed to target all three OSes.